Thank you to all of you who have taken your time to take pictures and write up your process with making on the Glowforge. Your creativity and tutorials have helped me learn along the way.
I’ve been reading about testing material before using it because YMMV is a humorous mistress when coupled with learning to laser. Unexpected results are a double-edged sword.
@evansd2 has a very good new material testing write-up here New material cut test method and I recommend reading that before doing anything else.
While I am not contributing new information, I do offer up my New Material Scoring Template in an effort to reign in the impulsivity that accompanies the combination of an idea and the Glowforge. Luckily I haven’t burned anything up yet (get thee behind me Impulsivity!).
GF_BB_material_test.pdf (41.1 KB)
I held the power constant on this 0.25" Birch Plywood test.
Measurement revealed that the board itself was not really quarter inch; it is 0.209" but when I did this test, on this particular board, I used 0.25" as the focus height. Thus, when I score and cut on this particular board in my Making Adventures, I will refer to my Test Panel to choose my settings and keep the focus height as it was when I tested on the material. The next board I purchase, I’ll just do this over.
The hole in the top helps me keep things neat and organized in my workshop when used with a ball and chain, although it’ll lay on my desk for weeks…
I consider the near burn on my first panel a not-so-subtle reminder to test, always. FWIW, I tend toward that impulsivity to just “put it in there and fire it up!” So glad I read @evansd2 post!
Different fonts perform differently thus the two fonts used.
I flipped it over (thank you to @Jules for the write-up on maintaining registration) and took advantage of the beta Premium features to engrave some icons using the PG BB Plywood settings.
Happy GFing!