Maximum thickness

[cozzyt28]

what is the maximum thickness to cut from the glowforge?

[evansd2]

Hey welcome. That’s a bit of a complex answer, because you said “cut”.

First, it depends on which machine you have. The performance machines are far more powerful than the craft units (the spark and aura), and how thick you can cut depends on what material you’re working with.

Balsa wood? Probably half an inch or more in a performance model. Aluminum foil? none of the glowforge models can cut metal.

So, let us know what machine you have and what material you’re trying to work with and we can give you some advice!

In the meantime, I bet you’ll like this FAQ. Particularly look at #6:

Common problems/questions

Hello! You’ve been referred to this post because you have a common problem or question. Check out the list below to see what this post can do for you. Just click on a topic that interests you. • 1: I’m new to Glowforge and really have no idea where to start • 1a: What other tools/materials should I buy to go with my Glowforge? • 2: I want to find masking/tape to cover my materials • 3: I want to design/make a box • 4: What materials are dangerous to laser? • 4a: What are the basic safet…

[deirdrebeth]

and to add to what @evansd2 said, there’s also a question of how clean you need the cut to be.
You can cut through something with a single pass, or something else with many, many, MANY passes - but the cut will be way wider as the laser pours more energy, and loses focus.

So yeah, let us know what you’re thinking of cutting and we can get you a better answer

(Physically you can fit something ~1/2" on the crumb tray, or 2" without the crumb tray in the CO2 models, and 1/4" and 3/4" in the diode models)