Medium draftboard backing on or off?

I just spent 3 1/2 hours printing a picture on medium draftboard only to find out most the image, not all but a large portion printed on the backing paper but not the actual board…am I suppose to remove the backing on that when doing a photo? I am so confused

You can increase the power… but personally I would remove the masking if I were engraving.

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Photo engraves typically work better without masking. Certainly easier than having to remove it afterwards.

yep it was a gooey mess and was very frustrating…I was amazed at quality and then realized a bunch of it was on the backing rather than the actual board. I peeled off the backing and putting photo on other side. Good thing its after 5, gonna need to pour a drink to wait another 3 1/2 hours.

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It’s a good idea to test any print before committing to a large job. Saves material and time.

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If you are doing both cuts and engraves, and want to keep the masking on for the cuts, you can run a score around the engraving area, peel just that masking (without moving the material on the honeycomb), and then finish the rest of the job. :slight_smile:

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Another option is to raise the minimum power to whatever it takes to get through your masking (~2-5 depending on who you ask), but that gooey mess is always a pain

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I have had this GF for 2 days…so forgive the silly questions, but how do you make those files people post that have cuts and scores and engraves lines all preselected? is there a tutorial?

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You can’t make score lines preselected. They always come in as cuts, and you have to change the settings. :slight_smile:

Yes, if you did “your first three prints” that was linked on the screen when you finished the setup process, you’d have learned the difference. :wink: You can still access those tutorials on the support site. There are also lots of user-created tutorials for all sorts of stuff that you can access from links in the first post in the Glowforge Tips and Tricks section of the forum, in what we call “The Matrix.”

The short answer is that if your vector shape has an outline color, it defaults to cut, and if it has a fill, it defaults to engrave (I think if it has both it comes in as a cut, but don’t hold me to that!).

If it’s a bitmap/raster, it can only be engraved.

so I guess you know by now I was in way too much a hurry to make some cools stuff to get bogged down with the first projects ….lol. typical me always in a hurry, dont read instructions just go go go ….oops. thanks for reply I will have to go back and put the cart behind the horse for a minute

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Many of us did - but they continually improved that section and now it really walks you through everything - you’ll still learn loads just doing stuff, but it’s worth the time!

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Welcome! You have embarked on a great adventure. :sunglasses:

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As @deirdrebeth said, I’d prefer to increase minimum power.

@bryan6

Welcome! It looks like you found your answer so I will be closing this thread out. Happy printing.