Please read and see the first image from my original post.
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The thing that’s good about the forum, and the reason I usually post here rather than e-mailing support, is that other people can search for known issues and workarounds, and as we’ve seen many times, other forum members can jump in and help, etc.
On the other hand, having been responsible for trouble ticket systems, I totally understand the need to keep them under control. This section is very different from the other ones; everything here represents an open case. Tickets need to get closed in a timely manner, discussion threads don’t. I think that GF has been pretty reasonable about people opening a new linked post if their problem wasn’t resolved.
When I say growing pains, I mean that it takes a while to develop consistent policies and processes and to train everyone on them. Support organizations tend to start out a bit ad-hoc and need a certain amount of operational experience so they know what kinds of issues come up and how they want to handle them. I would expect the quality of these interactions to fluctuate a bit before settling down, hopefully more in the “surprise and delight” mode than in the “outsourced to a playbook” mode.
I haven’t seen a direct answer yet on what level of support to expect for PG print quality issues, for example. Dan has said about draftboard that “It’s covered by the same quality warranty as all Proofgrade materials”, but I can’t find that warranty. What exactly do they warrant? The quality of the material is one thing: presumably that it’s not made of unsafe materials, I’d guess you can return it for a replacement if it arrives damaged or full of knots or missing the masking. But what about the settings? Maybe they only say that the machine will detect it and apply a preset. Maybe they go beyond that and will help you if your plywood doesn’t cut all the way through or your acrylic warps because the software isn’t tuned as well as it could be. But what it it fails because your lens is dirty or your tube is old? I’m very curious to see how this all goes. I don’t think the answers are simple, but one thing I’d want to do if I were in charge is troubleshoot every single reported PG failure now, while it’s still early and feasible to do so.
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Thanks!
I’ll try that this evening when I get home. I have some PG acrylic, but it’s not black, so I may not be able to do a representative test right away.
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Yes, the edge is much smoother but still exhibits a melted edge. That is an indication that the settings need tweaking but again - beta software.
@smcgathyfay, a user of big lasers for many years offered her advice that she thought too much heat was the problem. That’s the direction I would focus on in the interest of successfully completing my project.
Support greatly values our input, it helps them target areas the need to focus on - but I doubt they can drop everything and tweak those settings in the course of this thread.
Again, I’m not denying you have a legitimate complaint, just trying to help.
I’m fine with there being a smooth melted edge, like I said in my first post. Too much heat may be the problem but I’m using PG material with PG auto settings and I should not be having this issue and that is the issue.
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I’m only going to reply once here since this topic is wandering off course from the OPs original post.
From the category header/description:
In general, this section will be very heavily moderated and answered by staff and regulars.
If you feel that this is an issue, please start a new topic in Community Support. You can get an official response, even if it is only to say they’ve sent your thoughts to the powers that be. If you want extended discussion on the perceived issue, Everything Else would be a better topic to start a new thread.
That said, I don’t know the percentage of topics that are resolved by forum members before Support even has an opportunity to address/troubleshoot the posted problem, but it’s a fair amount. In the end, it’s generally a good thing - people are getting back to using their machines faster than they would otherwise.
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I’m sure this can be resolved with settings tweaking. Users in the forums could certainly advise on what settings to try. However, this isn’t really about the settings. We expect that PG materials will scan and print perfectly. This did not happen. Now we’re left to wonder. Is our machine calibrated incorrectly? Is our machine damaged? Is the material faulty? We have no way of knowing if there is a problem with the machine, the material, or the settings. Users CAN NOT help us determine this. I appreciate people trying to help but they actually can’t help with this one aside from reproducing the issue with the exact same steps and posting results here.
EDIT: Or users could also post if they can not reproduce the issue with the same exact steps.
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I have some black proofgrade, let me play with it and see if I can improve on the default result.
Do you happen to remember the wattage and settings you used on that other machine?
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I don’t. I made those green earrings years ago at a Maker space.
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Simple newspaper (coupons usually) has always done the job for me.
It’s great… They send me a fresh supply several times a week! 
However, I haven’t seen flashback in months.
I got melt on black acrylic last week, but I quickly realized I had a double line. No more melty that I noticed. I should take a closer look though.
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Update - default is full power @ 150 speed. one cut with mask, one without, no difference. Still distorted on the edge of the cut.
I halved the power and doubled the speed. Much better result, haven’t looked under close up but no distortion by eyeball - it just took 13 passes to get through.
I will continue to explore upping the power incrementally until I see that distortion, back it off and see how many passes it takes to get through it.
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Or the concept of PG always cutting perfectly. There might just be too many variables.
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Some of the old proofgrade settings opted for 2 passes on acrylic instead of 1. The cuts were a lot cleaner on the edge and much closer to a right angle. I can’t speak to the corner distortion though.
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I have some commercially cut clear acrylic from China. The edges only look melty under a microscope. They look clean to my aged eyes with reading glasses on.
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Well, There are variables at play, and I’m at a loss to understand here. I ran 12 tests to try and dial it in and was seeing results with lower power and multiple passes, but - #12 was really clean so I ran a default cut again next to it for direct comparison (the unlabled one below 12), and the default was clean too! 
#1 was default with mask and 2 was without, and all subsequent were without. #1, 2 and #13 were same settings. Go figure.
Sorry @angeleah, I’m afraid I’m no help. After #13 I ran 4 more default cuts and they all came out clean. I guess if it were me, I would try that file again - maybe run it after the machine has been working for a bit, I don’t know. I was just running straight lines, and as Takitus said corners may pose a tougher problem.
I’m going too bow out now and let the experts handle this. Good Luck.
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Straight lines would definitely look different than corners in that there would be slowing down around the bendy parts causing more heat to be generated.
I cant say for sure since my machine is not a 
If I have excess nodes in say a circle, the machine can slow down alot going through them…maybe post your file for someone to cut to see if they can duplicate the occurance.
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I don’t have the file, it’s the OP issue I was trying to troubleshoot. 
I think I muddied the water pretty good. 
Oh, sorry, that was directed at @angeleah. Do you have the file that people can use to try and recreate the occurance??
@angeleah, have you checked to see what the settings are for the Proofgrade that you are using?
You don’t have to actually cut something…just open up any cut file in the app and click on Unknown Material, then choose PG Medium Black Acrylic in the dropdown.
After that, change the Cut settings to Manual using the little arrow on the right. It should tell you what the default settings are for that material.
I’d be interested to know what the Speed, Power and Focus Height settings are that are listed there.
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I appreciate the feedback about the previous support ticket, and I really appreciate that you did the extra investigation of running a catalog print and showed how that compared. That was a great idea.
The support team is underwater today with email schedule updates going out (lots of messages to reply to), but I bet you’ll hear from them on this shortly.
It’s at Glowforge Warranty Information | Glowforge - but you have to scroll down so you might have missed it.
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