I put in a piece of proofgrade thin leather, and set it as such. I ran a file that I had previously run manually on felt with no issues. The leather proofgrade settings burnt right through leather on SD engrave. The burn ran at 10:02pm Wednesday the 16th. Please assist.
I don’t have a solution for you but I can say from a quick little bit of looking at the SD Engrave settings that they are exactly the same for medium leather as they are for thin leather. The only difference is the material/focal height. If the settings are correct for medium leather then they are way overpowered for the thin leather like you have seen in this example. Looks like a mistake in their settings so they probably will give you credit for the messed up thin leather. If you want to still get your project done then I would drop the power setting down manually and do some small tests.
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Just a quick question…Did you remove the masking in that area before engraving? If so, the default settings are not going to work, they take burning through the heavy masking adhesive into account.
Just an FYI, if you remove the masking, lower the engraving power to about 2%.
Default settings assume the masking is in place.
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Having lasered a lot of leather recently, I can say that the PG settings are WAY too powerful. Take the power down. For instance, with masking, engrave, 1000/71 is the PG setting. I am using 1000/45 masked, and 1000/20 unmasked. And this is medium/thick leather. With thin, I would take it down even more.
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Jules, I peeled back the masking to apply some paint to the leather and then smoothed the masking back down on the leather with a squeegee so that it was still tightly applied. I assumed that would not change the power needed.
Thank you Beth! This is helpful!
If any air got in underneath the masking, or underneath the leather (and in your pic it looks awfully wavy, it’s not flat against the grid - it’s letting a lot of air in), it can multiply the charring factor exponentially. Or the paint might have multiplied the effects. You’ll always find more charring if you print right next to an edge or if air is feeding the flame. You might want to try one without painting it first and pin that puppy down flat, flat, flat. Tape around the edges to keep the air out. Just tape it with painter’s tape directly to the grid. It peels right off with no damage.
(I’m not saying that the PG settings for thin leather aren’t set too high, I haven’t seen them or run any thin leather. But I never use the default settings on leather anyway - I think they are too dark, even with having to burn through the masking. I just want to tattoo the surface of the leather and not cut down into it. So I take the masking off of the top (and actually put some on the bottom for backflash) and then use no more than 2% with 1000 speed for engraves. On all leather. The only thing I adjust is the focus height for the thickness of the leather. I get beautiful engraves that are not burned black. And if I want it a little darker, a second pass at those settings does beautifully. (Still no char.)
Leather is a special case - I think they are trying to make wood rules work for leather so that customers don’t have to learn to process something differently. But they should. Each material has it’s own properties, and it’s own best way to work with it. 
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With Proofgrade leather, we recommend applying paints or dye after the print is complete.
Could you reprint the same design on the same material in a section without the paint, and let us know what the results are?
There is some variability in thickness with Proofgrade leathers, so if you’re seeing the same print issue in a section without paint, I would want to provide that feedback to our team here.
Thanks,
I redid the proofgrade burn with the same design on the other end of the piece where I had not pealed back the paper or painted. I did make it a bit smaller to not waste product. Same results. The burn was done on 5/26 at 6pm.
Also how do I get basic status so that I am able post more than one photo at at time. I’ve been a member for months.
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Are you an Owner? It’s not listed next to your name, so there might be some confusion about your status in the system.
I believe guests are limited to one picture per post. Owners are allowed multiple pictures after a certain amount of time and activity, and it’s an automatic thing.
If you are an Owner, you might want to have support take a look at it, but they like to keep to one issue per topic, so you might want to start a new one so they are sure to see it.
Yes I am an owner, but it was purchased under my husbands account and we can’t find a way to include me. When I added info to my profile recently it asked me about what kind of glowforge I have and I entered that, but it did not make a difference. And I have seen other people who do not have owner listed who do have “basic” level and some have been here less time than I have. Under the description of the basic badge it lists multiple photos as an perk that goes with that badge.
I’ll start another topic, just seems a strange thing to have a whole topic about.
Ah, gotcha! There was another case of husband/wife access recently that took a while to get resolved - I think it has to be hard coded by a moderator.
All the more reason for you to open a new support ticket for it so they can see it. It might not happen until you do.
Seems rather strange to not have family owning built into a system when Glowforge is marketed to families and hobbyists. If I had teen kids they would want their own account as well. Hopefully these are updates they will make.
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Don’t know if that is available as an option for this forum. (Only the owner can see and set up the permissions, so I got no clue.)
Thank you for doing that test print.
We are seeing this, too, and we will continue to look into it.
In the meantime, I suggest using either the Draft or HD Engrave settings instead. I’ve tested these and they have worked better. Please let me know how it goes! I’m sorry for the inconvenience.
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Thank you Jaz! 
It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.