Non-Proofgrade Material Issues

#1

I’ve been using my Glowforge for about a year. And though I love the Proofgrade shop, There is a serious lack of color options. So I purchase from Inventables (which on the phone with Glowforge they said their acrylic products are good). However doing the manual settings always WASTES my material. Whats annoying to me is I order the same material from Glowforge, same thickness, acrylic its just a different color, and when I try to copy the settings in manual mode - it feels like the Glowforge software intentionlly doesnt cut it right, it never goes through, the beam is spotty and flickers. I’ve tried changing the settings, and copying what the proofgrade settings are for the same material, and it never works. However…and this is what REALLY annoys me…if I take the barcode sticker off of a Proofgrade product thats the same and stick in on the non-proofgrade…magically it cuts perfectly the first time.

Does anyone have this issue with non-proofgrade acrylic thats the same as the proograde in size/thickness?

What settings do you use when you cut them?

Thanks.

#2

Nope, I set Manual settings all the time, and get perfectly consistent results.

One shortcut you can take is just call it Proofgrade material using the dropdown arrow in the Unknown Materials column. If the thickness is the same for the acrylic, it should cut the same way and the settings will all be pre-populated for you.

#3

Akin to Jules’s comment, you don’t need to have the barcode on the material to select proofgrade material from the drop down menu. I do this all the time for a variety of materials, and only modify the settings/thickness as needed.

#4

I just select the proofgrade settings from the menu. Works every time.

Acrylic is one of those materials that will almost always be very consistent.

#5

Same experience here. I use TAP plastic acrylic almost exclusively and I use the PF setting and they work great. Now, I still use the calipers to measure my acrylic to get an exact thickness just to make sure it’s in the ballpark. I sometimes adjust up or down a bit on the power, but that’s just becasue even the same sheet of acrylic can vary quite a bit in thickness. It’s just the nature of all acrylic. Normally though I don’t have to adjust anything.

#6

Ditto, Chemcast from TAP with PG settings works great for me.

#7

If I remember correctly, glowforge sells chemcast acrylic, just with better masking on it. (so much better)

#8

TAP is my happy place and I’m in there so often they know me by name. :rofl: My store sells 7x10 scrap for $1, but I buy larger sheets as well and they usually throw in half my scrap stuff for free. Their white marble/abalone looking acrylic is the most beautiful stuff ever and they always save me scrap pieces. It’s too pretty to use so I hoard it instead lol.