My laser is toast for a while, but I want to see how long a cut & engrave project will take to plan my time needed. Is there any way to do that?
It’s a full 12 x 20 sheet in 1/4" acrylic. The engraving takes up 80% of area. I was planning to use the Proofgrade SD Engrave setting.
Thanks
Unfortunately no, the processing time is only calculated when you hit Print while connected to an online machine.
It’s been discussed/asked for before, so it’s likely somewhere on a list of feature requests, but I doubt it has a high priority. It requires processing by the cloud-based systems (which costs $), which would be effectively wasteful if you weren’t actually going to run the job at that time.
At a rough guess, that’s going to be about from two to three hours at SD setting, give or take. (And that’s just from running a few full bed engraves, so a really rough estimate.) You’ll probably get a better idea from someone who does more engraving.
If you want to get all geeky about it…
Very old data says 1000 speed is a little under 6ips, plus turnaround time = so let’s fudge it and say 4 seconds per pass. At 270 lpi, 80% would be about 3000 passes, times 4s is around 3.5hrs at best. That’s what others have reported (complained about) for a full-bed engrave.
Thanks @eflyguy and @Jules! I figured that it would be in the 3 hour range. Since I’ll be sitting at a Joann Fabrics, I better bring a book. I have quite a few sheets, so it will be a multi-day project.
Have you asked about their venting situation?
Acrylic is the worst, and very likely to draw complaints unless they’ve really done their homework.
I was assuming that the GF team worked with them to figure that sort of thing out. I guess I should check to be sure that they don’t have restrictions.
If you want an exact number, send me the file and your exact parameters and I’ll do a dry run for the time estimate. Oh, and let me know if it’s basic or pro (mine is a pro).
The Columbus OH store has venting. The Indiana store has a Compact Filter., based on my personal experience visiting those store (but not using the Glowforge there).
And my personal experience with Acryllic and the Compact Filter (my own) is that is works beautifully to completely eliminate the odor.
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