Hi all! First post here, since I got my Glowforge a week ago!
I love origami, and I wanted to try new techniques with laser cutting. Here are first examples, using designs by the great Robert J. Lang http://www.langorigami.com/. I am still learning a lot about scoring paper without cutting it: I am using the lowest power setting, but the laser still goes through the paper at the beginning and end of each line. I might have to use engraving techniques to avoid that problem in the future. Any tips on how to improve this would be appreciated. Anyway, here are pictures of my first tries!
I’ve tried at scoring paper and thin cardstock but the glowforge is too powerful for this operation to just score. Engraving is an option but takes 100 times longer (depending on the LPI. I hope that in the future it will be possible to score at a faster speed or even lower power. <1!
Recursive tesselation folds like that are tricky. Well done.
As for overburn, that’s tricky, as the “extend the cut past the end” trick can’t work here. The “slow the laser down” trick won’t help either, as you need a really light touch. Using a thicker paper is also off the table, for obvious reasons.
Glowforge has heard suggestions and talked about ways to compensate for overburn (dropping power during acceleration or deceleration at the ends of lines and corners) but of course there’s no guarantee that it’s coming.
Maybe the thing to do is embrace the fact that it cuts, and go for micro perforations instead of scoring? You can convert vector lines into dashed/dotted vector lines in inkscape. Might change the look too much but could be worth a shot. Bonus points, you could use different dash/dot patterns for mountain vs valley.
The good news in that you’re getting great results!
Holy cow, that’s one I can get into! Those look nice. (Not sure if it will completely eliminate the spotting, but you can try defocusing the scores - it will burn more shallowly.)
This is what I need to know for settings! Paper! I just got mine last night, and I can’t seem to get the right settings for scoring with paper similar to yours. What do you have your settings at for both cuts and scores? I think I have a good setting for cuts, but I’m always open to testing out more.
with some thin wire woven through an origami structure attached to servos and suddenly you’ve got structures that react to your touch. Paper flowers that close or retract onto themselves when touched, then slowly re-emerge for example.
I’ve had pretty good luck with laser scoring fold lines on cover stocks of various sorts so far. So, it may depend on the stock you are using. For example, I have been using power of 20, speed of 500 (20 / 500) to score 100lb Hammermill cover.
I have had some issues with it cutting all the way through at the start and stop of score lines but, not always.
The dotted or dashed line thing mentioned by @evansd2 is also widely-used by people working with lasers and paper. I’m generally not happy with the aesthetic doing that, though.
