Paper

[colordrop]

Hello! I have the pro and I was thinking of making my own invitations, any one have luck with paper? Setting advice? Please and thank you!

[techyg]

Welcome to the forum! I’ve cut card stock just fine. I believe others have cut thinner paper as well.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. You need to get a mat to hold it down so the fan doesn’t blow it away. Or, use a Krylon Spray Adhesive on top of a sheet of wood.

2. You will have to experiment with settings. Here is a good place to start:
   Somewhat Comprehensive Testing of Settings for Cutting Paper and Cardstock

Best of luck!

[colordrop]

Thank you much for the link!!!

[techyg]

No problem! The search feature on the forums is pretty helpful, but it does take some time to wade through the posts. Here are a few other links that may help with with the cutting mat. You can get them at Joannes or Michael’s crafts, but they are kind of pricey.

Paper Fun with Seklema Mat

I’ve been using a scrap piece of plywood sprayed with Krylon repositionable spray as a cutting mat to cut paper. It works well. Maybe not for tissue paper, but sturdier stock you can just scrape right up.

I’ve been using the Krylon spray with some success. If you do this, remember to change the focus height to the thickness of whatever you spray it on (eg. plywood) + the thickness of your paper. For example, if your plywood was 3mm thick, and your paper 1mm thick, your focus height would be 4mm thick. The same would be true of the Seklema mat also.

Here is some more good info which includes the specific spray adhesive to get if you want to go that route.

Tips For the Inexperienced

Alright friends, As @Jules suggested, I am going to start a list of useful tips for the inexperienced. Please add things that might be common knowledge to those who are comfortable with lasers but that might be big news to someone who is new. We were crediting the folks who generated the tip; but discourse only allows you to mention ten members. General Tips dan: You want to go the fastest you can at the highest power possible to have clean edges. Accessories to invest in Digital Calip…

[cynd11]

Since you are asking for settings advice, I’m shifting this to Beyond the Manual, where these types of questions get answered.

Maybe you could describe exactly what it is you want to do. Are you wanting to engrave without going all the way through? Or engrave lacy designs like this example? Or just cut out designs? There will be different settings advice for all of these scenarios.

[evansd2]

My advice — once you get the paper thing going— read everything in here:

Getting started

The Glowforge team recommends working through your first prints by following along with the examples shown here to learn where everything is: They have also recently added instructions with video on using the Manual settings here: Working with Manual Settings And there are methods for Enhancing your Photo Engraves and Cutting Out a Shape as well. (You can click on the topic headers in the left-hand column for even more information.) That particular page is also handy if you have any p…

Follow every rabbit hole it leads you to, it’s all gold.

The Glowforge is so much fun, and there’s a really cool learning curve. I can’t wait to see what you make

[colordrop]

Hi Evan! You are right! The Glowforge is amazing! I am actually a graphic designer who loves vectors and has dabbled in autocad. I have already made several projects out of wood as well as acrylic. But I am getting married June 2020 and want to have a little fun with the invitations!

[evansd2]

@colordrop

several projects out of wood as well as acrylic

Pictures or it never happened!

[colordrop]

You are funny. This is the last thing I did before I started maternity leave.

There are so many things I want to do! And ideas I have! I can’t wait to be back in my office full time, but my baby is too cute haha.

[colordrop]

I want to try cuts—envelope designs or different borders, maybe some “lace” styling. I have a few examples of engraved acrylic but I keep going back to traditional.

[cynd11]

Well then, I think @techyg’s original answer with link will get you all you need. Or you could search the forum for “paper cutting settings.”

[twforeman]

Be warned - if you use magnets to hold down the paper people have been reporting issues of the assist fan being stopped when the head passes over strong magnets. It causes the machine to stop because it thinks the fan isn’t working.

[deirdrebeth]

The time vs safety on paper cuts is engraving vs cutting. With engraving there’s no sticky mat needed because there’s no waste paper floating around - but it takes longer. The cutting is way faster but you have to worry about burns in tight corners and little bits of paper getting loose…but wow can you do beautiful stuff!

This was engraved: Cutwork Scroll