PG not cutting through

Has anyone else had issues in the last week or so with proof grade woods not cutting all the way through?
Mine have been getting very close but that last bit does not cut and I have to score it with a blade. Even then on the ply wood it still sometimes chips when I try to remove a piece

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Yes. I’ve had that problem quite often actually.

Make sure your crumb tray is both fully seated and doesn’t have any crumbs on it that are lifting the material.

Either one will knock the focus off and that’ll cause said symptoms. So will warpage.

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I had my first instance of this yesterday. The material was warped. I keep a couple of large magnets around to counter warp, but didn’t notice it this time.

If I had to speculate, the PF is expanding a bit with the wetter winter weather and just slightly thicker. I’ve been upping the power just a tad to compensate as there’s really no practical way to stop it from happening. It would be interesting to know if people storing the wood in climate controlled areas are experience as much variable. I would guess the folks working in the garage, basement etc where humidity might be more variable are having more trouble. (Or like in my old home with single pane windows and an ancient furnace. :slight_smile: )

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In my experience so far, only the farthest outside cut is treated as an outer cut. This means that in your instance, it would treat all three the same - only the most outer path will be cut with the kerf wholly on the outside of the part.

In winter time the humidity inside houses goes down. So wood inside of houses shrinks. Our wood floors always show gaps between the ends of the planks because of this.

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I had this happening with some 1/4" PG Acrylic and I noticed that my head was just a tad bit dusty and needed to be cleaned. Once I did that, it worked much better.

I have not tried changing settings on PG materials since it just auto sets. How is it you change them ?

Oh man, you’re gonna have fun playing with this! :slight_smile:

Pics make it easier. Click here…

Then here

have fun experimenting!

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Thanks for letting us know. I’m sorry that your print didn’t come out beautifully!

To cut successfully, there are three important things to check. First, your material must lie flat. This requires a clean, properly installed crumb tray and flat materials. Second, there must be no obstructions, dirt, or damage preventing the laser light from reaching your material. Third, your design must be set up properly - for example, with lines that are fully on the material and that are set to cut. It’s hard to know which issue might be affecting your print, so please thoroughly inspect your unit and design according to the suggestions in our troubleshooter.

Once you’ve inspected and cleaned, please try another print. We included an extra piece of Proofgrade Draftboard with your materials shipment for troubleshooting. Please print the Gift of Good Measure on Proofgrade Draftboard and let us know the result. If it doesn’t print well, please let us know the date and time of your print and send photos of the front and back of the print.

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.