Practical cuts with a bit of bling

Made on a Glowforge
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Wouldn’t you know it, right after showing a picture of my rotary engraving machine in response to a Tormach thread in this forum it died. The machine is a Xenetech 13X13 that I converted to run g-code on Mach3. It was set up on a PC using two parallel ports, which are getting pretty rare, so
I switched it to an ESS Smoothstepper from Warp9.

The Smoothstepper needed a nice enclosure so I cut the pieces with the Glowforge. Did a bit of decorative engraving, and also some functional engraving in the way of the counterbores for the plug retention nuts. I am very impressed with the accuracy I was able to achieve on those. The material is Purebond Maple plywood .165" thick. I used Proofgrade Thick Maple Plywood settings for cuts.

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pretty sexy build. How do you like that purebond plywood after testing it out on this project?

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The Purebond cuts effortlessly. Excellent value even though it warped a bit.

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I think that’s why they don’t sell it in the stores, and make you order it online. I am not sure I would have paid for a sheet in person. It’s great for smaller pieces when the warp in nominal. I had a full sheet pinned dow and when I cut the outline it “popped” out.

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They do sell it in stores, but in standard sizes for use in construction. It’s a common material for cabinets and such. I’ve considered it but after looking at it in the store, I prefer the BB I can get at Rockler.

They don’t stock it cut down for home-sized laser use, because there is so little demand for that size.

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The advertised thickness makes me smile a bit also. The sheet I purchased was labelled 1/4" but measured .165" :smiley: In fairness I picked it up on a rainy day and it took an hour before I got it into my shop. It was dry in my van, but the atmospheric change from the store bowed it a lot. I always get Home Depot to rip 8 foot panels so I can handle them more easily, but I would not ask them to cut it down to small pieces in the store. Most of the staff that run the saw are friendly, but do not always understand what you want.