Currently the barcodes peel off and you can just stick them on the piece thats left. Im sure that if you have a small piece of masking with readable code you can just stick it on a piece that youre cutting to get it to detect properly. That is, if they dont make it so small that it can practically read from any usable size.
4 Likes
Exactly! Just save one of each kind of barcode and toss it on an area you won’t be cutting.
4 Likes
Good temporary solution, though I think the final part will be UV / non-visible (but then they may cover whole sheets at that point rendering it moot).
3 Likes
I think you made your point 
Edit: sure now it looks like I’m just nuts now that there is only one post…
2 Likes
Haha, whoops. The forums were going in and out of read only mode earlier.
2 Likes
We’ve covered this before, but the TL;DR is that the Proofgrade settings will not work much better than a random number for your “very similar” material, so the only thing we accomplish by sharing them is a bunch of support tickets when it doesn’t work.
Our advice for non-Proofgrade material: do what most non-Glowforge laser owners do. Research a lot and dedicate plenty of time and material to trial and error.
18 Likes
And create a calibration file of boxes at various power and speed combos - you’ll want one for cutting & one for engraving. Run it for new materials or new suppliers. Definitely run it on a scrap of the material you’re making a critical project out of as even from the same supplier the same material may behave differently.
9 Likes
Yes, it seems that with one well-designed test you can see the effects of speed vs power on any material over a wide range of possible settings.
Remember when testing material (on any laser) that the speed listed for vector movements is a maximum only - the motion planner will always slow it down for corners, turns, etc. You need a fairly large test area to ensure that you reach peak speed.
18 Likes
Ah, thanks. I obviously don’t appreciate the nuances of testing all the variables involved.
1 Like
It’s a nuanced pain in the tuchas. 
13 Likes
Well that turned out great! I don’t have a 3D printer, but I sure would like to try making a baby griot bust out of cardboard using the slicing method. Might even clay or bondo over it.
I like the griot measure test. Worked perfectly!
So does the laser power reduce where it slows down to compensate?
From what people have said elsewhere is seems you need to keep the speed up to reduce charring and that gives the impression you can’t always compensate with power reduction. And I presume there is a minimum power before the tube stops lasing. So does that mean sharp corners are always over cut?
When I design objects for 3D printing I always try to round the corners to get nicer results as the corner can be taken at constant velocity and hence constant flow rate. I don’t have one axis slower than the other though.
5 Likes
Now, yes. We have a variety of improvements in the hopper.
5 Likes
what is max engrave speed going to be?
Nothing to share there yet, but it’s still something we’re working on.
3 Likes
I don’t notice this issue in the cuts. It’s the scoring where it literally comes through at the corners. Instead of a nice even line around tight corners, there is a deeper indent. You can see an artifact of this in the Corian engraving which also was a score. I’m figuring out ways around it, but I’m amazed at what 1% power can do on a piece of 2 oz leather.
9 Likes
I believe @dan said that would not happen because the goal behind proofgrade and the barcodes was to have a material that had been tested and verified to work exactly as the machine interprets it – using the same settings automatically on another similar material but with potential variations might have very problematic results.
3 Likes
Starting to think that the amount of energy at the chosen material will have a minimum threshold higher that I had hoped. In other words the power/speed combination will mean at least one of my planned projects might be impossible. The laser will always burn through delicate material rather than char. Scoring paper could also be a problem. This of course was never promised, though there was a lot of hopeful speculation. Either way will enjoy the GF and have plenty of other projects ready. Just expecting one of my ideas will end up in the round bin. Won’t know until they are done tweaking and I get my hands on a unit.
5 Likes
Paper as in cardstock (100lb) or paper as in printing/typing paper (20lb)?
1 Like