Ive noticed that some of the projects made on the glowforge suffer from scorching around the cut lines, I know there are ways to lessen the effects such as tape or paper over the surface of the material, however this involves time consuming work after the cut is done. I was wondering if someone has tried or is willing to try cutting something out and dampening the surface of the wood to see if that will reduce the scorching.
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A laser cuts by literally burning and evaporating the wood. There will be smoke from that no matter what you do to the surface. My feeling if you dampen the wood, you will have raised grain with black residue. 
- Rich
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Dampening wont really stop the charring. It might help in flareups. Charring happens either when power is too high and speed is too low or its out of focus…I believe the settings are still being updated in the prerelease units and that will go away for the most part especially where proofgrade is concerned.
Transfer tape or masking is the best way to go for protecting the surface. Smoke and sap and debris will exist regardless of how the cut comes out…
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Please also read the descriptions that accompany the projects. In many cases the charring is deliberate for testing purposes.
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Most of the things that youve been seeing are being made with mdf centered ply. This material definitely has been showing scorch, as its hard to cut through. I havent attempted to cut through the proofgrade ply without the scorch, but if its possible im sure the gf team will dial it in.
I have cut through a lot of other materials without scorching though fairly easily, like 1/4" poplar.
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Does all Proofgrade™ have masking already?
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Yes.
Edit: I should say everything that’s Ben shown and the invisible QR code that labels it as proof grade is printed on the masking
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Yep. Everything we’ve seen so far. Also the woods have a glossy finish of some sort. Should keep that in mind if you need to glue something. Probably won’t take a stain.
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I think this is a place where your expertise could be a huge help. Reading and interpreting power and speeds. I can read a spark plug but have no idea how to read a laser cut.
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