Okay Pro users, you know how the Passthrough slot is actually a passthrough slot? The flap goes one way - itās designed to pass the material through the slot from front to back. Trying to back the material back out the front is problematic at best.
My machine is up against a wall, and I can pull the whole thing out away from it if I must, but Iām generally too lazy or in too much of a hurry to move the stacks of leftover sheets out of the way to do it. So I need to be able to quickly back the material out from the front.
And I figured out how to do it pretty easilyā¦
I use a thin flexible cutting mat to slide in on top of the material when itās finished, and then hold that in place while I just slide out the material underneath it. I need to find one thatās a bit wider, but this is working pretty well for now. Any thin, flexible yet sturdy, material should do it.
(Oh, and if you donāt want to be bending over to pick up a lot of bits, remove your cuts from the material before you pull it out. AMHIK.)
Update: Dug into the stash and found something that works just as well, and is actually long enough to cover just about the whole bedā¦itās a sheet of Extra Thick Template plastic for quilting. 12" by 18", by āEZ Quilting by Wrightsā. I picked these up at either a Michaelās or a Hobby Lobby for a lot cheaper than you can get them at Amazon, but they do have a few available there if you need it.
Thatās what Iām using - I got them from the Dollar store. They had a 4 pack & I use the other 3 as clothing separators in a packing envelope in my luggage.
In theory, you could put moving sliders on the forge to move it in and outā¦
Iāve been toying with the idea of putting mine on a heavy duty lazy susan base. My table doesnāt move, so is I want to pass something long through the machine, Iāll have to rotate it 90 degrees.
They make lazy susans that are rated to 1000 lbs, I thought I might make a giant one that can be locked down. IDK, weāll see if I ever get to it. So far, no need.
Use one underneath as well. Then pull the bottom one out with the work, and hold the cut pieces in place.
Might need a bit of a wiggle to get it under without snagging the cuts, but worth a try I think.
The Sliders are a good idea and I may even have some for another purpose, but either case you would need to lock them down when the glowforge was running as the action/reaction physics could interfere with your results. You could make your own lazy susan with a pair of engraved circles and some marbles but for the price, I would be to lazy to build that.
I use that principle for those plastic ties so they can loosen rather thas be cut as well. After cutting all that plastic āstringā from those soda bottles a bunch arrayed side by side can be as wide as you want or even whole sections of soda bottle
FYIā¦donāt attempt to cut those plastic quilting templatesā¦Iām pretty certain they have pvcā¦rust colored edges and very smelly.
Personal experience from many years backā¦pre forums and even facebookā¦when you couldnāt just hop on the internet and get immediate adviceā¦lol. You all have it easy! Lol.