I’m just curious as to what level of precision you are looking to achieve? And if we’re talking seconds, hours, or even days, then why is that level of precision important to you?
This is hobby for me… so a roughly 2-year estimation is safe for me. Probably more in the 2-4 year range, because I’m likely not going to be in the “heavy usage” range.
Looking at the numbers, over a 5 minute print, changing from 100% to 90% power yields a 30 second savings in tube-life. But this assumes that tube-life is constant and degrades constantly and is linear with power. It also assumes that the gas doesn’t degrade with time even without use. This isn’t likely the case, so any estimation is bound to be inaccurate, at least if you’re looking at seconds… and more likely we’re looking at inaccuracy in the weeks/months range.
Again, not trying to argue, just genuinely curious.
I am not looking for precision but when running a job I would like to know if my machine is being maxed out or is taking it easy, just to get a rough idea of how much punishment I am giving it. I.e. does material X cut easily or does it need full power?
Tube life isn’t linear with power. It falls rapidly above full power and I assume it extends a lot below full power.
In the end it will last as long as it lasts but I would like a rough idea of where my tube life has gone.
Does humidity affect the settings required to cut wood? Wood absorbs water according to atmospheric humidity and I presume that has some effect on cutting it with heat but I don’t know if it is significant. If it is you might need one of your 50 sensors to be a hygrometer or use the cloud to track local weather history
You are correct it’s not the case. CO2 laser tube power vs life is non-linear. It scales up quickly about the 95-98% power factor (you can overdrive a tube over 100% of rated power but that eats tubes). As a result I throttle my use to 95% or less.
The tube power declines over time even when not used. It’s not a lot (on most tubes) but it is generally measurable. Dan has stated that it wasn’t material in the samples they’ve made so far.
I don’t think we’ll know with the GF until they’ve got a lot in the wild and start getting real stats vs just testing stats.
I was thinking mostly regarding materials from known vendors. Say IPI who sells laserable plastics for example, chances are even with production variations in a particular product, they will likely be small differences that can be easily accounted for and reliable settings shared.
On my Universal laser print interface it shows a list of materials that have presets. When you choose one, then click the manual input tab, the values show up there so you have a base to start tweeking from.
So if you are wanting to cut a non proofgrade birch ply, can you select a preset for proofgrade birch ply on the Glowforge, then goto the manual input and see the settings so you can at least be in the ballpark and adjust from there?
I saw that but sharing them might mean in a file away from the on screen program…It would be nice to be able to switch back and forth on the screen without having to go look up the settings manually.
Is there any plan for Glowforge to license the use of the Proofgrade trademark and tagging to material producers? Could you then have international producers that supply based on local stock in regions where it’s cheaper? Also, for smaller producers who might make handmade material (ie.- craft papers, etc) in order for them to access to the unique barcode tracking for quality control?
If you’re not stressing them, there’s not much improvement in running lower power. Some myths have popped up since it’s common for vendors to rate their tubes at a power level that’s bad for them & then recommend running at partial power.
Not appreciably, as far as we’ve found. But love the idea!
Exactly this, thanks.
No. That would imply that we recommend using Proofgrade settings for non-Proofgrade materials, which we don’t. You will almost certainly be able to look it up if you are curious, either because we provide it or because someone with a stopwatch and ruler posts it to the forum, though…
I’ll say this 'till I’m blue in the face, but… materials vary too much. It’ll be optimum for some small percentage of our users, and the rest will say:
I’m going to buy plywood at home depot
I’m going to use the Proofgrade settings
It didn’t cut through
Glowforge made a bad product
which isn’t very optimum for either us or for them.
Will you be testing samples from different batches from the same vendor over time to make sure the properties are sufficiently constant? If a deviation is found in a batch, will you adjust the barcodes accordingly, or reject that batch?
LIke using the Silhouette software (Designer). It has a bunch of preset settings ( cardstock, paper, vinyl, silhouette brand vinyl, etc) but you can still go to see the settings and tweak them - as well as save your own custom settings.
Will we be able to manually select a Proofgrade material, or will it only operate via recognising the Proofgrade UV code on the material?
Will GF provide any guidance on the setting for different materials, eg woods, card, paper, etc?
Its easy to just say use Proofgrade, but if these are not available economically for international users, then we will need assistance in using our own materials - otherwise GF are not being particularly helpful.
It would be easy for GF to show the Proofgrade setting as a starting point, for manual adjustment - but clearly GF are reluctant to allow this (I think the above arguments above are spurious - you could just show a warning disclaimer).
Dunno how the lawyers or founders would feel about it, but just an image of the QR codes for respective materials with a disclaimer for results would give a point of reference for experiment.
I suspect in short order we will acquire a ‘feel’ for different materials that would rival those presets.
My fear is that not all the settings will be available for manual adjustment, or if they are, they will be too complex start out from scratch for a new material.
By complex I mean settings other than power and speed eg acceleration, deceleration, adjustments for corners, overshoot, engrave, etc.
Remember the QR stickers will be disappearing, replaced by UV codes.
