Exactly. That’s the case with a lot of these plastics (and paper) - high speed and minimal power. Also, if you’re doing pink foam it helps to defocus into the material so the beam is converging in the middle or lower third. That seems to make it cut without the fire thing happening
At this time of year, it’s good for tombstone yard decorations
I did a wall full of “books” using pink foam insulation of various widths last year for a play my daughter’s school was putting on. Would have been stupidly tedious with hand tools.
I was going to ask if you’d tried this method. The hot wire was always my favorite foam sculpting tool in school, though it was best used outside where ventilation wasn’t an issue.
From earlier in the thread, I like the concept of “material/pattern of the month” club. A lot for me would depend on price point, but I like the idea that everything I get would certainly be usable, or repurposeable, and would let me try some things without having to order them–if I don’t have a purpose I won’t order, but if I have it on hand, I will probably find a purpose.
I strongly agree - materials that are predictable and uniform (acrylic, standard woods) don’t benefit much from being “proofgrade” and make more sense to source locally from a hardware store or art supply store. Tricky materials, like leather, fancy hardwoods, etc., are worth being proofgrade, shipping, etc.
Adding RFID protection to something like a wallet is pretty cheap and easy.
My sister made her wallet out of gaffers tape (after her previous duct tape wallet disintegrated) and put a piece of aluminum foil inside the outer wall.
The 1/8 and 1/4" ply is the most important for me - to make prototypes of new toys I make. I’m really looking forward to experimenting with making gears!
Actually I want 3 mm and 5 mm plywood (we use metric uo here in Canada). I currently manufacture in Taiwan - die cut for now, but soon laser cut here! We use plywood from sustainable sources (one of the things I insist on for my products). I assume the Glowforge will work with the 5 mm ply?
Realize all plywood is both metric and Imperial, it just depends on how many times you push the button on the digital calipers. All the numbers on plywood are just made up anyway!
It depends on the species of plys, the surface veneers, and most importantly the chemical composition of the glue. We’ve found that while some ~5mm plywood works, a lot of it doesn’t. Also, many of the glues used have chemicals you may not want to vaporize.
do you know (yet) if the glues selected for proofgrade are food edible ? QBQ(question behind the question) getting 12x20 solid wood a little tougher then plywood but I want to make things for the girls(the chins) and they WILL eat the wood so I’m left with solid wood unless the glue in the ply is good and then again it also depends on the species of wood as not all wood in chin safe
) on a 40W Chinese laser which is more like 32W real.