After reading the link @jamesdhatch shared about laser foil i was looking around the 52lasers site and came across the follow post on rounding corners.
It got me to thinking if this would be possible with the GF. I’m guessing that we won’t be able to get the same amount of rounding since the GF only has about .5" of focus depth and they defocused by about 1".
Does anyone remember if the GF has the ability to defocus the laser?
Yes (or it will). This summer we had a thread about defocusing that Dan weighed in on. Beyond the technique you linked to (which I’ve not tried but will with my lace acrylic slumped bowls) I routinely defocus when doing acrylic engraving - it softens the engrave.
There’s also the 3D engrave, of course, although that would cost a lot more time and work.
Maybe removing the crumb tray you can get the other 0.5" of defocusing.
This is an image with the wrong material thickness setting put in. Non ProofGrade are not autofocus so you have requires one to input thickness. The calipers is always there but the fingers don’t always work right. I used the word “Gouda” as a test engrave before I did the whole board.
i assume this will change?
Was it trial and error to determine power and speed or it there a thickness setting that started you at a close power and speed setting?
I sure hope so!
Can the project be moved out of focus and the beam then be used like a heat gun to round over/soften the edges?
that would imply that auto focus does not work at all and that proofgrade is not auto focus’s based on that camera and depth finder but rather it sets focus automatically based on a static setting
There was a rumor that you were doing another youtube session this weekend…
Any truth to that @marmak3261 ?
I was thinking about it. I haven’t done a video this week. Have been working one up though and need to edit it… Just too busy printing stuff, designing stuff, and giving stuff away. Family Christmas yesterday. The drinking game was: one drink every time I said Glowforge, two drinks every time I said my cat’s name. I have a cool cutting board that I engraved with an family heirloom recipe. It turned out pretty good. They also thought that the matchbox was pretty neat and I had best start cranking them out to put on Etsy before someone beats me to it.
I’ll most likely try to schedule something next week and post when I’ll do it.
Enjoy your GF 
(gulp 
), people can wait on you and savor what you do post.
No, all materials are auto-focused. Easy to see where you might get that idea, though. Currently, the software needs a thickness estimate for layout purposes - that’s determined automatically for Proofgrade materials, but asks you to type it in for non-Proofgrade. The actual cut should made from the laser depth measurement for all materials, though.
Thanks for explaining that. It seemed to be autofocus but since it asked for thickness, I assumed.
The Glowforge was just curious. Kind of like half the technical questions from members you get.