Scary Times

I suddenly discovered I had some 1/32" inch Baltic Birch plywood and thought it good material for delicate screens for lamps. After a bit of testing, I found that 450 at full power did not cut through but 425 cut clean. so I set about cutting four of them. The first one cut the outside before cutting inside and as it cut more the screen began to warp.

Instead of cutting each one it did a wandering path going back and forth but the warp began to lift the corner pointed out by the arrow almost a quarter-inch up but still had to cut much of the area under the rectangle and the blue oval and it was under the oval area I was thinking the head fan would lift it and blow it away with the rectangle area not yet cut. :grimacing:

So while it was working in the pink oval area I hit pause and found a scrap of quarter-inch material cut very thin (1/8" approx) so I snuck it in through the passthrough but it was not strong enough to hold it down so I rotated it and it was strong enough but I would have to hold it still while it was cutting and that was not happening. So I found another piece of scrap to wedge it in place in the outer part of the passthrough but the narrow stick kept falling over so it was tricky to get it balanced and I still worried the wind from the head fan would make a mess.

Eventually, with my heart in my mouth, the entire job was finished and even before pilling it out I thought I would share the scare. :grin:

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Anything that works! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Well it will still be a bit pokey yet as the power cuts down a bit in tight corners, and most of the design is all tight corners. It certainly cut well on the straight aways so each screen came right out without issues, but all the tiny bits not o much.

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Way to keep a watchful eye and improvise on the fly. At some point in the future, I hope the pause button and lifting the lid does not cancel a job.

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Wow, I didn’t know plywood came that thin! Looks like you are really testing the limits.

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http://shop.balsausa.com/product_p/345.htm
I think I got mine at the local hobby store

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Hobby Store +1

I have seen 1/64th 3 ply. You can cut that with scissors like heavy paper.

Edit: of course I had to click on the link. Bye bye next hour…
yeah, they have some…

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