So leather smells, bad lol. I tried to make my wife a little bookmark with the sample of leather that comes with the forge. I could tell just from the color on the masking tape that it was going to be very light. Boy was I right. When the masking was peeled off, there were only very, very faint marks on the piece. I did not change any settings, and just let the forge pick for me. I’m assuming it just needed slower speed / more power? This is why we test materials and settings lol.
As for the 3rd cut, I made a small little clear acrylic key chain with the free files from Glowforge. It turned out super nice actually. Again, just let the forge pick the settings, and a minute and a half later I had a little engraved blank.
Any suggestions on the leather would be much appreciated!
On leather cut first, take the piece out(leave the surrounding material exactly where it is) and remove the masking, then place back in the hole you cut.
There, I fixed it. Remember to turn off the cut operation before you engrave, or you’ll double-cut your piece which will probably lead to excess scorching.
As for the smell… you just did acrylic too, and leather’s the one that bugged you?
Haha, yeah, acrylic doesn’t smell nice either lol, but the leather… I’m not a fan of burn hair and flesh smell haha. I will definitely try your cut / remove / put back without masking / engrave technique this weekend. Should I mess with the power settings or just leave them on the GF auto settings?
Your call! You can always search for “leather settings” in the forum of course, but the best thing is to test yourself and see what you like.
Make a small engrave with an outline to cut out (even a 1/2" circle with a shape like a star inside would work, a tiny captain america shield ), and give the whole process a whirl. You’ll only be using a tiny bit of material to get a really good idea of how it’s going to work out.
If you have engraved the leather, found it too light, and have not removed the masking a very quick pass with a marker may solve your issues if the leather is not allowed to soak it up. Then when you remove the masking it will be dark. You do not want to use vary power as that would just make a mess in leather.
What is often a good solution where a small area like a key fob is to be made is not do it in leather at all but in reverse on delrin and use that to stamp the leather.
Alternatively, you can switch the cut to a Draft score, and switch the power down to 5. That’ll cut just the masking. In either case, make sure to have something holding your material in place
If it were anything but leather I’d agree here but removing the masking is a bear on PG leather. I can’t see myself getting away with the score method and not moving the material as I get the masking off, so I rewrote it as cut and replace.
Second this. Also those areas where you engrave just through the paper but leave the gummy part – you can’t get that stuff off. ALWAYS remove the masking to engrave on leather.
My dad made a lot of acrylic stuff when I was a kid, so the smell of it cutting is actually one I enjoy, because of the childhood memories it evokes of “helping” him in his workshop.
