I source and sell wood for the Glowforge. I have a Basic and a Pro but my Basic is on the fritz. (Do not let your machines sit untouched for months without a thorough cleaning!). I’m looking for someone that experienced with testing new materials on a Basic. I will send samples to test and can pay for your time in cash or more materials.
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I’d love to help if you ever need pro testing done.
I think a second opinion on my settings would be a good idea! I’ll send you a message. Thanks!
You can make and keep a direct testing of a standard set of trials in a minimum sized piece. I laid it out here…
There is also this that the text is adjustable so you can put the settings you want to test on the bit you are testing…
Thank you for providing this! My main issue right now is that my Basic is not functioning properly after letting it sit for so long. I have to do some troubleshooting when I find the time.
Do you have a Basic and would you be interested in testing materials for me?
I have a pro. plus I could not test your materials unless you also lived in Tampa as they are there and I am here. I have found that even from the same source two pieces of wood will act differently, either because of variation within the wood itself, or because the same name is applied to different species, usually closely related but sometimes not but the wood has a similar look.
Mahogany is notorious for that but even maple is sold as many varieties not closely linked by species
It turns out the mystery of the Marie Celeste found sailing with the crew disappeared was much less a mystery when it was noticed that she was carrying alcohol as her main cargo. The alcohol was stored in oak barrels but someone had screwed up when the barrels were made. With many species of oak, several referred to as white oak make barrels that are strong and impervious where species that like wetter ground often called red oak are not impervious so something thin like alcohol can seep through like unglazed clay, and stowed away in the hold the red oak barrels had drained into the bottom and filled the ship with fumes. So the slightest spark or lightning strike could at any time set the ship off like a bomb. As soon as it was understood what the situation was I don’t think much time was wasted in leaving.
A very extreme case of needing to understand your woods.
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That was a theory presented by the New York World at the time but pretty quickly discarded. The ship carried 1700 barrels of alcohol and only 9 were empty. That was consistent with normal seepage experienced by vessels of her type and size.
There was a British TV show about 15 years ago that tried to duplicate the effect of the seepage and possible fumes using butane and paper models. It created a fireball but no explosion and no subsequent fire of the model boat.
The Smithsonian debunked that theory as well in its documentary. Their theory was more consistent with the physical evidence. There was a pump (used to remove water from the hold) that was disassembled and apparently being repaired on the deck as well as a makeshift sounding rod (a stick used to determine the level of the water in the hold). Their theory was that prior voyages when the ship was carrying coal caused coal dust to accumulate in the pumps making them subject to failures. That the ship took on water in a storm and the pump failed and then due to the amount of cargo (it was filled to maximum capacity) it was hard to determine the true level of water in the hold (a fair amount but not critical) and the crew abandoned ship fearing an imminent sinking.
BTW, the name was really Mary Celeste. The Marie came from an Arthur Conan Doyle story. 
In the words of Paul Harvey, and that’s the rest of the story.
(Well, maybe not. The captain’s brother was also a ship’s captain and on a voyage at the same time. He died on his voyage too - just a little while after the Mary Celeste was found adrift and brought into port. Not a lucky family. But also not terribly uncommon at the time.)
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Interested
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If 9 were empty, and the sailors not drunk, (and I read that part too) that would be frightening a’plenty. A bit of seepage from many, not so much of an issue. Also, the reality of what would happen, and the expectations of the crew would not need to align
as fire on a ship was very much a nightmare. The model on the TV show offers nothing either way to enlighten as everything of time, scale, materials, methods of ignition, etc. would not qualify as analogy even.
In any case, I could not verify the specifics more than hearing the story. The main point was paying attention to the fact that is relevant to folks new to Glowforge that wood you think is the same may not even be the same species much less the differences that occur across the same piece of wood, for the properties you need.
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I have a basic and would be interested!
i have a basic and do cut an engrave test all the time
i have an extensive spreadsheet that i have accumulated over the years
Glowforge Settings.xlsx (393.9 KB)
i can probably help, it is getting close to holiday runs!