I’m trying to make my own Catan board, a project that surely many other glowforge users have embarked upon. I’ve been surprised to find a real dearth of information about engraving and cutting settings on these boards, however. I have figured out Yellowheart, and managed Alder OK with proof-grade Poplar settings, but would like to know what settings others have used for a variety of different woods:
Also, consider anything you read to be a starting point. You should use your preferred method for dialing in your settings. Wood is finicky, and you can see variations between pieces that will surprise you – even a .02" difference in thickness can cause cuts to fail that worked only a moment ago.
I’ll agree to what both Jules and evansd2 had to say.
When I did my Catan board, for Maple & Walnut, i used the proofgrade settings for both those materials even though mine weren’t proof grade. Those turned out well. For both yellowheart and padauk, I used the medium basswood settings. Worked really well for those. I haven’t tried Aspen yet, so I’m not going to be terribly helpful there.
For the most part when I’m trying a new wood, I check the hardness of the new wood (http://www.wood-database.com/wood-finder/ ) and then find the closest wood that I have proofgrade settings for. That generally gets me in the neighborhood and I’ll fine tune from there. Worst case, i’ll run at test pattern on a piece of it and go from there.
Can’t wait to see how your board turns out! Mine was a great learning experience for sure.
It’s always interesting to me to see how other people do setting tests. I never think to use the proofgrade settings, I figure either way you have to run a test… so I have a cut test job that I run that allows me to get accurate to 10 speed points in one shot for most materials.
Also keep in mind when doing a larger project (and some materials more than others) to clean the lens and mirrors after particularly long cuts. I’ve seen same material behave differently at same settings before and after wiping off the lens and mirrors with the zeiss ® wipes !!!