Having so much fun testing the new low power settings on my Glowforge! Clockwise from center: 1/4" acrylic, 24lb typing paper (parchment finish), Proofgrade thin leather, Grunge paper, 1/8" Baltic birch plywood, Proofgrade 1/8" maple ply, 24 lb parchment
Wow, especially that umbrella is quite unbelievable 
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On the umbrella, did you encounter any problems from air assist? Or does the assist not even go on until certain parameters are met?
I held the full sheet down with magnets, and did the engrave before the cut. As soon as the cut finished, the air assist blew the piece against the front door, where I retrieved it. I could have stuck the paper down to the crumb tray with double stick tape to prevent that.
Stay tuned for a new way to hold the paper down, as soon as I get a chance to test it. It will be of great interest to all you paper people!
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I like that test idea, to put the star in the middle of the engrave. Will redo my squares. But boy, testing takes a long time. Your squares look pretty small, but still. I was doing defocused tests on acrylic and by the time I went through all the possible combinations, two hours had elapsed.
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Are you using different shades and then a single power setting? Or one shade and multiple power settings?
Thanks!
This is amazing!!
I’m glad to see that parchment can be done now!
Of great use would be a “pause” instruction that one could insert between operations, that would let you open the lid and reposition magnets/whatever, then close the lid and hit the button to continue. Then you could do your engrave with the magnets out of the way, and move the magnets to the interior before the cut. @Tony @dan
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A different color for each square so I could assign different power levels to each. I’ll be glad to upload the test svg file when I get a chance back at my computer later this evening.
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Pretty sure it’s already in the hopper but I doesn’t hurt to repeat the request!
Oh I see. Yeah that makes so much sense! I was thinking grayscale… you’re saying you set different colors (as in, it doesn’t matter what color as long as it’s different). With that one statement, you’ve changed my little laser world.
“Sokath, his eyes uncovered!”
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Okay, here’s the test file I used. Basically it’s just 16 squares (with a star in the middle of each) in 16 different colors so you can set each square to a different condition in the GFUI. If you don’t need all 16 you might be able to select individual ones and delete them. Or just set the unused ones to Ignore.
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THANKS!
I love the warning it gives you of “Hey… You’ve got a lot of color here. Might take a while. Just sayin’.”
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When we make air assist switchable, will that solve this for you?
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I don’t have a Glowforge, so I can’t say, but I could imagine there may be a situation where you would want air assist but also need to move magnets or other hold-downs in between operations. By disabling air assist, does that mean all fans are off, or just the one that blows across the work from behind the head?
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For instance, if there is a light material that typically flares up when you laser, you’ll want the air assist to keep the “flames” in check, but you’ll want the magnets, or other hold downs to keep the image in place.
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Great examples, got it. Thanks.
I was thinking the same thing!
