When using the recommended cutting settings for Medium Cherry Plywood proofgrade stock, I noticed it left a regular pattern of sticky residue on the back of my cut, along the ribs of where the stock made contact with the crumb tray.
Are there recommended settings changes I should make to prevent this? It meant a lot of additional work for cleanup after cutting.
Oof, that’s a lot of flashback. Try reducing power and/or increase speed.
(That doesn’t solve why you’re getting so much on a PG setting, something seems off)
They (support) can adjust the individual parameters of the machine remotely. Good to alert them here.
I have found a layer of cardstock under the unmasked work will largely prevent that flashback.
when you use cardstock do you manually focus or just add that thickness to your material thickness?
I always use “set focus” so I don’t have to bother with the math.
Hi @rankenphile. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been running into some residue on the back of material when cutting with the settings for Medium Cherry Plywood. Based on the photo posted, it appears that there is some flashback occurring as it prints. This can occur when the power settings for cuts can be too high, or if there may be any trouble with the material lying flat on the crumb tray during prints.
To help troubleshoot this, I wanted to see if you were seeing this on any other materials, or different pieces of the material. Also, I’d like to have you run our Gift of Good Measure test print using any Proofgrade material and using the steps in the link below:
https://support.glowforge.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033633374-1-Gift-of-Good-Measure
Last, I’d like to get a better look at the optical components of the printer, with special attention to any damage you might find:
Both windows
The printer head window, on the left hand side of the printer head
The laser window on the inside left of the Glowforge
The printer head lens
Both sides of the lens, top and bottom
The mirror inside the printer head
The bottom of the printer head with the lens installed
I believe I’ve sorted out the issue — the stock I received most recently was Light Cherry Plywood, and I didn’t realize, so I’d been running it as Medium. When I changed the settings it stopped creating so much flashback.
Hi @rankenphile. Thank you for following up to let me know! I’ll go ahead and close this thread, but feel free to create a new thread, or write us at support@glowforge.com if you run into any other trouble. I’ll be happy to help. Happy printing!
