Unable to get fine cuts. Everything getting blown out

Guys in my other topic suggested I repost this here for help.

I’ve tried a couple fine detailed projects, and I just am not having any luck.
Trying to make this: candle holder laser cut Tree & Animals wood present tea candle by Lifelix - Thingiverse

And I get this:

As you can see, literally everything is getting vaporized. I am using the medium maple plywood proofgrade settings…but it’s just destroying these fine details.

Is that Proofgrade you’re cutting on?

1 Like

Yes sir.

I ran into something like this when my lens got displaced a bit. Try removing and reinstalling the lens?

Are you resizing this or cutting the same dimensions? The one thing I notice is that you are going to run into the limits (or exceed) of cutting centerline. Some of the branches are only .003" across.

1 Like

Cutting it as is. It’s made for a laser cutter…should be fine. Examples on the thingiverse page of it being made. Glowforge said it can cut width of a human hair. Should be no problem?

Google says human hair is 3-5 thousands on average. GF kerf is going to vary but i think others have been approximating .008”.

Hmmm. I’m trying kicking it down on power. For some reason, my GF has the proofgrade maple ply at FULL POWER. Definitely over kill.

I had a problem with a similar Thingiverse project when I first got the GF. Seemed to have more to do with a file set up for outside cuts which is not what you get with the GF process. The lines were too close together and would just vaporize the tree branches. If you get a good clean cut and engrave on the test ruler then it’s not the laser but how the file was designed.

1 Like

Gotcha. That makes sense. I’m sitting here watching it, and like…no! Cut OUTSIDE the line. They cut right next to each other. Very annoying. Any way to correct this?

1 Like

Need someone with a little more comfort with 3rd party S/W. I tried and failed miserably but didn’t spend much time with it. It was the first week I had the unit. More of a test than something I wanted to cut.

1 Like

Indeed. Exactly where I am right now. I’m at the point in my life where I just want a set and forget kind of tool. I tinker enough with my 3D printers and CNC.

1 Like

There is an issue with the scale of that file. I tried cutting it and same thing. The lines are too close together, @jbmanning5 nailed it.
Edit; The settings for the proofgrade are good, clean cut without flashback.

1 Like

Oh ok. Cool. I was starting to freak out. Thanks for the double check!
Yeah, same here. I’d never had an issue with the proofgrade before. But alot of the things on thingiverse I’m trying are giving me similar results. I feel like the GF SHOULD be able to do detail like this…no?

1 Like

It will do very fine detail, but the beam all but overlaps with lines that close at the branch ends.

1 Like

I didn’t actually look at the original file when he posted it. Turns out that is the exact Thingiverse file that caused me so much grief. It burned the limbs into crispy cinders. I tried to get the GF S/W to cut outside the lines and had some success but wasn’t interested enough to clean it up at that time. The GF cuts very precisely and has a thin kerf. Though this file needs serious attention to work correctly.

5 Likes

Arrg, I deleted my comment somehow…hold on…

1 Like

I just “liked” it :slightly_smiling_face:

You did a really nice thing helping him with all the steps and the fixed file.

3 Likes

(Repost of my original comment that I accidentally deleted :-/ )

It’s not a GF issues, it’s a file issue. It’s the correct file type (SVG), but the file is a hot mess with everything broken into small segments. A lot of SVG file you download will need to be fixed as not all programs save all SVGs exactly the same.

Here’s what I found. I’ll upload the actual SVG of the below picture so you can open it and see the differences between the original panel and my fix. I haven’t tried to cut it, but loaded it the the GUI and looks like the fix panel would cut fine now.


(“NOES” in the picture means “Nodes”, I just misspelled it.)

FILE INFO

20 Likes

That makes me feel LOADS better. There are a ton more on here that know INFINITELY more than I do about laser cutting, so I’m thankful for all the responses!

5 Likes