I am looking to buy bigger sheets of plywood and other type of wood, but i now the glue and particles used in some can be bad for the glowforge and cause fumes. The proofgrade ones are rather expensive and not really big enough. Does anyone buy their materials from a specific site or store that the wood doesn’t have a bunch of dangerous fillers? When i “experiment” i dot want to pay big money for proofgrade wood that I use to experiment and could possibly throw away. If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated !
So, this is a really common question, you should spend some time exploring the forum, there’s no need to have a whole new discussion. The tricky part is knowing how to get started with searching the forum. The good news is that there’s a pretty well established standard:
The discussion needs to be in “beyond the manual” I can move it there for you. The best case on average I have found (IMHO) based purely on price that the bad things are not killer has to be “Revolution Plywood” It is only good on one side, It is weaker than most, and any attempt at engrave does not have good results. However last I purchased was $15 per 4’x 8’ sheet that I had cut into 5 -19" x 48" sheets or roughly $0.60 per useful (~9 x 19 )sheet, though I use as much of each sheet as needed.
Well i don’t get on here very often, so i was unaware a new thread would be an issue or that there were strict standards when asking a question. I assumed people just asked questions and got answers under a thread like any other chat forum. I will make sure i search everything before posting again. Thanks for the input!
Sorry, i wasn’t sure how this worked. i didn’t realize it would be an issue. Idk how to remove or move something i already posted so feel free to do it if you’re able to.
I don’t know if i’m allowed to question your reply since i guess i shouldn’t have even posted it here or in the first place, but i’ll take the risk.
Did you just buy basic plywood from there? My husband bought 2 huge sheets and we were scared to use it because we read about glues and other fillers hurting the machine and ruining the laser. Not sure how to tell if it is usable.
I wouldn’t worry about the fillers in their plywood. I use it a lot, only thing is after a cut, before you move anything in the crumb tray, hold the edge of your cut with one hand and using something like a dental tool, try to move the cut out pieces. If they did not cut through, you can cut again and not waste your wood.
Not a big deal. In the main forum we’re not supposed to talk about non-Proofgrade settings and such so most of the good stuff is here This is reserved for discussions that Glowforge’s lawyers would rather not know exist because they might imply some kind of company approval of the content. This section is explicitly not official Glowforge support/responses.
It’s not that there’s a rule against asking things that have been asked before. It’s more that because it’s a common question, there’s a ton of good info on the forum if you use the search feature. And for future folks with the same question, if/when they search, having fewer and more consolidated threads makes it easier to find the answers👍
Plus, for ppl like @evansd2 who do answer a lot of ppls questions, they know there’s lots of good answers on the forum-pointing you to those is a lot more productive for you and them than trying to remember all the advice they’ve seen and given.
Ahhh that makes a lot of sense. thank you for clarifying that for me. i will definitely pay attention to where i post now! And thank you for moving it for me. I appreciate it. I like to think i’m computer savvy being still quite young but honestly i’m starting to realize i’m not haha! Thanks again!
Be cool… It’s not strict nor is it an issue, you can ask whatever you want of course. I tried to help you understand the sheer mountain of info that’s here so that you don’t even have to wait for the replies — searching is a whole lot faster for you than asking and waiting for replies.
The only argument against reposting repetitive stuff is that it’s more duplicative content, which isn’t exactly a problem, and you’re definitely not the first to do it. You can ask anything you like, it’s your forum as much as anyone else’s.
You can ask all the questions you want. Try to put your post in the correct forum. These are a few of products I use.
Here is tip—— Look hot and sexy when you go to Home Depot, wear perfume and lipgloss. When you see the guy working in lumber say ‘Hi Baby, How are you doing?” The lumber guys just melt.
My precious, beautiful husband of 25 years, calls my flirting technique “Jedi Mind Tricks.”
They never charge me when they cut my wood. Most of the time I leave with 60-80 pieces of wood that has been perfectly cut to 12x20.
One value often overlooked to asking & getting an answer is that it might be better curated than older posts.
The GF capabilities have changed a lot so many of the older posts aren’t relevant anymore. Likewise there’s often a lot of misinformation that a search will pull up and without experience it could all be assumed to be truth.
Repetitions if questions can help refresh the currency of answers
You make a fair point. I’m not sure machine capabilities are relevant to material sources, but yeah, it’s a good point. Ideally in the second unspoken part of your point we would be able to delete posts that are either inaccurate or frivolous, but we don’t have that so I will continue to urge people to search when appropriate.
The idea is that we have only so much time and attention to share, and that collectively our energy could be better spent than by answering questions that are easily discoverable. There’s definitely a break even point. We all have different thresholds for what is and isn’t “easily discoverable”, so I’m not sure there’s a way to significantly improve the situation.
Anyway, we’re going to have eternal September forever, I suppose I should stop worrying about it. There will always be people who rush to ask questions instead of researching first… I get it, all new users want to do is get started, nobody wants to sit and read for hours when they could engrave their first few projects.
BTW in my defense, I think I was very helpful, it’s not like I cast OP to the wolves. Further here are the tips that were given in the meantime: Home depot. revolution plywood. caution about plywood being inconsistent. Home depot. Every single tip (they were actually all the same tip, which was try home depot) was in the results I posted except the whole “use gender discrimination as a tool” angle, which was something I hadn’t seen on the forum as of yet.
BTW BTW, my opinion is don’t try home depot, it’s the worst place to get laserable stuff.
Well, this explains why I can’t get them to take me seriously. FWIW, they never charge me to cut my wood, either, and I don’t have to pimp myself out. Ick.
When other women push behavior that makes us all look like idiots, I speak up. Don’t worry about my time - I have extra since I’m not worried about lip gloss.
As for the original question…
I don’t particularly like the ply at big box stores because it’s often not very good quality. Home Depot does sell Columbia Woods plywood, which I think cuts nicely. I don’t think my store has much of it in stock - I buy it online. I have a preference for Baltic Birch ply (not the same as birch ply), which is a higher quality. I buy mine as a plywood specialty shop, but it’s also available online.
Casey over at Smokey Hills Designs sells all sorts of plywood (most with an MDF core). He sells GF size, but I feel pretty confident he’ll cut custom sizes for you. Not sure how that will impact shipping costs.
I’ve been through a few different sources and ended up ordering online from Ocooch hardwoods. I eventually gave up using plywood for anything other than test pieces, and even gave up on edge glued hardwoods if I can avoid it. The engraves turn out fine, but when you try to cut it you’ll get issues here and there which can really cost you time. Nothing is worse than spending an hour or more doing a big engrave and having the piece not cut through in a spot because of glue or fillers.
This is reserved for discussions that Glowforge’s lawyers would rather not know exist because they might imply some kind of company approval of the content. This section is explicitly not official Glowforge support/responses.
