White Board/Chalk Board - Won't cut through

I’ve tried several different times to cut through the board. It’s the one from HD that is white board on one side and chalk on the other. It will score the board, but won’t cut. I tried to slow the speed and use full power and I tried to use certified material settings. What am I doing wrong?

Just out of curiosity - is that board also magnetic?

(Also, try cutting on the black side to see if that makes a difference…)

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No, it isn’t magnetic, but I will try cutting the black side. Thank you :slight_smile:

To accurately determine if there is anything wrong with your Glowforge, support will probably ask you to print the Gift of Good Measure on Proofgrade material using Proofgrade settings. If it doesn’t print perfectly, post photos (front and back) along with the date and time of the print. If it prints perfectly, the problem may be your material and settings rather than the Glowforge.

There are many resources here on how to test to work with non-Proofgrade materials. You need to test to find settings that work with what you have on-hand, it’s unlikely other people’s settings will work for you. You can do some nice engravings but it is pretty much on the limit of what the GF can cut. I have used a fair amount of it but it’s unlikely I’ll buy more. It produces some fairly nasty debris, so you want to have a nice strong external inline fan and vent solution. I’d rather paint MDF or even hardboard.

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Oh no, I’m sorry to hear about the trouble @akey7700.

I’m afraid I can’t provide suggestions with materials other than Proofgrade. If you’d like to see the settings we use for a piece of Proofgrade material, here’s how:

  1. Open app.glowforge.com

  2. Open a design

  3. Choose the material

  4. Click a step in the left-hand column of steps

  5. Choose Cut, Engrave or Score to determine which setting you’d like to see

  6. Then choose “Manual” and you’ll see the default settings for that operation.


Note that materials vary widely, and the settings we use for Proofgrade material might not be safe or effective for a material with a similar name.

Since we can’t support material from other manufacturers, I suggest posting for advice in the Beyond the Manual section of our community. Note that the advice in this section is unsupported and is not reviewed by Glowforge.

With that being said, I want to ensure your Glowforge is operating as expected. Could you perform a test print for me? The design we use has some known dimensions built into it and it will help me extract logs afterward to take a closer look. Here are the steps for the test:
  • When the print finishes, leave the lid closed and wait until the fans stop and the picture updates.

  • If the Gift of Good Measure fails to cut through, take a photo of the front and back of the print and attach these photos to your reply.


Let us know how it goes!

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