@ChristyM I am working with 3.25mm baltic birch plywood and I’ve tried proofgrade settings which work but do not produce as nice of an edge and still will not cut if there are engrave orders before the cutting.
And you’ve tried the exact same file with PG material, engrave first, and it works?
hmm no I haven’t tried the same file, but I did print the gift of good measure with engraving and scoring before the cutting and it worked just fine. Today I tried to set my material thickness in the cut setting and the main window to the actual thickness of the material with no engrave orders, (thanks @rbtdanforth for the recommendation) pinned completely flat and it did not go through. Using the same material, I just open the lid, reset the material thickness in both places to 3.175 mm and it cuts beautifully. I didn’t change the material, or move it or anything. I simply opened the lid changed the thickness to this one that does not correspond to the actual thickness of the material (the actual thickness of this particular board is 3.26 mm) and it works. I will try to print the same file on proof grade but I have a suspicion it will work. I tried to reply earlier but apparently there is a limit on replies for newbies. I have also had luck with proof grade settings but only if I’m cutting first, and not as consistently as if I use the 3.175 thickness.
And if you go to the engrave section and you can set the engrave thickness to different than the cut thickness according to what works and you don’t have to wait to do them separately.
The interesting thing is that it will engrave the same using either 3.175 or 3.25 thickness, but will not cut if engrave orders were given ahead of the cut orders on the same job. It will cut and then engrave no problem whatsoever but I have to use a thickness that doesn’t correspond to my material for it to cut properly. That’s my biggest concern. Why won’t it cut all the way through when I use the actual material thickness (3.25 or 3.26) as measured on my micrometer but it will cut perfectly as long as I use a thickness of 3.18 and an engrave was not preceding the cut?
That small of a difference in focus height won’t prevent it from cutting through. Despite all the hysteria about making sure material is flat, I regularly cut material that stands off the bed by 2-3mm or so. Something else is going on to cause it to focus far from where it should, or causing the power to be lower than it should, depending on what order your print runs.
Must be coincidence then because it’s the only thing I change to make it cut all the way through.
I reached out to support again in hopes they will help me. I tried to pay the restocking fee to return it but they said I am not eligible to return it. Probably because of all the prints I’ve run trying to get this right.
I have sheets of PG draftboard that vary far more than that between each sheet.
I can think of a dozen variables, from the crumb tray not sitting accurately, to how the head fan is working. If the smoke catches fire while cutting, the cut will not be as deep, and if the crumb tray is not sitting properly, the distances will not be what you measure as thickness but a bit less. The first week I had my machine, I had not placed the crumb tray properly and it still bears the scars to remind me.
I have taken the crumb tray out multiple times and cleaned the dimples which were never really dirty. I suppose I could measure the height of the crumb tray with my micrometer. Is there a listed height anywhere of what the height of the crumb tray should be? I don’t notice the smoke catching on fire, the only difference between the 3.26 mm material thickness and the 3.175 thickness is the with of the cut line.
It does not take much.
If you are using Set Focus that should get the real distance no matter what.
I have used set focus with mixed results. Sometimes it goes all the way sometimes it doesn’t. I think my next step is to monitor the power from the outlet. I measured it but I wonder if there are fluctuations. Do you think that could cause these symptoms?
I would be very surprised if a high resistance circuit, or fuzzy power source would do it, but that is a fur piece beyond my credentials.