You are correct that a small amount of variance makes very little difference in how far a cut penetrates. However, the settings seems to be so conservative that they want the cut to make it through but not make it through anymore than necessary, less flashback, clean cut, etc. If the cut is borderline due to the conservative settings and slight variance between machines, then any variance could cause a failure to penetrate. Went through about 100 test cuts (1" circles) on my PRU to confirm that a very, very slight change in focus was inducing a failure to penetrate.
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I attribute it to the FNL giving CYA advice. And as @rpegg notes just below your response.
Yup, I get that too. They’re still dialing in settings (hence the “beta” tags) and if you don’t match their set-up they can’t take responsibility, etc. On that note though, after having the problem with my machine in January I found an unexpected store credit that covered the material costs so the GF really does take responsibility and they go out of their way to make people happy!
I have one of the early ship models with the now limited edition silver crumb trays. I’m sure there are differences between what I have and later shipping machines.
The PRUs provided a lot of good data. I can’t remember if you had an early or late one, but there were definitely differences in what the different PRU users were reporting as all of you fed out insatiable appetites for more information. You and the others really helped keep this product sold for a lot of us!
How did you go about getting store credit? I ruined a piece of thick walnut ply during my cut on this post 
It just showed up, I’m assuming it was for materials that were ruined when troubleshooting and testing my GF when it had problems 2 months ago.
I didn’t do anything to get store credit, it was just sitting there. It is gone now! 
I meant to ask did you send an email or a direct message to someone specifically about your issue and about your material being damaged? There still hasn’t been a response to my initial post in this thread by someone from support
Sorry. The whole thread is here:
https://community.glowforge.com/t/pg-cherry-not-cutting-or-engraving-properly/18174/31One of the things we had was a different tube - both @rpegg and I had a Pro tube in our PRUs which were otherwise Basics. Or at least that’s what I presumed because of the variation in cutting results reported at the same power/speed levels for similar materials.
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I couldn’t remember who had the pro tubes, but really all of you kept me and I’m sure others sold on what this wonderful machine could do. Thanks.
At first it had me whacked as I was trying other people’s settings and getting a lot of flashback. When I ran my calibration projects I’d get different settings so I just started using those. Then for awhile they wonked out and my old ones wouldn’t work (I think they were messing with our machine profiles) and then they changed to the new settings and things went back to normal.
I don’t know about the others, but it was a lot of fun playing with the machine. The discovery process was good - could chalk up personal lack of competence to “just need a good manual but since there isn’t one, I’ll just have to muddle through” Sometimes it was all about having to unlearn (or unapply) lessons from the other lasers - early on I had to be careful when I was teaching my laser ops class because I’d keep messing things up because the GF way wasn’t necessarily the “standard” way.
How likely would we have been to laser banana splits or guacamole or any of the other odd things we did? Way easier when it’s not your machine you’re mucking about with 
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Umm… asking for a friend: we’re not supposed to do that? 
LOL! Heck I’m the last guy to ask. I posted my M&M engraving template so others could make custom M&Ms I encourage misbehavior!
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He does. Follow at your peril…there are additional calories involved.
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I was wondering if I do lasagna noodles, will the engrave make it through the baking process so people would encounter random expressions or artistic designs as they navigated dinner? Not that I eat lasagna though (ricotta 
) so I haven’t tried it. Just seems like it should work
I would take that as a challenge. I’ll wait to see what you come up with. 
(And the best lasagna is not made with ricotta, but with a thick cheese sauce made with a bechamel, sauteed onion and parmesan or romano and asiago cheeses. Dude, you’ve obviously never had real lasagna.)
Now tiramisu… 
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There are only three cheeses I eat - mootz melted on a pizza (& no other way), american (melted on a burger or grilled cheese sandwich) and Whiz (melted on a Philly).
All other cheeses and even these in other formats are just nasty
My wife’s grandmother was off the boat from Italy. She was appalled by my dietary preferences but she tolerated them because she liked me better than the previous boyfriends (I won - grandma likes you, you’re in!)
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That’s it…there’s no hope for you. That’s like not liking tacos. 
Although I prefer American on a burger over cheddar. And sometimes will go the Swiss, grilled shroom, grilled onion route.
(Time for lunch.)
I eat tacos - just no cheese or beans. Beans are just vegetable cheese
I’m a big fan of meat. And you really don’t have to cook it much. I’m a pretty easy person to cook for
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A couple of weeks ago, I had a problem where it was not cutting through for me… not even close. I was freaking out that the laser was dead as the machine would go through all of the motions, but it made barely a dent on the material. I cleaned everything, and slowed down the speed to a crawl, but still nothing.
Then, I noticed that the full power setting had been inadvertently changed to 1. I corrected that, and all was well. I doubt this is the root of your issue, but you might want to double check. An incorrect power or material thickness setting , if unnoticed, can have you pulling your hair out.
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Thanks for reaching out. I’m so sorry for the issues with your prints.
I have a few things you can try:
1. Check your materials for warp if you haven’t already
Even when the Crumb Tray is clean and flat, the material may not be lying flat on the surface. Some materials can develop a curve (called ‘warp’), and warped material may not cut through consistently. The problem is especially likely to occur if the print is large. If you find that your materials are warped, please read our troubleshooter on warped material for ideas on how to take care of your materials.
2. Do a test print
We included an extra piece of Proofgrade Draftboard with your materials shipment for troubleshooting. Please print the Gift of Good Measure on Proofgrade Draftboard and let us know the result. If it doesn’t print well, please let us know the date and time of your print and send photos of the front and back of the print.
I’ve had the same experience. Thick material has always cut through, all of my problems have been with the medium PG.