Know your boundaries for cutting
The tray of the Glowforge Laser is not marked in any way, so it can be difficult to figure out the boundaries of the cutting area. The camera works best in the center of the tray. The picture that the laser takes is distorted at the edges, so you cannot rely on the image displayed on the computer screen for accurate fabric placement. To mark these boundaries yourself you will need:
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electrical tape
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paper
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quarters (coins)
Remove everything from the tray before turning on the laser. Close the lid. Turn on the machine. The laser will take a few minutes to do its calibrating step. When it signals that it is ready, open the lid.
Cover the tray with paper. It's OK the overlap sheets. Place about 10 to 15 quarters around the edges and the middle.
Upload the SETUPrectange.svg file from the file share tab on this site. Size the rectangle according to the maximum size of the cutting area minus 0.1 inch.
Standard Glowforge Settings
Position x = 0.05, y = 0.05
Scale: 19.4" W 10.9" H
Power: 500
Speed: 75
# of passes: 1
Thickness: 0.01
Glowforge Aura Settings
Scale: 11.9" W x 11.9" H
xTool P2 Settings
Scale: 23.5" W x 12" H
Click the Print button in the software. Watch the head of the laser. The laser head will move to somewhere on your design and a red beam of light will appear for a few seconds. It is very important that this red light shines on the paper, not the quarters or the tray. This ensures that the laser will focus correctly on the material according to the thickness and it will make a smooth sharp cut. If the red light touches a weight, you must cancel the print, open the lid, move the weight, and press print again. If the red light shines on the tray, you will get an error message.
Press the GO button. It should take less than a minute to cut.
Remove the paper around the edges. The paper that remains is the available cutting area. Place electrical tape about 1/4 inch outside this boundary. This tape will be used to line up the fabric straight and within the boundaries of the cut area. Fabric is rough cut with 1/4 inch extra on each side, so lining it up close to the yellow tape will give you perfect alignment and prevent you from running out of fabric. Fabric weights will also be placed around all edges to keep it from blowing around.
