What can you make with wood on a Glowforge?
Feed your passion for creation with your very own laser wood cutter and engraver. Glowforge lets creators and entrepreneurs bring to life ornaments, keychains, and furniture that they would otherwise only see in catalogs.
Glowforge makes wood engraving and cutting simple: Creators just upload their designs to the Glowforge app and hit print. (Glowforge supports Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, Canva, and other design software.)
So, what can a Glowforge do with wood?
What Does a Glowforge Do?
Glowforge is a 3D laser that can cut and engrave hundreds of materials, both organic and inorganic. Leather, wood, recycled cardboard, metal, and even chocolate: they're all ripe material for creating with Glowforge!
What Can I Make With a Glowforge?
What can a Glowforge do?
The only limit is your imagination! When creators choose Glowforge, they soon find that they are not constrained to certain materials or ideas. Even a child’s simple line drawing can be preserved by this intricate wood engraving tool.
Glowforge makers benefit from the most advanced, accessible technology in the industry. This wood laser cutter is accurate to within 1/1000th an inch, which accommodates everything from highly intricate wooden jewelry designs to large-scale creations such as furniture.
Even better, all Glowforge models come with an in-built Autofocus feature. The dual cameras create a 3D image of the material, and the Autofocus feature engraves your chosen design without cutting through. It also recognizes curved edges, which means that your design will not be ruined by poor etching.
So, what can you make with a Glowforge?
Makers often buy Glowforge when they need a powerful laser cutter for wood. This tool can transform a bland block of wood into a conversation starter.
Glowforge entrepreneurs can experiment with style and scale. Matty at Unnecessary Invention used Glowforge Pro’s Passthrough feature to create a large-scale jigsaw puzzle that doubles as a coffee table. Having access to a Glowforge 3D laser printer allowed Matty to "figure out the best puzzle piece arrangement, test out different sizes for the table and roundness of the corners" until he had the "perfect design." Working with a manufacturer would have taken "weeks upon weeks." Thanks to Glowforge, Matty perfected his design and made $60k in 72 hours.
With so many possibilities, it might be intimidating to know where to start. Head over to our community for tips, tricks, and guidance. Some of our Glowforge creators have been active in the community for years, and they are more than happy to answer any questions you have about wood engraving and cutting.
Can Glowforge Cut Wood?
Of course! Wood is one of the most common materials that our customers use.
Glowforge is the ideal laser cutter for wood. You can use wood from a local lumber store, or choose from a variety of sizes, thicknesses and species from our Proofgrade lines of hardwood and plywood to suit your needs. We work with selective lumber mills to perfect premium hardwood and plywood for laser cutting and engraving.
Examples of Glowforge Wood Creations
So, what can I make with Glowforge and wood?
In simple terms, Glowforge cuts and engraves.
Using Glowforge as a precise laser wood cutter, joints and connectors can be seamlessly cut and slot together to create bigger pieces. Our customers develop variations of finger joints and use planar butt joining techniques to achieve large-scale designs. For the former creation, the maker challenged their perception of finger joints as "practical and boring" and instead "tried to imagine them as design elements."
Glowforge can produce bendable hardwood creations, or even functional furniture that becomes family heirlooms.
One of our creators was thrilled when they learned that Glowforge was "offering the Catan board game as a free download with some amazing graphics." They decided to replicate it. Glowforge’s precise cutting transformed padauk, maple, yellowheart, walnut, mahogany, and wenge into a beautiful, one-of-a-kind board with personalized engraving.
Glowforge is also a laser wood engraver that can engrave photos and create tiny, detailed character features for charming key chains. Creators from the community have engraved wood harvested from their own yard and found driftwood from Hawaii to engrave personalized creations.
Proofgrade Wood
Creators worldwide use our Proofgrade hardwood and Proofgrade plywood for their designs. Proofgrade materials are specifically designed and engineered for use with Glowforge; they're perfect for wood engraving and cutting.
Proofgrade hardwoods are endowed with a distinctive pattern and a grain all of their own, which means that each piece is unique. Creators use their laser wood cutter to accentuate the beauty of the natural grains in Proofgrade hardwood.
Proofgrade plywood boards feature an engineered wood core, which makes them far stronger than our Proofgrade hardwoods. There is a micro-thin layer of natural hardwood around the core. Our plywoods are manufactured to be consistent across the board. The result is a robust, versatile material that showcases the beautiful tones and hues of natural wood.
Learn to Use Glowforge Laser Wood Engraver Today
Not convinced that Glowforge is the perfect laser cutter for wood? Book a product demo today to learn about the unique benefits of Glowforge.
Already have a Glowforge? Follow this step-by-step guide to create your first print. Creators are surprised to learn how quickly they can master this advanced technology.
Create Your World
Discover Glowforge’s unique potential today with a product demo. Our experts will answer all your burning questions and explain how Glowforge can help you meet your creative goals. Book a demo here.
