Something new for Maker Faire

As many of you know, we’ll be at Maker Faire in Seattle and New York this month. Shell and I will be reprising our talk from last year where we design and print something live in 25 minutes, explaining the whole process as we go, but we’ve got something totally new for the booth.

Attached you’ll find printable PDFs of templates. We’ll have these on hand, but we wanted a chance to give you an early start! Print a template out and draw on it with fine or thick tip Sharpie pens, then bring the result to our booth. We’ll put it in the Glowforge which will shrink it and merge it with the digital version of the design, then print the whole thing on a 2x3" square of Proofgrade hardwood for you to take home.

Q: Can I create my design digitally?
A: Sure! Just print a pure black image on top of the PDF. We haven’t tested this at all, but it should work fine. :slight_smile: Features smaller than about 0.01" (1 point) might get lost, but who knows.

Q: Can I use something other than a Sharpie?
A: Any solid black pen should work well, and other techniques may work too - we’ve used stamps with black ink to great success!

Q: What happens to the yellow?
A: The scanner ignores it. Then we load the actual file (which has the outline you see in yellow), shrink, and superimpose your black ink on top of it as an engraving.

Q: Can I drop of my template?
A: Unfortunately no - we’ll only print for people who are waiting so if there’s a line, you’ll need to hang tight. Lines sometimes get long (two and a half hours last year, ouch!) but they do tend to shrink near the end of the day.

Q: How long will it take?
A: It depends on the design, but about 5-10 minutes.

Q: Can I do more than one?
A: If there’s a line, we’ll have to ask you to wait through it again for the second print. If there’s no line, sure!

Community Printable Maker Fair Templates.pdf (1.1 MB)

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Wow, 1pt? Now you’re talking!

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Ding ding ding. Winner. That’s awesome! A lot of stuff in the forums about what’s working right now to what capabilities - just a couple of weeks ago (at most) were some concerns on a beta post about not picking up smaller details. A hardware limitation exists somewhere - but within that constraint, the advantage of the cloud model is showing.

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These templates will be a big hit at the Faire, especially the puzzle and picture frame ones, I bet! Great idea!

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Loving the luggage tag. I hope the lines not too long

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awesome wish I could go. Waiting on pins and needles.

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The actual cut files would be a great addition to the catalog. An early giveaway to help people introduce themselves to the store and get used to the purchase and download process. I can’t wait to see some of the cuts that come out of the Faire. Have fun all you lucky attendees (and staff)!

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Damn it, just when I was finally accepting the fact that I couldn’t make it to this year’s Maker Faire!! Guess I’ll just have to make them all myself when my own glowforge comes :slight_smile:

I can see these being a huge hit, great thinking @Dan!

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Yeah, what @steph said.

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Very cool. I’m looking forward to meeting you guys and seeing this all in real life. Since I’ve got a laser I’ll refrain from eating a space in line but I think this is a great way to engage the people stopping by. Nicely done.

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After attending the Maker Faire in San Mateo, I can say this: Seeing the Glowforge in action was amazing, but just as amazing was meeting all the Glowfolk who have worked so hard to make it a reality. What a fantastic group of people, really fantastic. If you can, go meet them in person (the Glowfolk and the Glowforge). You’ll be glad you did!

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Sadly I was not able to escape the duties of being a bridesmaid…
I will not be able to attend and meet cool people like you guys! I will be thinking of you guys while making sure the groom makes it to the alter on time and sober.

Have Fun Everyone! :slight_smile:

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Is there a FastPass available for customers so we can skip to the front of the line? Some kind of secret handshake or Glowforge gang sign we should flash? :wink:

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Replace the stonecutters symbol with the Glowforge symbol, and I think this could work. :wink:

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Dan,

I understand why you focus all your demo’s on this trace feature, but can we expect to see 3D engrave and auto focus in action at the New York Maker Faire?

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What color do I use to add a cut? :wink:

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Oh yeah baby! That’s more like it :heart_eyes:

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Won’t be attending the Faire, but saved the great PDF templates for ’you-know-when’. Thank you!

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@Dan, In the template for the picture frame, the small “clasps” to hold the four frame pieces together are not visible in the yellow section.

Do those exist in the merged digital file? I don’t see where there is room for all four of them (but my mental packing algorithms suck)

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Hah! I was going to ask this too.

He stated that these would be scanned and added to a digital template, and that the yellow is ignored. I assume that the clasps are part of that digital model, and since they wouldn’t have any drawing on them, didn’t need to be included in these templates.

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