Trebuchet build

Continuing the discussion from Design Challenge #1:

I brought home testforge II this weekend and ran a print of @likeablejerk’s SVG. I shot most of it on video, which also included designing and printing a quick phone holder… you’ll see it all attached. Questions welcome!

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1/4" plywood?

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Good job fending off the horde. Well played sir. :wink:

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see the key from this post is… the glow’s are being hussies and sleeping around… this is good news for us all

and dan thanks so much for this post love seeing lasers laze

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Cool. I like the cow :smiley:

BTW, one of the best features I’ve found of the honeycomb beds for lasers is there’s a raised edge (1/32 or 1/16") that keeps the material off the honeycomb if it spans edge to edge which lets cuts drop out like your video shows. That provides immediate confirmation that the cut was successful and isn’t hung up on some defect, glue, etc in the wood. If it’s good I’ll pull the piece out. If they didn’t fall out I’ll gently press on the part to see if it’ll drop. If not I rerun the cut for the parts that didn’t cut thru on the first shot and because I didn’t move anything it all stays aligned.

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Woo! One day we’ll all have laser cut trebuchets to defend our homes.

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Oh my goodness! My evening has been made!!!

  1. Dan posting a video always makes my day.
  2. SCREENCAPTURE OF THE INTERFACE!!! Say whhhaaaaaaa
  3. A flying cow.

Thanks for this Dan! :smiley:

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Thank you! This makes me very happy. :cow2:

As a laser newbie, can I ask why you don’t run air assist for this material?

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I’m quite sure that it’s just disabled in this beta software version. There really shouldn’t be a reason not to have it on otherwise. :slight_smile:

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Immensely reassuring to see matter-of-fact routine looking cutting, so there is at least one real GF working nicely.
Compared to my other Laser experience seems to be pretty fast and precise for what looks like 1/4 inch material. Keep it up!

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Agree. I liked what I saw. 12 minutes is decent speed for a near full sheet cut out. I think the trebuchet I cut last week was about 15 or 16 minutes (I’d have to check the log).

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It was “1/4 inch” (actually something like 0.209 actual if memory serves) plywood.

Right, although some materials do work better without air assist.

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“I fart in your general direction!”

Nice correlation with the well rotted carcasses that were tossed by trebuchets.

Great design @likeablejerk

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I assume you are referring to lightweight materials like paper, which would get blown around by air assist?

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Very nice, and very appreciated video.

Thanks @dan

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Love it @dan grayt for you to post this…love the flying cow…rofl :thumbsup:

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And rare materials which liquefy along the edges of the cut, but solidify again quickly. The air can cause splatter, or even just ridges, in those cases.

Cannot think of a specific material that does this at the moment. But I can remember pictures of the differences with and without assist.

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The Masters could have used your help last Sunday; maybe they would have gotten a surrender before Denarias (spelling?) got back…

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Thank you @dan! I greatly appreciate the video of the design, the interface, and the Glowforge in action! Just six months until I can use my own, but living vicariously through others is still awesome!

I’m definitely going to make a trebuchet when I get mine!

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