I’ve had my Glowforge since September 2017 and I’ve done or helped with a bunch of projects. I don’t know why, but I’ve never shared anything here and I just got inspired to. Instead of creating one thread per project, I’m going to lump them all together here. Hope that is okay. Happy to answer any questions, as long as I can remember the right answer.
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Well now I’m dying to see your stuff! 
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Sure, it’s fine. Some folks do it that way. 
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Acrylic Sign 01
We made this magnetic acrylic sign in 2.5 layers to give it depth (“visual interest”), but not so much depth that the shadow of the top layer made the writing hard to read. The back layer is white with holes cut and magnets glued inside. Top layer is color. Middle layer is also white, glued the back layer. Hardest thing is not getting glue on the top layer and messing up the finish. Each of the 7 pieces magnetizes separately to the whiteboard so it can be pulled off for illustration of various talking points.
28 Likes
Acrylic Sign 02
This acrylic sign made for a friend’s marketing company. Also magnetic and in 5 pieces, 3 full layers each. Color layer etched with the letters, and then white letters glued on top. We were way too hasty in pulling off the protective paper from the color layer – really should have left it on until after the white letters were glued in place.
20 Likes
Borg Cube Candy Bucket
Custom for Halloween Costume. We find it much easier to keep up with our kids on Halloween night if they are lit up in some way. String lights glued to the inner wall provide the light and leave plenty of room for the candy to be dropped inside.
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Scout Backpack Tags
I’ve done a bunch of iterations of these for various camps, for our whole Troop and Pack. Gets tied to backpacks or uniforms to identify our group from the other campers. Sometimes I get down to individual scout name tags, but this was a uniform group with the “Head in the right direction” North Star theme.
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Candy Turkey
My only project using felt, and this felt has a high recycled plastic content. Learned the hard way to pull them out quick or they cool back into place, attached by hard-to-cut strings. Not my original design or assembly, just prevented my wife from having to cut the heads out with tiny scissors again.
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Chutes and Dungeons
Years ago my kids invented the game Chutes and Dungeons, by putting drawings of monsters and traps onto a standard Chutes and Ladders board. The only trouble was the paper drawings would slide around during gameplay and they eventually resorted to taping them down, which removed the more interesting element of the random placement of the monsters during each game. I solved this by etching their monster artwork onto tiles and laying an acrylic grid over the board. Tiles go down and stay in place until dumped out between games. The 4 series of dice on the sides make the “level counter” for each player. You start the game rolling a 4-sided dice and “level up” until you are rolling the 20.
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covered wagon
Made for a 5th grade school project, covered wagon with stand. Shown before the cover went on.
Done without any adult assistance.
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door name plaque
Made for a friend and her daughter. Wood with inlay color acrylic, clear acrylic cover. No glue used. Hanger points etched in the back. (Shown sitting on an unrelated stand.)
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OMG I love Rocher! I gotta remember this one
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magnet collection
Made as give-aways for a life-science themed conference. URL/promo etched on the back, then magnet glued on. Two-piece flat-pack stand given away to anyone who said “I like it, but my refrigerator won’t hold a magnet” to use as a desk decoration instead.
We made SO MANY of these. Some people liked the etch style better (thick dark lines), but I prefer the score (thin line) versions.
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anodized aluminum name tags
Shown in progress. Everyone in my company has one, now. Magnetic, of course, to keep them from messing up clothes. The score around the name turned out not to be necessary, the etch was good enough.
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owl standee
Another Scout BSA project. Given as a gift to my wife when she earned her Wood Badge (recognize significant achievement in leadership and direct service to young people).
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Dune pain box
My son is really into the book Dune. This was a birthday present to him. When you reach inside, you can feel the “pain”. Sandworm artwork on the top is a little off-theme, but gave it some additional design interest.
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That’s super. Wonder where we all might have ended up if we grew up with a tool like this when we were kids.
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pinewood derby marble maze
Another Scout project, this is one of my favorites. I did have to help, since it was for my younger son when he was about 7, but this was all his idea. Functional Pinewood Derby car with a wooden marble maze on the top, covered by clear acrylic. Tiny ball bearing serves as the marble. marble was just a touch too big, so we had to add a cardboard spacer right before the screws went in.
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prop clock gear box
Another one by my older son without any adult assistance. This time for Odyssey of the Mind, which has a strict no-assistance policy. He made a hand-cranked clock prop with two hands which spun at different rates. Not easy The white thing in the middle is the straw from a juice box which forms the outer shaft geared to the crank, while the metal inner shaft is direct-drive. It was pretty impressive. The clock itself was made from painted cardboard. It was hard to bite my tongue for how much I thought they should have made it from laser cut & etched wood instead.
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