Very interesting back story on your forum name.
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So now that the fun is over & youâre back at the ranch, how did you decide to go and howâd you get a prod unit vs bringing your PRU?
I attend the NY MakerFaire and wouldnât mind setting up and doing a booth with mine (Prod by then I would expect - except itâs a Pro but I saw @dan mentioned something about trying to find a way to use a Pro in public demo spaces).
Did GF HQ set it up and ask you to participate or did you decide you wanted to go and they volunteered a machine so you wouldnât have to ship your PRU?
Thereâs a number of us in the Northeast that could easily do one or more GF Owners Booths but I would expect we should be looking soon at getting our space nailed down.
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Hey, you changed your avatar⌠
(Just in case you werenât awareâŚ)
Yeah, unfortunately itâs not what it usually is. Itâs a juggler riding a unicyle gif but Discourse doesnât like it because the original wasnât square and it wonât move 
Funny, in both the original format and the Discourse imposed constrained version itâs the story of my life 
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Does discourse allow GIFs if they are square? (I mean ones that move.) Iâve got an alternate one that I like to use, but I wonât be a hedgie any more.
I donât know. It stuck itâs tongue out at me and told me it was making my gif fit its sensibilities for a proper Avatar 
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Iâm splurging for in flight internet so I can catch up on the forum. Itâs been tough being away! Got all the new posts waiting this afternoon in the airport. I had booked a later flight in case I had issues getting the Glowforge shipped back. As it was, I didnât have to worry about it.
Donât know who all got emails from Glowforge, back in January but the gist of it was would I be interested in doing a booth at BAMF and demonstrating the Glowforge. Glowforge would assist with travel and lodging expenses, plus some shipping expenses. All I had to do was get accepted by Maker Faire. I filled out the project proposal and just chalked it up to a learning experience, figuring no way would I get picked given my lack of experience at things like Maker Faire. I emphasized my teaching background and I submitted links to my projects. I was totally shocked to get accepted and thatâs when I started panicking. Felt I was in way over my head.
I figured the little bits and pieces I did would work well enough to demonstrate what I have been up to. I brought way too much stuff, but I just had no idea! Would have used up a lot more Proofgrade but the connectivity issues meant I would pick fairly long projects that could get uploaded and fnished even if connectivity dropped here and there. None of the prints I started stopped until they were completely done. Getting them started was another thing.
I really have to thank my brother Michael for all the help he was over the Faire. He had come several times to my house and got to experience the laser first hand. He regularly reads the forums so he knows whatâs up in Glowville. He did a lot of weeding and assembling and answered tons of questions. He was the keeper of the tray puzzles. The three of them regularly got dumped and he had to guide the reassembly.
A couple of weeks ago we got the notification that we wouldnât have to ship our own Glowforges, which really made my life easier, especially in giving me another weekend to finish the Scrabble board. The unit I got worked great out of the box. So simple to set up remove some screws, a plastic gantry lock and the rubber rail slippers. Connect the exhaust hose and do the wifi routine.
This unit didnât look any different from mine other than I swear the plastic is whiter in this model. It certainly behaved like mine. The power profile differed a little from mine for sure. What I was used to on the chemcast 1/4" acrylic was a bit much juice. I didnât have much time to try different proofgrades, but the hardwood puzzles worked great with Proofgrade default settings with minimal flashback. I had mentioned before that the wavy lines on vertical engraves were absent from this machine. That is the single most significant thing I would point out and makes me want my forever Glowforge even more.
I really liked doing this and Sunday afternoon at about 2:00 PM I was getting a little whistful, wishing I had another day because I finally got a sense of how things were going.
One thing I should have done better was be a bit more neat and organized with my booth and keep the tools to a minimum. I got a caution on Friday morning from my area captain about sustainability, recycling and trash management. I had gotten a bunch of cardboard from the recycling and she was a bit concerned that iâd just leave that around. I told her that we were going to use it for our demonstrations rather than just sending it straight to the recycling. I made a the pencil jigs and the wheels for the robot guy with all the cardboard, using most of it. One thing; donât put a trash bag right near an aisle. Folks will walk by and make you look like you are generating lots of garbage.
Iâm eager to do something like this again. My brother-in-law is the director of the Iowa State Fair and I thought I could go up to Des Moines for a few days in August and do some lasering. Donât know why other than I want to share the Glow!
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You were a perfect emissary for our forum members. Very much appreciate your in-depth reporting of every detail. Thank you for attending the Maker Faire and representing all that is good
(and holy ) about owning such an amazing machine.
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I am so glad that each of you could do this and I hope you guys (not gender specific where I come from) will do a thread on doing Maker Fairs. I know there are several of us that are inspired to do one closer to our home. Iâd love to do Atlanta and/or Orlando.
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I agree with the others - youâre a great ambassador, and it must be rewarding for you to connect with people and see how they respond to your work/the machine. I do hope youâll get the opportunity to do it again.
And kudos to your brother for pitching in! An extra set of hands (not to mention an extra brain!) is so helpful when youâre vending/exhibiting.
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Seems like you did great at your first MakerFaire. My first one as an exhibitor (eNable in NY) I was overwhelmed by all the people crowding the booth. We ended up having to walk into the crowd on the other side of the booth table to make sure everyone got a chance to talk to us and see what we were doing.
I canât imagine how you kept up with questions and doing requests for laser projects for examples. Having the Escher fish was a great idea - itâs good to be able to give someone something to take away. It helps make it real for people and even if youâre cutting new stuff thatâs much faster than waiting for something to come off a 3D printer so it becomes more relatable in terms of what they could see themselves doing.
Great job!
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Great looking, well thought-out design! (Iâm guessing the little pocket on the left is for the corkscrew?)
That would be great to carry along for a very special picnic. (Love the bubbles too.)
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Iâm always telling myself that other peopleâs work should only serve as inspiration to continue to up my game but seeing that much awesome on one table I canât help but be a little despondent regarding how far I have to go.
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Iâm guessing that you (@Jules) and @markevans36301 are directing your comments to whoever at glowforge made the wine carrier. To be clear, I just took the picture. I took it because in my brief survey of the booth it was the only interesting to me thing I hadnât seen before and because wine. Libation transportation devices seemed to be a minor theme among the makers displaying, or Iâm just more attuned to them.
I was thinking corkscrew for the pocket as well, but only because I lack a better idea as to what youâd put in there. At first I thought carrying place for the wine glass holder when not holding glasses, but it didnât look the right size.
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Same here. While my masonry work has a better finish quality than my rough carpentry, none of it will bring about a revelation. Sorta what I was hoping the glowforge would help with.
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@Jules you are correct. Click the download link on the photo and pull that image up in full resolution. Thereâs an image of a corkscrew cut out of the face of that pocket.
@caribis2 WOW, your camera/phone has some serious resolution to capture that kinda detail.
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Love the laptop. I donât have an Apple, but wanted to do some of that with my unit, too.
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Pixel. The camera is ridiculous (for you know, phone.) I didnât notice a corkscrew cutout IRL.
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Resolution, though, isnât work crap if you donât have decent lenses, etc, too.