So Friday, I got to meet with @dwardio at the Colorado Plastics 4th Friday remnants sale.
We got to look and touch at different selections of materials. He and I both got a selection of materials.
As part of the trip, he invited me to experience (
) a GF 
up close and personal 
. I had not been that giddy in a long time.
Needless to say, 
!!! It is beautiful and much bigger than I thought it was (gonna need to rethink Glowster’s location at the house).
Took lots of pictures to tide me over until mine arrives or another visit can be scheduled.
@dwardio was very gracious to me and offered some 1/8" Maple Ply PG 
for a project. He told me about it before I came down so I had time to figure something out.
My wife loves butterflies, so I located a good choice of a project:
I did an online svg conversion, but @dwardio showed me his technique on conversion with Capture and Inkscape.
Once it was in Inkscape, we discovered that the black lines were treated as an inside and outside cut. It was going to required a lot of cleanup (to get a single line) or just let GF cut both lines. Hmmmm, a 20 minute double cut or 30 to 40 minutes of clean up and a 10 minute single cut… Double cuts win!!!
Got to learn about the GFUI and how changes work ().
Project got loaded and my very first “Press the Button” experience!! Pressed it and the head began to move, the laser started and … it stopped, but the head kept moving (HUH???) The laser made only about an 1/8" burn, but the head kept moving and the GFUI showed everything was happy??? As @dwardio said, “Live demo fail” 
Back story, I had him show me how the laser head removes and attaches to the gantry. He told me that the GF startup would be longer (for calibration) since we had disconnected and reconnected it. The first time he turned it on, the calibration process lasted 90 seconds (and I thought - “That didn’t seem too long”). So he turned off the GF and turned it back on. This startup took a few minutes this time.
@dwardio decided to run a project that he knew was working and I gleefully watched. SUCCESS!!
So on to my project we went. Loaded it into the GFUI and got to do my Mulligan on the first “Press the Button”! Laser lights up, head begins moving and smoke is exhausting to the outside! YES!!!
Called my friend whom I have been keeping up to date on (since the crowdfunding project in Oct 2015). Changed over to Skype and he got to watch live a GF in action.
So here are the results:
Decided to remove the PG and level the project on the bed.
Then got an idea
(note the double cuts)
So here is the project after the Gorilla Tape weeding (people, you really this weeding tool!!):
Now I had planned on making a stand for the butterfly, but @dwardio had a better solution. So while I did the weeding, he created some wonderfully simple stands.
Here are the upright pictures:
Some better shots with dark background.
Thank you @dwardio !!!
BTW, My wife loved the butterfly … (PS - She still doesn’t know we are getting a GF 
)
, but she is wondering about all the cardboard, acrylic and materials I am collecting.
