Contest: Design a replacement part for something that is broken

Three categories usually works well for these types of things. Concept, Functionality, Aesthetic?

If you have a flat bed scanner you could just scan it without losing scale. This would likely be a perfect job for the camera in the glowforge.

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I have already won! No, not the contest, that is quite unlikely with all the talent here. But I have won in all the things rescued from the curb.
I will rework one of those for the glowforge and submit.
Great idea BTW, I hope @dan likes the idea and gets on board.

@Dan loves this idea. Awesome!

One of the twins pulled the baby camera off the wall and it broke the support arm so I printed a new one. I made the file open and free on tinkercad. https://tinkercad.com/things/dSPmKgTexD6

It’s a 3D model, but I like the idea.

Not really contest worthy because I don’t need a design. My hobby is tinkering with acoustic instruments. About a dozen times a year I am called on to replace a torn calf skin head on a vintage banjo. One of my first projects, after the greyscale capability is functional, is to lightly burn a design on the banjo head itself. Personalization for those that are interested. This will require a lot of experimentation to not affect the integrity of the material. The design is not so important at this point as the process itself. After that, the ability to replace missing inlays in older instruments. Very tedious to do by hand. My closest friend is the foreman at a commercial high end veneer company. An almost unlimited supply of exotic veneer scrap and lots of ideas.

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Banjo, yes. A banjo playing friend of mine has John Hartford’s signature on one of his skins. Would be interesting to see how lasers and heads go together. [note to non-banjo geeks. JH wrote “Gentle on My Mind”.]

It may only work on the animal skin heads. Most modern banjo heads are Mylar though some of the oldtime replacement heads have a special skin like look over the mylar that may be laserable if you don’t go too deep.

Found this turret idea:

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Lots of new forum members. Welcome. This is still a go, although with minimal entries so far. I’d still like to know how people will repair stuff with their Glowforge.

I’ll give it a go. This may not be a huge improvement on the original broken part, but the grease trap for my electric grill broke ages ago. Now we either place a plate on the counter under the hole or, when cooking pancakes, pretend there isn’t a hole. If it drips I clean up the counter later. I’d like a grease trap, so here’s my plan.

I expect 1/8 inch acrylic will do the job just dandy. I haven’t researched whether there’s a better material. Maybe something dishwasher safe.

There’s the slot for the grease trap to set in.

Sketch and measure with a pencil.

Then we’ll etch this into the bottom, because the GlowForge can. Maybe I’ll keep my crayon drawing, maybe I’ll let my kids doodle something.

I need either a ruler or Sketchup to draw straight lines. And I don’t do square corners all that awesome. This is a super fast sketchup. Anybody who hasn’t used it can learn to do this much at the very least. For the actual build, I might round the corners to make it easier to clean.

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Hmmm… Melting point of acrylic 320F. Temperature of adjacent components or grease?

Best stuff to use is PEI. Don’t think its laser safe. But certainly CNC friendly.

CNC? PEI? Clearly I need to study materials. I guess it’s a good thing I have some time before I get my GlowForge, right?

Felt cuts GREAT with a laser. Nice clean cuts with no soot and VERY precise. I made liners for a box so I could put my glasses in it. It was so precise that the felt stayed in without gluing (I took it out and glued it but I didn’t really have to).

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Here is a good thread on vocabulary that should help you out.

Ok. Extending the Glowforge fixit contest to noon PGT (Pacific Glowforge Time). So 1 hour 45 minutes to go!

Am I skimming/remembering right that there is only one entry so far?

@merindareeder and @KyleQuinn have submitted to this thread so far.

My 6-year old won her age category in a 5K that she didn’t actually finish… because she was the only entrant in her age group. It somehow isn’t the same winning a contest without competition. Particularly when I don’t think my fixit is stupendous. Just functional… material dependant. I’ve got some prototype ideas on the whiteboard, though, that I’m pretty excited about.