Contest: Design a replacement part for something that is broken

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.

thanks @joe. It’s a useful thread.

Slipping in under the wire? Here is my replacement bit for broken coffee grinder at my house. I will have to measure it when I get home, but it is an easy fix (with a laser) and should stop the coffee grinder from falling over every time I put it down.

How thick is this bottom piece?

IIRC the stub is extends about 1/4" from the base of the grinder, so the hole would be 3/8" deep to allow room for a glue-puddle. The entire thing should only be 1/2" deep. I will use acrylic. If my memory of the size is off, I may have to extend the depth using a second donut-shaped layer between the grinder and the new base pictured, or flip and cut if I have thicker acrylic on hand. It will certainly not be thicker than 1".
(The drawing is not to scale, I only had like 8 minutes before the “deadline” when I remembered about this and joined the contest :sweat_smile:)

Thanks to all who submitted and participated in the thread. Since there were only a few entries: @jbv gets a matchbox, and @KyleQuinn gets a matchbox and @cmreeder gets a matchbox and @Xabbess gets a matchbox. Now I’ll just have to wait for that Glowforge. I’ll message you when I get my Forge. Also will ask you what size matchbox you would use, diamond or Best Choice which are different sizes. They will be my first projects. I figure that I would perfect one design and material so that I would always have something that’s gift worthy. As much as I would like to try all kinds of things, I might be best served by mastering one thing then moving on.

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Thank you! Very kind of you…especially considering I never got to carry out my term as a ‘judge’. I had been thinking of asking you if we were going to judge the entries that DID make it, but just kept spacing it. I will look forward to a matchbox.

Very cool. Honestly I didn’t know I was getting into something already, haha.