Saw this posting on Make on making giant (12’) panels for his screened in porch (if you’ve followed his series on getting a giant 15’ CNC installed this was his first project). This is a great tutorial on how to do this kind of thing (small or large) with F360 and then to CAM for CNC (which the Glowforge would be basically an identical workflow)
Here’s the video sans story:
That’s really nice! Almost makes me want to get a CNC!
I watched the video and it’s really cool. I love the stuff he makes. It also makes me want a large format CNC as well.
You can do something similar with a laser cutter, but it will be more work. I made this window screen for my house on a laser-cutter with a 12"x24" bed. The final piece is about 9’ wide by 2’ tall. Not as big as his, but you could scale the process up as well.
I made it in 2 different layers. Where the cuts were to divide the layers into laserable sizes are in different places on each layer. So when you glue it all together, it creates one big piece.
Gluing it together was tricky but worked pretty well. I used spray paint instead of a brush, and that was much faster than what he showed in his video.
You can see more about my process at: http://polarbrainfreezethecut.blogspot.ca/2015/01/window-screen.html
I agree that it would have been MUCH faster to do this on a CNC, but since I don’t have a CNC that could cut that size, I made do with what I had.
That is so awesome… And I assume it had perfect edges, unlike his milling (although he didn’t seem to do a ball mill cleanup at the end…
I wouldn’t say “perfect” edges. There are places where I did not glue the layers exactly on top of each other. But it really does not show, unless you’re looking for it.
It’s also made out of 2 layers of 1/8" MDF (so the final is 1/4" thick). MDF would not have those edge tearout problems like the material he chose (plywood I think).
If you look closely, you can also see the edges where the different pieces meet on each layer. I wanted to fill them with some compound before painting it, but I did not find anything in my shop that worked very well, and I was too impatient to finish the piece to drive into town to get something that would work.
But honestly, because there’s so much light behind it, you don’t see those joints unless you look at it very closely.
Love the design. Pressure treated plywood was complete overkill, especially since he painted it anyway.
I do think you want a cnc but the pro will be able to do this in 20" strips.
I’m getting the basic which will do what I want. The CNC is pretty cool though.
I’m a newbie at this.
I really like how the window turned out in the video and the one you did @polarbrainfreeze. I have a window that would be perfect to make a decorative screen for.
Another thing added to my huge list of projects to make. 
Thanks @henryhbk and @polarbrainfreeze for the inspiration.
