Cutting Out the Bottom of Your Glowforge

That looks nice! I have been successful with about 30 degrees without too much warping, then need to rotate. On this water bottle, the content was only about 1" of arc length. Ya, I have nearly finished making a rotary tool from a Nema motor and an Arduino. Hopefully I can finish it sometime soon and post a how-to.

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I actually did the entire bottle by sending it 5 different engraving sets. The blue tape is part if the indexing I did. Turn it by hand after each set of engraves.

I have so many other projects that making a rotary rig keeps falling to the bottom of the list.

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Finally cut the bottom out of mine 2 weeks ago. Been wanting to do it from day one! Not knowing if any electronics were under that metal plate kept me from finding out the hard way. I’m very thankful for the information in this thread. Its allowed me to engrave products that otherwise wouldnt fit. Thank you Matt.

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Matt- what were your height, power and speed settings for the water bottle? How are you setting your height settings without the bottom? Thanks so much

Wow thank you for being one of the first to start modding this machine. We all know it can do so much more.

Speed 1000, full power. I measured the distance from the head to the crumb tray. Call that zero. Then I removed them (the tray and the cutout are replaceable in the way I did it), placed the bottle in the cutout area on the desk beneath, and measured the distance from the head to the surface of the bottle. Subtract. That gives you the distance.

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thanks so much!!

@signatureproductsllc are you still here? Was wondering how your mod has been working and if you’ve come across any issues with it?

Yes, it’s been working very good so far. No issues

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I don’t know when/if I’ll get brave enough to pull the trigger, but hearing this helps. Thanks a bunch.

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You will be glad you did. Opens up a much bigger variety of capabilities and you might wish you did it sooner. I customize stuff all the time and this had me a little nervous as well. But it was easy once getting started. Having the right tool to do it was the biggest comforting factor.

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Update: After about a year, I can say I use the cutout about 1/4 of the time with my machine to cut large or irregular items. The rest of the time I leave the bottom in and it works just like a normal GF. I would certainly encourage anyone thinking of doing this to do so!!! Being able to laser items that don’t fit really increases the capabilities of your machine.

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I’m thinking about doing this today. Any tips? Also did you cut from the bottom up or from the inside out thanks for the tips

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Im ready for this Mod, do you have a video that you can make and sell for it.
Im sure many us would support it.

Thanks
Anyone else who would support it ?

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I cut from the bottom in. Just be careful to cut an area similar to the one I show. It was carefully chosen to avoid wiring and keep from harming the integrity of the casing. You might be able to turn the + shape into a rectangle of the same size, though, if you don’t care about being able to screw the metal plate in again. It sits just fine in the bottom without being screwed in.

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Unfortunately I only have one GF and didn’t take video of the process. Hopefully the images help, though!

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Hi there, @coalakida! I’m just wondering if you proceed on the doing the mod? if so, did you have a video of it? I’m still in the contemplation phase of myself to doing this mod. :smile:
Thanks!

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Friendly Neighborhood PSA:

Word of caution to anyone intending to modify their machine in any way. It might make it ineligible for repair if there has been any modification made to the case.

So don’t do it unless you feel qualified to handle any future repairs yourself. :slightly_smiling_face:

This PSA brought to you by a roving neighborhood hedgehog. :hedgehog:

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Here is my attempt. I now have ~8" of depth and nearly the same engraving area of the X & Y as the crumb tray.

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Nicely done, @MechanicalGoose!!!
What tools did you use to do it, or did you just use the old, handy-dandy, dremel rotary tool?
Thanks for sharing your pictures! I’m close to doing it myself, a little more encouragement, and i’ll do it… hehehe

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