Dispatches from the front (Pre-Release Report) Tea Party Part Deux

Made on a Glowforge
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Last week I tried to bring some order to the boxes of tea that were beginning to take over the kitchen counter (despite me being a one flavor & drink consumer, my wife and daughter can’t pass up a new flavor of tea…it’s somewhat disturbing.

Here’s a link to that posting:

There were some great comments from the Glowfolk. I really liked the suggestions recommending different designs to match the contents.

As I mentioned I needed to tighten up the design - my 1/8" Baltic Birch plywood was really only 0.118", not the 0.125" I expected. So I cleaned up the design a bit and made a couple more designs for the various mint flavors and some sleepy time tea flavor.

This time I made a new version in Baltic Birch and one in maple Proofgrade and a fourth one in cherry PG. The PG 1/8" plywood is a true 1/8" or 0.125" so the 2 new designs had appropriate slots and fingers. The 2nd Baltic Birch version was updated with tighter slots to match the true dimensions.

I finished the Baltic Birch one using Pecan Minwax stain and polyurethane all-in-one spray. The picture below has all 4 of the teabag houses:

From left to right - the unfinished unmasked Baltic Birch prototype, the maple Proofgrade, pecan finished Baltic Birch and finally the cherry Proofgrade version.

Close-up views of the original and maple versions.

And the finished Baltic Birch with the cherry Proofgrade.

I gotta say I really like Proofgrade for final versions of projects. Not needing to apply finishing is great - both from a time & effort savings perspective and a quality of the finish. The Proofgrade finish looks and feels baked in, a lot like the prefinished flooring you’ll find at the big box stores.

It’s a bit more expensive than straight laser quality Baltic Birch but its consistency, true to size and finish makes it hard to argue for spending the time & effort required to get a high quality final project.

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I like the alternate editions. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Great designs! Thanks for sharing.

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Just showing my wife… “Yeah… That’s awesome. If only we were fancy enough to have more than 1 kind of tea.”

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I’m glad your not the only one who shows the wife pictures and say, “look what we will be able to do with the laser!!” And get a “why would we need one of those?” In return

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Way cool! I like all your designs, and have to agree with you about the Proofgrade–it’s very nice.

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my goodness I love it (and the GF has been asking for new tea boxes)

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Actually, she was (semi) serious. She’s definitely anticipating using our Glowforge. I’m not sure she’s “excited” yet, but that will come with understanding what she’ll really be able to do with it. My 8-year old son, on the other hand has already started planning things and, without my teachings, has already begun conceptualizing how to make 3D objects from flat cuts. Blew my mind when he actually used the word “slices.” And I was just kinda like “Yes. You’re exactly right. And they’re even specifically called slices. You’re a genius.”

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Your GlowForge drinks tea?

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haha no my girlfriend has a rather large Tea collection that is getting out of hand. she asked me a few months ago if me and my brother would build her a tea box but told her it may be better apt for a laser project then traditional wood working

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I’ll post the SVGs later tonight. Gotta post my clock project.

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So generous of you!!

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Tea storage! Something I need more of.
Right now I have an entire shelf in my cupboard devoted to tea. If I can get it down to a half shelf I’d be super happy!