Dovetail Joint!

Wow! It’s incredibly kind of you to share the file! (Took 3 passes on my PRU to get through it, but we expected that the power thing wasn’t going to work the same.)

Now I’ve got to go figure out what I did wrong…yours works, mine doesn’t. (Probably something in the gradient bitmap…mine keeps throwing an unspecified error on render.)

You da man 2! :grinning:

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Okay…and by looking at yours, I WAS able to figure out where I was going astray…you need to group individual gradient bitmaps into one bitmap. (It don’t like a whole bunch of them at once. :crazy_face:)

A thousand thanks Mike! Saved me probably hours of tracking that down. :wink:

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You’re welcome Jules!

Hmm… I have imported SVG’s with multiple bitmaps into the GFUI before, but maybe only 4, tops, when I did that gradient test on the pink acrylic. Did you have a whole ton of 'em?

Yeah, I had the four, duplicated several times. Might have been overkill. (They weren’t saved as the required 600dpi either at first, so that might have had something to do with it too.)

Anyway…you’re my hero this morning! :grinning:

Wooow! That’s definitely been on the list for a long long time.

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Couldn’t stand it…had to try it…and we have success! (And it only took half a dozen iterations!) :roll_eyes:

IMG_2895

I wanted snap fit and flush edges, and it turns out that ain’t too easy to achieve with 1/8" acrylic. It’s a lot more fiddly than I expected…it overmelts in spots and collects in odd places with multiple passes.

Anyway, it’s square, doesn’t wobble, and doesn’t come apart without some force applied, so I’m calling it quits for now.

Many many thanks @mpipes for the earlier testing on settings too, they made a great starting point for the depth engraving. :grinning::+1:

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That’s awesome @Jules!

Yep, the tighter the tolerances needed, the tougher the project no matter what it is!

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Yeah, I never would have even taken a shot at it if you hadn’t gotten things squared away with the settings first…you get all the credit for this. :wink:

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I don’t reply to many threads, but this is :exploding_head: ! Well done :glowforge: and @mpipes.

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So cool Jules! :star_struck:
I’m with her Mike, not sure I would ever attempt that without someone blazing the trail first!

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I’m stunned at how cool this looks in acrylic! I’ve seen dovetails in wood many times, but never in acrylic. Nice job on the design, @mpipes

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I can’t take all the credit for it, other folks throwing the ideas around on the forum are seeding the curiosity! :slight_smile:

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I’m playing with gradients this morning to lock down different profiles… :innocent:
(and she saunters off, brushing the dirt from her hands after planting the seed…)

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:rofl:

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That is cool! I love dovetail joints. Thanks for sharing your file and the process. I can’t wait to give it a try!

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I’ve been hoping someone would do that for a long time! Amazing!

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This is phenomenal! Thanks for sharing!

Would I be looked as a Debbie-downer of sorts if I asked to see this in wood?! :sweat_smile:

I know it’s quite a feat to do it in acrylic to begin with, and it looks awesome, and I’ll be utilizing this approach for sure. HOWEVER, I would love to see this done in wood, but I think it would be quite difficult because of the inconsistencies in the material.

If yes to the first question, then…Nevermind! Great job! :slight_smile:

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I was thinking about trying wood, because I have a ton of little samples laying around here and I want to get rid of them, and my dad is the perfect recipient, but he’s in a log house, a woodworker, and a wooden box would be more his style. :slight_smile:

Oh acrylic will surprise you how fussy it can be, because it melts and rolls/balls/curls up in ways you don’t anticipate. :slight_smile:

Anyway, yes wood is a possibility and I’d almost bet @Jules or someone else is already working on something. :slight_smile:

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Just about to…was finishing up a design and I’ll pop the box into the leftover spots. :wink: