I run a financial planning practice in California and have an attorney and tax professional that work with me. I decided to use the glowforge for creating beautiful custom estate binders for our clients along with very cool different business cards for myself. I found an excellent wood binder company:
The base binder is only $15 and they do bulk discounts. This is relatively inexpensive compared to other options out there. We’re still awaiting our glowforge pro, but I’ve been sharing the information and showing photos of the binders to our clients and they are really excited. We have a large professional desk that we are calling our “design studio” and we are going to help clients with templates and designs so they can choose how they want their binder to look and they can watch the glowforge do the engravings.
We are extremely excited for what this will do to help improve our business and the happiness it will provide our clients. I never thought I would be able to bring such beauty and creativity into a financial practice. We can’t wait until out unit finally arrives! Thank you, Glowforge.
I actually had the idea to find wooden binders and went on a hunt. I eventually came across this company and it felt like a match made in heaven! I’m eager to get a few prototypes and play with different designs that I can show clients. I’m a little bummed that the glowforge isn’t supposed to be able to cut titanium, but I’m going to get thin sheets of titanium from a local supplier and put that to the test… I would love to have titanium business cards. At the very least, I can use the glowforge to engrave into them and then have a professional company cut them once they are engraved.
My whole team is chomping at the bit for the machine and now that it should be arriving in the next few months we’re all getting really excited.
I thought about that. I plan on putting something together where I can have them evenly spaced or have the binder company send the center ring detached so we can attach it after we do the engravings. I just wonder how difficult that may be…
Do you have any suggestings for what kind of jig we can make that would work? My goal was also to do the side of the binder so I don’t know how we could make this work outside of them sending the center rings separate and detached from the binders.
What is the size when layed flat?
Not trying to burst your bubble, but want this to work. You also might be able to put somthing between the front and back to make them level, just as it clears the head.
I believe they are 12" x 10" but I’ll have to confirm. If you are looking at the whole thing laid flat, it’s 12" x 22". I have a glowforge pro so the length shouldn’t be an issue, just the width. Also, the company does to custom binders but I need them to be large enough to support the planning documents. The next step is trying to customize dividers. I plan on getting a bunch of materials for R&D to do a bunch of trial and error before we have something for clients.
I would think a jig would be simple. You just need something to set the binder on that has a cut out for the rings to set in firmly. The only problem is the size of the binder opened.
Are you getting the basic or the pro?
The slots are 3/8", but maybe with a little maneuvering you’ll be able to put the binder in and then close the GF around it. It might be easier if you had a set of blocks to hold the binder at the right height without the rings getting in the way.
looks like the “real wood” is a veneer over thick paperboard, so the paperboard is taking care of the hinge-action.
Engraving on the outside of the binder should be doable with a pro and a custom honeycomb-replacement jig that had holes for the rings. Engraving on the inside may pose problems if the ring-assemblies are not removable.
You could always cut and engrave adhesive-backed veneer to apply to either side of the binder. No height issues there.
Simplest approach is to simply put a block inside to make it square and engrave the front and back separately. Would be super easy (remove the honeycomb obviously since it is thicker than 0.4", so you would need a 0.75"ish block underneath to bring it to 1/4" above honeycomb height.
