Pretty much do all my engraving at highest speed. Sometimes the surface of the acrylic isn’t as nice looking, but it does speed up things.
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Exactly 
, and truth be told it’s actually on three, which occasionally leads to, “Sign-out all other devices…etc.” but I figure as long as it’s only being used on one at a time I’m not hurting Adobe in any way. Heaven knows they’ve pulled a lot of money out of my pockets over the years 
we hit that sometimes too (SO’s desktop, my desktop, my laptop) but it’s never more than 2 copies used at the same time, so you’re in total license fulfillment, there! 
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Hey that’s pretty neat that you were able to have the outer race of the bearing serve as the connector between the two halves! Love it when a design comes together!
Nobody was more surprised than I! Especially since I don’t know the best way to cut that. I know the bearings are 22 mm (.8661 in). And that’s what I made my circle at first. But in my cardboard prototype I found that was too loose. Didn’t even think of holding. And each new prototype I just shaved a little bit off that number. Total guesswork that I was sure wasn’t going to work out well. But! I think in the end I used .85 in (21.59 mm) and it worked better than I could have imagined.
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@dan posted this in another thread, it’s an opening for bearings with relief cuts to allow an easy press fit.
Props to your son, that’s awesome!
Note that the radius seems to be based on pixels, which means on a high-res monitor, you have to nail the exact center for it to pop up.
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Another consideration is that the top of the opening (towards the laser) is slightly wider than the bottom, because of the shape of the laser beam. For that reason, the bearing will go in more easily one way than the other.
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There are multiple ways to work with getting to the center of a circle. Most of the time align and distribute in relation to another object works. There are also ways to do a coordinate centering of a circle. So if you want a circle centered in a circle. Make two circles and then align and distribute one in the other. This works with any object. Where you might get hung up is saying I want to draw an object starting at the center of a circle. That is a challenge. Click the object twice, once to get resize control handles on corners and a second time to get rotate control handles. The second set of handles will have a plus sign in the center of the circle.
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He smiled and said “Thanks!”
You really do.
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Thanks! I saw that the other day. Was going to try it, but I wasn’t getting it. Now that I’ve made a spinner, I understand. Maybe I’ll try it on the next one.
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That’s rad! Love the throwing star design. Tell your son, “Nice work!”. 
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He says thanks! He’s visibly proud every time I tell him somebody commented about his design.
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Nice work Tom, but I wanted to comment on this interesting point you made here. Quite a few people complain about Glowforge calling itself a 3D laser printer. Here we have an owner stating that he printed a prototype using the machine. Maybe they are not wrong to call it a printer. A point for Glowforge. Thanks Tom.
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Thanks! All credit goes to my son, Andy on this one. I was just the monkey that pushed the buttons.
I’m one of those people. I’ve said it before and I’ll go ahead and say it again… using the term 3D printer is marketing at its worst. Trying to jump on the 3D printer bandwagon that was really all the rage at the time. Let’s face it… if you had a Glowforge and a 3D printer sitting next to each other, and anybody in the universe asked you “Are these 3D printers?” You’d say “This one is. And this one’s a laser cutter.” There’s no chance in heck that the answer would be some crazy “Yes they are! This one uses melted extruded materials, and this one uses a laser. They’re both the same tool but use different methods.” It’s simply not true. (And, yes… I realize that in the strictest sense of the word, “printer” is applicable. But I wouldn’t call it appropriate.)
I use the word “print” because it’s convenient. Watching the Glowforge etch, reminds me very much of a print device… The head moves across, images appear. To say “I cut the prototype on cardboard.” seems awkward to me. I dunno. Maybe I’ll have to try that on for a while.
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preach.
honestly i think it’s mostly because you’re unused to it. cut for cutting, engraving for everything else. i tend to reserve “etch” for materials like glass (or stone, etc) where the engraving is very slight. part of the reason it sounds a little forced is that most people would probably say ‘out of’ cardboard rather than on it (…unless your glowforge is sitting on cardboard ).
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Probably. I think I’ll try to use the correct terms from now on. It’s probably best for all.
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before anyone says anything i did not say you were incorrect ;p
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YES. As suggested by @jjmacdougall and @henryhbk, spraying them w/ WD-40 and letting them dry out wrapped in paper towel for 24 hours REALLY did the trick. We compared to an existing spinner and literally got the exact same spin time.
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I’ve been laser cutting spinners for a month or so now, and have had nothing but good results. I use a Trotec 300 at the Techshop while I’m waiting for my Glowforge letter to get here. The one I’ve been the happiest with was two layers, clear acrylic on one side and walnut on the other. Both sides are engraved with a circuitry pattern, with three arms. Each arm has a hole cut out for a metal nut to weight them down.
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