Fixing Things. Or: The Forge Can Make Your Kids Happy :)

If you have young kids, you might know about how Home Depot hosts a monthly kids’ event, where they are given a free kit and make something (usually involves just a hammer, nails, glue, stickers & paint).

The latest project was an Easter Basket, made from pine & a paper posterboard type of material; some of you may have made the same with your kids…

Well, the face (and of course the ears) were made of that paperboard, and as y’all can imagine, those don’t last long with 2 rambunctious boys. One ear had snapped before we even left the store…as did another child’s next to us. So we asked for another kit and each took one replacement bunny face…

Less than a day in, and all 4 faces had broken ears, and we only had 1 replacement.

Soooo, THE FORGE TO THE RESCUE!!

Both baskets, all 4 faces with broken ears, lol.




Step 1: Trace the replacement with a sharpie (although I messed up; I had originally planned to use the same holes for the nails, then thought to use different holes 'cause I thought the original nails were too short; I should have checked first & seen that the nails were long enough to just use the same exact holes…I had to drill those holes later, but whatever)

Step 2: Cut them out with the forge on ONE QUARTER Birch Plywood! Home Depot, not Proofgrade. Ha, they made $$ on this project.
The settings for 1/8th were 99.999% strong enough for even 1/4! Just 2 tiny 1/4 inch spots were not fully cut through out of all of this:

Step 3: Check fit
A pretty perfect fit! My sharpie tracing was a bit larger, naturally, and I could have shrunk it a little to match perfectly to the replacement piece if I had thought about it earlier, but whatever; next time I will remember that.



Step 4: Remove original broken pieces (but keep for replacing back on top of the new cut outs, or your kids will scream bloody murder, because they want to keep that original Picasso artwork they worked so hard on)

Step 5: Place both the cutout and the original back on the basket.

Step 6 (Not Pictured, sorry): End cuts of soft pine, plus short nails once removed & replaced, can make for a loose fit. So, nail in 2 brads per each side (8 per basket) to keep everything nice & tight.

Step 7 (Not Pictured, sorry): Glue broken ears on the replacement cut outs

Step 8: Make your kids smile with the power of the GlowForge:

Still haven’t found one of the original ears, lol):



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Super project. Very smart and well done

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yay for happy kids!

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Great save! :grinning:

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Yeah, this kind of this excites me. Now with the GF, X-Carve and 3D printer there isn’t much I can’t conjure up in a hurry when something breaks… It is just such an empowering feeling.

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Pew pew lasers fix everything!

It’s nice to see that the machine can be both a business and another fixture/tool of the home.

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YESSSSS!!! You - and many others here - sooooo get it!

I crave / need / MUST have the ability to make / fix; it’s, like, in my genes or something…I don’t like having to rely on others.

Lol. A little silly, maybe bordering on neurosis, I dunno. But dang it feels good!

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Aww, your Home Depot still does the paint?! Lucky. Just wood glue and hammers at ours.

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@henryhbk, which 3D printer/s do you have?

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Smart dad of the year prize goes to you :wink::laughing:

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Very nice!

I was wondering if you could choose the inside line of the Sharpie trace line to get it to be even closer to the same size.

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I actually did :slight_smile:

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VERY nice! I know the 'forge can make kids happy! I can’t wait to see how my kids and I will get to interact when we get our 'forge. Just this weekend we were getting ready for Comic Con and my son (still doesn’t know we’re getting one) said “They should make, like, a printer… that cuts.” Took all my will power not to spill those beans.

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I ordered the :glowforge: to expand my miniatures business, but have come to see how awesome it will be to make life better around the home.

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My primary printer is an E3D BigBox v1.1 hybrid-dual. I also have a Lulzbot Taz 6 and I have a Uniz Slash SLA printer hopefully arriving soon.

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" We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger,…"

brillliant job !!! (and cheaper than 6 million dollars)

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I love this! Way to save the project!

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Hooray for Dad!!! Nice job!

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All good machines.

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But… what about that paint job? I see a future of brilliant abstract expressionism artists in your family… LOL.

What a great save on your part! My head has been stuck in a digital “box” for so long designing specific brand designs/styles for one company (my day job) that I almost forgot what it’s like to design OUTSIDE of “the box.” However, I have a really good feeling that “box” is going burst with incredible ideas once I actually get my hands on a Glowforge.

Did any of the current Glowforge guardians here have designer’s block before the Glowforge came? For those of you who don’t have a GF yet, what are you doing to keep your design mind “elastic?”

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