FOCO Cafe

[PrintToLaser]

My Daughter who recently graduated with her masters degree in social work took a job as director of a quaint little non profit outfit called the FOCO Cafe. Stands for Feeding Our Community Ourselves, where you pay what you can, if you can, they are supported by the community grocers,and other businesses.
There are these wooden tokens they use that are getting worn out, and she asked if replacing them was something I could help her with. I was happy to volunteer my time for such an organization, and since glowforge gave me a laser and proofgrade to use, I put it all to good use… .
The original…

Oh man, the glowforge proofgrade maple was made for this! Redesign and engraved instead of painted. It won’t wear off.

Other side, BTW the font for the ‘Redeemable’ is Hobo standard

A far superior product, by the grace of glowforge… and @marmak3261 (the list goes on…) for his unwavering willingness to help me with the design when I flounder.

Aaand - since I do have the benefit of a laser, I will include a gift. 1/4" proofgrade acrylic, with one of those LED bases with a remote, that was so cool - I bought a dozen of them.
Only issue is the slot is too narrow for 1/4" (and too big for 1/8", go figure) so I dialed in the settings to engrave the tab that inserts on both sides so it is centered with a snug fit. For all of you who have purchased those the settings are 100/335/340 for each side of the tab to be accurate for centering 1/4".
Note - I do have a pre-release, so they are accurate for this machine, which I believe should be good because I can toast paper after the update.

Couple of things here, first notice how much brighter the green is in the reflection. That’s what it looks like in person, not sure why it looks washed out in the pic.
Second, As shared by @dwardio, lower portions of the engrave can shade higher engrave - so engraving from the back I ran 2 passes (a benefit of 1/4") on the ‘FOCO’ at default deep engrave setting (90/335/340) and ran the lower text at 1 pass, default light engrave (60/335/340).
I’m in love with edge lit acrylic.

There’s going to be quite a few people who have a little piece of engraved glowforge goodness in their pocket. I feel good about that.

[cynd11]

Awwwww, I love the story, the token, and the sign. Good job!

[PrintToLaser]

Yeah, when a man’s Daughter bats her eyes at him his knees go weak…

[hansepe]

You and your daughter are awesome. Great job putting this all together. Very inspiring

[PrintToLaser]

She is awesome.
She didn’t originate the organization, she just took over managing it - and she will shine.

[curt]

I got to see both of these in person today, and the pictures just don’t do them justice.

[dwardio]

@PrintToLaser – I’d be happy to donate a sheet of and laser time to make a batch of these… Let me know if they could use some more tokens.

[Jules]

Awesome story, love the token design and the edge-lit. (Your gal sounds like she takes after daddy.)

[Xabbess]

@PrintToLaser

I’m in love with edge lit acrylic.

Oh, you and me, both! Love the story and really enjoyed hearing about the FOCO cafe and all the good it’s doing…all now enhanced by new tokens.

@PrintToLaser

the settings are 100/335/340 for each side of the tab to be accurate for centering 1/4".

I too, discovered this ‘annoyance’ when I did my first edge lits. I’m a bit thick here, though…will you please clarify…do you engrave the full width of the tab on both sides? I do appreciate you sharing the settings, because it’s definitely something I will be doing again very soon.

[PrintToLaser]

Yes, full width both sides. Register the acrylic on the bed with magnets so you can flip it and maintain the position.

[Xabbess]

Can you not engrave the tab during part of the printing process, then flip it over in it’s own cut-out ‘jig’ to engrave the other side of the tab?

[marmak3261]

They turned out super. I really like the final design that you did. Nice proportions and the Fort Collins is good with the dots to balance it out. How many have you ended up doing? That certainly is a labor of loving charity. Keep up the good work.

[Drea]

What a great project and inspiration! She sounds like a wonderful person, you must be such a proud papa

[rebecca]

This is one of my favorite projects–the coins, the lighted sign, and cause are all awesome.

[larenore]

@PrintToLaser

not sure why it looks washed out in the pic

Because the sign is the brightest thing in an otherwise dark field, and auto exposure settings typically assume every scene has an average bright to dark tonal range. This is also why pictures of fireworks, the moon, or people under stage lighting all tend to have blown out highlight details with auto exposure settings. If you have the option, underexpose by a stop or two, and it should look closer to real life.

[drathus]

This, plus most software processed cameras (such as on cell phones) are going to adjust the color balance and levels assuming the brightest parts are closer to “white” in color.

[PrintToLaser]

The sign is right at the full width of the acrylic. I just ‘shaved’ the sides and top to get the polished edge, so there wasn’t really anything left substantial enough to register to.

@Xabbess

Can you not engrave the tab during part of the printing process, then flip it over in it’s own cut-out ‘jig’ to engrave the other side of the tab

If you are cutting from a larger sheet that would be the best method.

@marmak3261, largely thanks to you! She wanted 1000, I’m up to about 350 and need to order more maple ply! The is a joy to work with, consistent results everytime.

@larenore and @drathus, that makes sense, thank you for the understanding.

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

[PrintToLaser]

@curt

I got to see both of these in person today, and the pictures just don’t do them justice

It was great to meet you guys! Glad I was able to introduce you to the glowforge!
You do some Amazing work in your stainless jewelry! You ought to share some pics with the community in Show and Tell @curt!

[curt]

It was great to meet you as well, and loads of fun playing with the glowforge. I’m even more excited about getting mine now, and anxious to get to work on my files so they work better.

@PrintToLaser

You do some Amazing work in your stainless jewelry! You ought to share some pics with the community in Show and Tell

Eh, stainless is pretty boring, but it’s what I need for strength. I’m pretty hard on my stuff.

[jeanneleigh]

Lovely that your community has FOCO and that your daughter is a part of it! I think those kind of organizations are the best. And the tokens and sign turned out great! Congrats on another job well done.