Made a few more little things

Made on a Glowforge
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  1. Used the GF’s design of the picture frame with living hinge to make this customized one (ummm, I had to blur out the logo of the theme party…sshhh)

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I tink I forgot to remove some of the backing, lol. Anyway, it was fun & easy to make, but the back piece’s engraving (the big dark patch on the pic) took a while, since it basically has to cut a pretty large area with just a pin needle width laser, so it takes time to cover the whole area. If you are making a lot of these, you might be better off using a router and setting up a jig for that one part of it. This was after sanding the middle, by the way; it was really dark prior to that

Found this small slate(?) tile, only a bout 1" x 1" in the dirt of our backyard garden last year, decided to try engraving it…

I remember another member said that the light reflecting off of the one he did was really bright, and he sure wasn’t kidding! It was basically like looking at magnesium ribbon burning.

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I did a poor job of centering it…oh well, live and learn.

This did raise my curiosity, though, and I will e-mail support later: the engraving is done in spots, and horizontally, like how an inkjet printer runs. Would it not be better / cleaner / faster to have it run in one continuous line? That is how it makes cuts…

And finally, made a few pendants (from the GF design) for my boy’s friends, from a pic he drew about the birthday party, and then engraved their names on the back…

This is one of them…

Front:

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Back (I forgot to change the settings of the cut, darnit, so there is a little excessive scorching, even after some light sanding…my brain is jello lately).

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Oh, and I also etched a clam shell…you can get an idea of the brightness from this video. Too bad it isn’t smell-o-vision, to give you the full effect, lol:

Dangit, video too big, again…gonna have to start posting to YouTube…

It’s not much, I know, but it’s been a busy weekend…and I’m learning Fusion, so hopefully I’ll have more creative stuff soon :slight_smile:

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Lots of fun stuff! Seems like you’re really enjoying it! :slight_smile:

Question about living hinges… Is there a formula to get best results? I mean, how can one know how far apart the cuts should be?

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Change it from an engrave operation to a cut or score since it’s just a line and you’re not filling it. If you need it wider than the cut settings make it, bump the power & lower the speed. That should widen the cut line but because it’s stone it won’t really cut, just etch the line.

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Cool selection of tests! Love the little tiles! :grin:

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I’m too lazy to search right now, but there’s a page out there that does first-principle calculations based on bending modulus and yield stress and so forth. It’s been linked at least a couple of times from the forums.

(And btw, I went to a comic con this weekend where someone was selling Magic card boxes with a living hinge – I was surprised at how forcefully the box opened when the catch was released. Wonder if that will change over time.)

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Thanks. I’ll see if I can find that link.

Not your point, of course, but I’m headed to a comic con this weekend myself. I hope my wife will be able to handle my Jewel Staite ogling.

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Cool! You’ve done tiles! I want to try that. Also I was in Michaels yesterday and they had fairly flat black rocks in the floral section. I didn’t get any but might have to try it at some point. They would make good place cards.

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I like all the various things that you are making with your laser. The super bright reflection would scare me, although the lid is supposed to block the beam. :confused:

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It’s not laser reflection, it’s visible spectrum as a result of the stone burn. Part of why I don’t stare at the laser cutting stuff anymore - other materials can be quite bright as well.

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Oh, that just reminded me of a really IMPORTANT thing that I keep forgetting to mention:

Not sure if this will change with the final version, but the pre-release only lets you engrave, and not cut nor score, when you UPLOAD an image file like a jpeg or bitmap…

BUT, you CAN choose cut, score, or engrave if you print out the file and make the forge SCAN (“trace”) the image.

I found that to be really curious…

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The picture frame design has the cuts already as part of the design. I wonder if they will still work if you enlarge the image, or if you need to add more cuts, to make up for the increased space between each one…hmmm

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That is an interesting question.

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I guess the reason I am so cautious is that when I was way younger, I worked at a chemical plant and got my eyes burned from watching some welding. It was really painful and I had to keep my eyes bandaged for 5 days. :relaxed:

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That’s actually pretty normal in the laser world. An image is bits not lines so it can only engrave. Lines can cut and score (low power cut) and in most lasers can engrave as well so long as the lines form a bounded area (e.g. a fully enclosed space - like water tightness on 3D models) so it knows where the engrave begins & ends.

The forge trace results in a line (vector) and not a bitmap (I think).

Spot on. Lots of people say it’s okay to stare at the laser as it’s cutting or engraving because it’s not the coherent laser light anymore. But like you, I’ve had more than my share of painful eyes from looking at super bright lights. It doesn’t matter that it’s not going to make your eyeball pop, it’ll still cause damage/pain if you stare at anything bright enough long enough.

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Raster images like a bitmap or jpeg can only be engraved. Once you Trace it in the GFUI, you add a vector path to the image that can then be cut or scored.

(Working on the overview tutorial that explains that - but that’s the short version.) :relaxed:

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About 5 I saw a welder on a job site, what a pretty blue light! I was watching from half a block away. He noticed me and welded a little more and looked over at me and stopped. He raised his hood and motioned me over.
He told me if I watched it I would wake up about midnight and it would feel like sand in my eyes. I took that lesson from him, nice guy!

Had a friend went to work for a welding supply. He was playing with an arc welder for the first time in his life… Without a helmet.
His eyeballs peeled like sunburned skin!

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Holy crap, that is terrifying!!

Aaaahhh, that explains so much, thank you. And shows how inexperienced with laser cutters I am, lol…

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You might want to try out one of the auto animated gif sites. That works fairly well for video substitute as @karaelena is masterfully showing.

You can choose exactly what part you want to highlight and it is very effective.

And ditto about engrave/raster verses cut/vector. It’s a fundamental distinction to understand, especially as it relates to both image resolution and engraving resolution, detail and depth.

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Thank you…can’t wait to cut out my first project made with fusion…

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That is exactly what happened to me. I woke up around 12 that night and it did feel like sand in my eyes. A friend took me to the emergency room where I learned about all of the home remedies such as putting raw Irish potatoes on my eyes. I won’t be doing that ever again. :relaxed:

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