Would this work? Creating a low profile “sled” that is pushed by the glowforge ahead of the laser. So that for each increment it is moved forward the piece is rotated for that increment.
We need to get the GCDT Glowforge Community Design Team working on this.
I don’t know if it would work, but it’s a clever idea…
I was looking at one of these video streams before bOb showed up.
Was disappointed when I realized the forge does not do the design top to bottom.
Maybe in the future we could get a choice of top down, or bottom up. Then something like this becomes a reality.
thats brilliant!! Yes include me in this endeavor
Not being an engineer, only an architect… and not being ready to attach stray things to my gantry… What if, beyond the travel of the head, there was a flat “T” or “L” shaped arm that dragged the sled forwards and back? It could be attached (thumb tight only) with a very short screw into the threaded hole that previously had an orange screw in it. Since there is only one threaded hole in the gantry flange, the arm could be somewhat loose laid into a slot in the sled.
Just a thought, because that sled thing looks cool.
I’m about as engineer as someone could be. Big stereotype. You can take solace in the fact that Architecture is a 5 year degree and Engineering only 4. Must be a reason.
What? Architects are artistic engineers. (And rarer because of it…uses both sides of the brain.) 
I think I’ve found my people!
Yeah, there’s artistry involved in specing 9ft ceilings when 2x4s come standard in 8ft, 10ft, 12ft, etc lengths.
Not like there’s any issues with cutting 1 foot off of every freaking stud.
Yep artists.
Uh-oh! I sense some interdisciplinary tension. 
I thought maybe magnets, but the rail is aluminum. It looks like there are some holes on each side of the sliding rails. Take out the crumb tray and place a “track” for the sled to move back and forth on and attach it to the rail on either end.
I love the idea but it terrifies me. Just had an even worse one: piece of nitinol that gets irradiated by the laser to make the motion happen.
Yep, engineers who want a building to be 44’-11-7/8” High because that’s what the math comes out to. I artistically wrote 45’ and it was rejected.
You want tension, most of my friends are in the trades. Architect is a dirty word. Of course they’d build nothing but rectangles given the choice. The only architect is a friend’s kid brother, so he already had one strike against him.
We go through that with lawyers…my sister’s ex is a lawyer. 