My first attempts

I received my Glowforge a few weeks ago and before I could build my vent and set it up I came down with the flu. Felt terribly mortal and today was my first day out of the house in two weeks . I survived!
Well, everything went well, kudos to Rick Pegg for the WiFi setup video.

There was a strong smell and wonder if it’s normal. I may have to move it to the basement. I’ll double check the vent connections - and the vent itself - the inside connection has a flapper and the outside has the louvers - I don’t know if the fan has enough force to expel the smoke completely.

I am thrilled with the little I have done. Thanks to everyone at Glowforge for a wonderful product. A friend that helped me unbox wants one. We’ll see i I can refer him. So, I printed the Glowforge Founder ruler and was so happy with the results that I dared try a couple of Celtic knot designs I’ve been playing with. The Celtic knots may look like graphic designs - both the heart circle and cube in the center are created on the keyboard - as you would expect from any font all keys are design elements - check the website - one of the fonts I purchased from http://ClanBadge.com - the fonts are a game changer. In the picture you can see where I shifted a section and created a gap in one area and an overlap on the other end of the section.

I was a bit confused after I printed the rule - instead of clearing the screen I just clicked on the plus sign to upload a personal design - I noticed that the image of the rule still showed on my laptop and a message that I was using ‘ unknown material ‘ and a caution. I completed the etching at “low” settings to be safe. Lesson learned. Question: why is the cube darker on the top and bottom edges an lighter on the L and R edges? I will just include my first projects here and will share my vent design in a big section about venting. I am a real novice and will enjoy any and all advice.

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Those fonts are pretty cool. I wonder how they perform within Illustrator, ‘creating outlines’ and using the pathfinder tool on them… things that make me go, “Hmmmm…”

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It’s good, but you need to always check your paths before and after create the outlines… Also, there is a Plugin (From Astute) that is a Smart Clean the extra vertices around the path, basically you clean the useless ones! Really handy to make the file smaller and clean!

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Love the Celtic heart design … ok … I love the cube also! Congratulations on getting set up and doing your first projects!

Perhaps your material wasn’t level? I usually press gently in several places on the material after placing it on the bed. Any place that has a bit of bounce … I use magnets to hold it closer to the bed. This prevents distortion on your laser distance.

Your last cut shows on your screen, since the Glowforge takes a photo at the end of each print.

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That font site is interesting. Saved the link for the future. Thanks

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Thank you for the link to the Celtic font! Fantastic!

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Dunno about a double flap system.
My exhaust is rather short with a disc flap (hinged top).
The forge pushes it a little over half way open. I have added a booster fan since installation and it is now jammed full open when used.
Be interesting to see how open the second louvers go after pushing past an internal flap system.

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Very cool first projects!
(Fonts do have to be checked pretty carefully, they’re generally created for printing and screen display, not necessarily lasering or cutting. Convert them into paths, then you can edit them.) :slightly_smiling_face:

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Cool font! You have probably just helped to increase their sales. I will most likely be picking this up. :wink:

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I use Affinity Designer on my laptop and the screen shot included is from Pages on my IPad Pro. So, yes you can use it with Illustrator. image

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The designers name is Dan, he will be happy to hear from you and you will be very happy with the possibilities - endless

Thanks, brokendrum, I agree with you, too many flaps. I’m going to rethink the flap on the inside and concentrate on a quick release.

Thanks, I did receive some magnets and it didn’t occur to me to use them. I will use them in the future. I sure appreciate the comments from everyone!

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Thanks for the info. Astute Graphics site is very cool. Great tools.

When I was saving the hearts I felt like I shifted and fixed a section before I saved as SVG. The lesson is: check your work before you commit

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I think that dropped into something like Inkscape and cleaned up would be the best way to do that so you can find and repair any glitches

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I use that Celtic knot font quite a bit in my projects. There’s so much you can do with it, like this pyrography piece I did for my mother…

I’ve had better luck with circular designs by making them into a pattern brush in illustrator. I only get strange artifacts and gaps if I make the stroke size too large.

Really beautiful work. I’m looking forward to taking some of my designs onto the Glowforge.

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Also, I failed to mention these fabulous pins! They work where you can’t fit a magnet. LOVE them! Print a dozen and keep them on your Glowforge.

Loving all these Celtic … I must have this font! I slept on it, but, a new day still says … buy it! Thank you for the link.

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You won’t regret it. I can spend hours creating designs. Then, I take it into Illustrator and use tools like Envelope Distort to make them one-of-a-kind.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much in the way of finished items to display, just a hard drive full of designs. By fall, my workshop will be in place and I will get my Glowforge up and running. I’m sure I’ll post a lot of pics then.

(For the record: I am in no way affiliated with the seller of these fonts. I am merely an enthusiastic customer.)

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