Name Puzzle For My Grandson

Thx Jules

I’m not in a huge rush for the information on the paints, I figure it will be a week before I start putting all the bits and pieces together. I am at this point creating all my cut files and the 11 separate names with the matching hole pattern for the back in Inkscape.

Thank you again everyone for the amazing amount of information put into this community. It makes what could be a very hard learning curve so so much easier and enjoyable!!

Bill,
AKA the Moperator (spouse calls the new glowforge a Monster)

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@Jules, turns out I still have a few boxes left to pack, so we’ve put off the drive until tomorrow. Or maybe Saturday. Haha! I think neither of us are really enthusiastic about all the driving ahead!

Anyway, @InvisiFire, never worry about being a n00b; we all were one time!

As for the brand of paints – I have a mixture of them, but they’re all just the cheap stuff from the craft store. I like the “Cheep” paints (they come in big tubes) because they have fun bright colors and a nice creamy texture, but I know I don’t have orange in those, so some of these were one of the brands that come in little 2oz bottles. They all work just fine. :slight_smile: I’ve used the Cheep ones before, super diluted with water, to make a color “wash” for the boards before cutting them out, and that works really well too. Might be easier if you’re doing a lot of them!

Wood glue – yes. I like the Gorilla brand. This was unfinished Baltic birch to MDF, so that worked really well. If you are using prefinished PG products, you’ll want to go to a super glue, though. (And the acrylic paints wouldn’t work as well, either!)

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Good Morning,

I am relatively new to the glowforge but my goal has been to create my own name puzzle similar to this. I am guessing I just use the cut feature and cut the individual letters out and than glue the frame to a backing. I am confused about the holes in the back if someone could explain the need for that and how to do that.

I put the holes in the back so the letters could be pushed out easily. They were cut into the backing piece before assembly. :slight_smile:

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Totally unnecessary if you leave a little space but easy enough if you want them, just put them in the design before cutting the back plate.

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Thank you everyone that responded to questions these last few weeks on this subject… I now have 8 xmas gifts that I don’t have to buy,

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And they look just great! (And you’ve got a pile of little ones that are going to be thrilled!) :smile:

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They will love them - nice work!

HI! I am new to Glowforge and want to make this! is this 2 pieces of wood? one for the backing?

That’s correct. :slight_smile:

Beautiful name and beautiful puzzle!

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Hi there! Im new too Glowforge and want to make these. Whats the trick to making the letters raised more than the board it sits on? @InvisiFire Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I love this idea! I know a few kids in the family that would love one of their own I have one nephew that has one already & his puzzle the letters are a bit taller, so I’d like my letters to be raised a little also so little fingers can grasp them better how do I do this? Thanks !

Making the letters taller would require using two different material thicknesses, or gluing multiple layers together. I avoided all the extra waste and work and potential toxicity by just putting finger holes behind each letter, as shown in the original post above. :blush:

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Do you think I’d be able to make a decent looking puzzle with draft board?

Draft board can look very nice when painted.

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Okay cool. I’ll give it a try :slightly_smiling_face:

hi - late to the game are the GF proof grade materials? if not what are the settings please.

We’re not allowed to discuss non-PG settings except over in Beyond the Manual. You can do a search in that section for the material (1/4" baltic birch and 1/4" MDF in this case), but don’t just use other people’s settings. Get into the habit of finding the best settings for YOUR machine and your particular material, in order to get the very best results every time. I use the method @evansd2 describes in this post (see #6):

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