QOTD from Glowforge: First week with your Glowforge-- What does it look like?

Problems and Support
#89

What does the first week look like I have an idea that it will live in the kitchen where it will be very accessible to my wife (and to easy venting). This may be short lived depending on how it interferes with minor things like cooking.

Who uses it besides you? It’s really for my wife. She does paper needlepoint work (holes cut in paper with patterns stitched between holes).

What are the first projects that are made with it? I think she will do some existing projects on it to get the settings dialed in. I’m hoping that the fact it’s always available to her will make it possible for her to create some really complicated and beautiful multi-layered designs. They are wickedly hard to design if you have to ask your husband to go try this or that but should be EASY if you have a laser right there!

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#90

Great idea on tracking every build’s settings. Setting that up now…

#91

Where it will live:
Home, probably in my hobby room.

Who will use it:
Me, myself and I. The wife will want things, but won’t want to use it herself.

What will get made the first week:
I have a local shop owner who is already counting the days until I get it so I can engrave some leather dice bags and make some wooden deck boxes for his store. As for myself, I’m going to grab a bundle of scrap material and try out as many things as I can think of. I think the very first non-test item will be a wooden version of the decoder wheel that came in the Gold Box D&D games from the 80’s. I re-bought this a week or so ago and the PDF for the wheel is really bad.

#92

Wall art. Lots and lots of wall art! I’m very excited to see what I can do with fabric - burlap, canvas, etc. We recently bought a huge amount of thin plywood underlayment for building floating shelves. We have a good deal left over and I’m excited to make something intricately cut out of it.

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#93

I just looked at your site. Really great work!

#94

Hey thanks, really appreciate that. Haven’t really updated it with any of my design and illustration, but perhaps I should! Cheers :slight_smile:

Glowforge Mascot ideas for the hopper
#96

Where it will live: In our warehouse shop area

Who will use it: Employees . graphic designers, leather workers, wood workers, glass workers and metal workers.

What will get made the first week: Leather knife rolls, wood handles, etched glass backing plates, steel blades, aluminum backing plates. … And other material we can test on it.

#97

Where it will live: In my home office, right next to the window so that it is well ventilated.

Who will use it: My wife and I will be the primary users.

What will get made the first week: I have an old filing cabinet that I’ve been dying to build wood inserts for as storage for my Magic cards. I have to design tray inserts with angled slots for dividers that are to be engraved with each set’s name and symbol. That’s a pretty big project, so we will probably do a bunch of testing first… get the lighter “oohs” and “ahhhs” taken care of, testing the trace feature and some engraving, etc… Then we’ll get into the heavy stuff!

How will you celebrate the arrival of your GF?
#98

Where it will live: On my desk in the basement (basic version with air filter)

Who will use it: Primarily me. Knowing my wife, she’ll want me to put together the designs for her. I’m extremely excited to get my kids using it—they’re gonna go nuts over this thing! I have a feeling my brother will drive over to use it on occasion as well (he’s an architect and loves his 3d printer).

What will get made the first week: OH MAN!!! I’m praying I don’t kill the thing or burn my house down from overuse the first week! This is why I’m kinda glad the production timeline means I won’t have one for a little while still—plenty of time to solidify my starting line-up. Gonna start small though: earbud holder, engrave a journal cover, coasters, custom lettering projects, etc.

#99

Where it will live:
I have a loft space above my garage - when at home it will be stored and used here - this is a 670sq ft workshop space with tons of light and power. I started a company in that loftspace two years ago. It did well.

I will also occasionally bring it to the Newport Robotics Club (Bellevue, WA) where we have a full on metal, wood, and electronics shop to build robots for the FIRST Robotics Competition.

Who will use it:
I will use it and there are 130 high school students in the Robotics Club and I’d love for them to be able to take a swing at the Glowforge.

What will get made in the first week:
I would imagine the first week will include lexan cutting and etching for the shell of a robot, marking on metal for the robot and cutting of thick cardboard and wood for the marketing/cheerleading team for the robotics. We have a gagillion uses for it and I can’t wait for it to be in house. Our prime time for builds is Jan - March - if I don’t have mine then we’ll have to wait and use it to help craft / bedazzle the robot for next year’s competition.

#100

Evidently, the cloud computer is going to get a trial by fire the first week when we collectively unleash our pent up ideas upon it!

where- In my shop/studio on a 4’x3’x1/4" steel table under a window with power ventilation.

Who- I am alone in my home of being afflicted with the curse/blessing of creative urges.
Besides, I am fairly possessive of my tools, especially the expensive ones… however, any friend or neighbor who desires it will enjoy a supervised session.

what- the first week will be entirely consumed with indoctrination.
Materials, power, focus and limitations. Dedicated notebook to document results, and several sample reference sheets in different materials for cutting/engraving vector and raster settings.
Exploring the unit, and its comstruction with an eye toward possible modifications such as tube cooling and airflow once the warranty turns into a pumpkin.

It’s going to be a very busy, exciting week… and beyond.
I anticipate frequently reflecting with gratitude on Dan and the Glowforge team for presenting me with the opportunity to experience a new direction in my creative expression!
I will rock that Glowforge.

#101

Where it will live: In the kitchen, on a desk near the window for ventilation.

Who will use it: Myself and visitors

What will get made the first week:
1- Boxes, boxes, boxes! I have a fantasy of hyper-organizing my clutter into custom cut enclosures made from the omnipresent stacks of thin plywood fruit creates in my neighborhood.
2- I also plan on continuing my project of engraving scans of my great uncle’s pen and ink drawings of collapsing barns onto various bits of salvaged wood and varnishing/mounting/framing/etc
3- Experimentation. Everything not already engraved will have to be engraved. Old artwork refreshed by cutting honeycomb patterns out of it. Engraved sandwiches to delight my girlfriend.

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#102

Where will it live: In the laboratory near the analytical instruments, except when taken for demonstrations at friends’ locations.

Who will use it: Primarily me, but friends will all get some time too.

What will I do with it the first week? : First, I will cut a few gaskets that I need to repair lab equipment, next I will engrave some promotional materials for my craft brewing friends. Finally, I will systematically test as many materials and features I can so as to become familiar with this wonderful device. I too, will reflect on the wonderful work that the glowforge staff have done to make this possible.

#103

I’m a little slow getting to the forums, but here goes: First week will be setting it up in my office/guest room (let’s hope that’s not the only similarity between us!) and getting to know how it works. I have a feeling there will be a lot of coffee consumed that first week. I’m self employed and hope to be able to devote that first week entirely to learning. I also have a feeling I’ll be fighting my husband and son for the chair, as they’re both very creative.
As for projects, I haven’t decided what will be ‘first’, but I do leatherwork, so I’ll assume it would be something to do with that.

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#104

Don’t know yet as I don’t have mine yet. Primarily kicking the tires to see where and how I can push it. Always thinking out of the box and how can I get this to do something that it wasn’t designed to do. Already thinking of how to multi layer items on a single level with various laser powers, the kicker here is on a LEGO minifigure. Also want to engrave a figure so I can fill with fluorescent dye. Lots of ideas, many quite crazy. Also want to do something silly and build a custom tool box. May have to take time off work just to play!

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#105

This. Yup.

#106

Where it will live: On a table that we just built to fit it, in my office.

Who will use it: Just me. :slightly_smiling:

What will get made the first week: Not a thing. I’ve never used a laser cutter before. I’ll be learning, and testing the machine on various materials, to get the best settings for each material, and to see if the filter holds up. (If not, I’ll have to move it to a vented room upstairs.) Eventually though, I plan to put it to use on the (literally) thousands of vector cutting files/designs that I have on hand. I’m buying this machine because I can use them as they are, and don’t have to spend a lifetime converting them to another format. I’m planning to experiment with everything, materials-wise, and will probably wind up modifying a lot of the designs for different materials as I get to know their characteristics.

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#107

Where it will live: In our project room.

Who will use it: My husband & I…and then I’m sure friends and family once they find out we have a laser!

What will get made the first week: Currently I am overwhelmed by all the cool possibilities I have seen so far… I guess that’s how I will be using the next several months.

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#108

Welcome @imitating, have you lurked before? So many cool topics to explore.

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#109

Been spending a lot of time browsing the forums today. There are so many things we have tried making/cutting by hand throughout the years, we are so excited to have laser.

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