QOTD from Glowforge: What Proofgrade materials do you want?

  • Acrylic (including mirrored)
  • 1/8" and 1/4" hardwoods
  • Bamboo boards
  • 1/8" and 1/4" plywood
  • Delrin
  • Veg tanned leather
  • Cork
  • Stamp material
  • Mylar sheets

I am hoping to make leather stamps as well as engraving leather directly. The leather itself would be for wallets, bags, notebooks and costumes. With the woods, I plan on making boxes as well as headset/controller stands for consoles as well as board game pieces. The bamboo would take the place of wood in some of these projects. The acrylic applies for the board game pieces as well. I have some jewelry display ideas with cork. The mylar would be for stenciling and would be nice to have in the store to purchase everything at once, but it at the bottom of the list for a reason.

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  • Assorted Acrylic (including two toned)
  • Leather
  • Adhesive backed material to make stencils for sand-blasting
  • Assorted hardwoods and plywood of various thicknesses
  • Other (something fun :wink:)

I have a few projects currently in mind. I want to make some wedding gifts for my friends out of hardwood, probably Disney themed.
Also, it would be awesome if we had all the material needed to make a Catan set.

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Acrylics and plywood and hardwoods, oh my. (Iā€™m not that interested in hardwoods because I can mostly get locally, and I scored a huge pile of veneers from a place that was going out of business)
But also/especially some of the stuff we might not be able to source as easily or might not think of, like delrin or stamping rubbers or marking materials.

I want to make a lot of boxes and robot parts and get kids to make cardboard stuff, which doesnā€™t really require great materials. But Iā€™d also like some exotics to stretch with.

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Exterior grade two color acrylic with a metallic look exterior - a sundial - already designed, just waiting for the technology to create it.
1/8" and 1/4" birch ply. Lots of things!
various hardwood, consistent thickness 1/16" and 1/8": inlays and things like @jkopel made out of his doodle
Delrin 1/8" and 1/4" - gears and bushings etc.
Acrylic: mirrored, clear, frosted, colors. Toys, lamps, etc!
I second @Samā€™s request for some ā€˜left fieldā€™ materials to inspire thinking outside of the box we might think we need to concentrate on!

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I think its a great list and a good basic variety. You will never be able to include ever material for every idea.
just please include leather, leather and a lil more leather :wink:

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  • Hardwoods, 1/4" and 1/8", in as many flavors and natural color variants as possible (ex: Alder, Pine, Maple, Cherry, Cedar, Walnut)
  • Acrylics in as many colors as we can get
    • Mirrored
    • Two tone (I didnā€™t even know this was a thing but now I have to have it)
    • Frosted
    • Transparent
    • Opaque
  • An inexpensive prototyping material (I have a ton of cardboard but something with more substance would be nice)
  • Bamboo Plywood
  • Hardwood faced Plywood
  • Something in the Theramark family
  • Sheets of masking material, maybe with a unique QR code per sheet that will save the settings we use for what ever we put that specific masking sheet on so that the next time they auto populate? Just thinking out loud.

Iā€™m a mechanical engineer and a closet nerd so my plans are things like replica video game weapons and armor (Halo spartan armor and the Desiny Trials of Osiris Titan armor are first up), clocks, clock work robotics, steam powered robotics, kinetic sculptures, and delving into all kinds of other little things Iā€™ve seen as inspiration scattered around the forum.

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  • clear and colored acrylic
  • 1/8" plywood
  • hardwoods
  • bamboo
  • anodized aluminum discs or dogtags

Much of my work will be with papers, but I want to be able to make display items from acrylic and wood to show off my playing card projects and give people unique engraved collector items.

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Id have to say it really depends on the coloration/markings of the material. There is such a broad range of grains and patterning in each type of material that could go from awesome to ugly.

Do you have photos of each? Is it something we could all vote on after seeing what is available visually?

If I have to choose solely from that list I will say:

  • Hardwoods
  • Multicolor Acrylics
  • Acrylics

Most other stuff I have sourced already

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  • Assorted hardwoods
  • Two tone acrylic samples
  • Leather
  • 1/4" plywood

I would love to get some different hardwood samples, because the Catan board is absolutely going to be my first Glowforge project. I realize that it might be unrealistic to ask for enough types of wood to get the entire board done, but I would love to be able to print a hex or two :slight_smile:

I havenā€™t worked much with acrylic, so I think it would be fun to make some small desk accessories - pen holders, business card holders, things like that. I want to make multiple-part projects, so I can try my hand at assembly.

I really want to try working with leather - either to make a wallet, a mousepad, luggage tag - all unique items that I could make with a small sample of the stuff! :slight_smile:

Finally, some plywood would be fun, so I can make something bigger/stronger. Donā€™t have any specific plans yet, but I hope to by December!

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  • 1/8" plywood
  • 1/4" plywood
  • Assorted acrylics (including two tone, clear, frosted, colored)
  • Assorted hardwoods
  • Leather

I would love to have the materials to make the demoā€™ed candle holder/luminary to have a first project to show off. I need to prove that my new toy can make useful things. Also excited to try engraving and making wood inlays.

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  • Leather so I can try out making a wallet or something small
  • Assorted Hardwoods so I can try out a few of the keychain designs, coasters, and other unique projects
  • Clear/Neon acrylics so I can try edge lit engraved stuff
  • Assorted colored mirrored acrylic so I can build a few multi-piece designs I have thought up!
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Looks like wood and leather are big, and echo my asperations.

ā€¢ 1/8" hardwoods
ā€¢ 1/4" hardwoods
ā€¢ leather

Initially I plan to focus on engraved images/drawn artwork.

Also remaking a very old worn out felt covered backgammon board in two tone leather inlay and wrap for the exterior of the hinged case.

It would be killer to have a simple file (candle holder or?) with enough material to accomplish it.

Many of us have had to contend with everything from ā€œwhat are you going to do with a laser?ā€ To ā€œBut you donā€™t know anything about lasersā€ to ā€œThose guys have your money all this time, and you still donā€™t know when?ā€

Being able to produce something from square one would go a long way to vindicate us!!

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1/4 inch hardwoods - standard and exotic

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  • The precise assortment and sizes needed to replicate the Catan board you have been showing off for so long.
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I want the Catan board as a single post, so people can massively upvote it. I know a few others feel the same.

I really want the Proofgrade freebie set to NOT include anything I will be buying in the normal course of my work. So this first item is contrary to most of the prior posts I suppose

There are lots of acrylics which I would not normally buy, like various two-tones, and the faux metal. Butā€¦ there is ZERO reason for proofgrade acrylic to exist IMO. Acrylic is already quite uniform. Sure, some people send you cast when you asked for extruded, and yeahā€¦ you have to figure out the settings yourself (or check the forum for them). Butā€¦ once you do choose to get some acrylic, it is always well behaved and predictable.

EXCLUDE:

  • all ā€œstandardā€ items like plywood, white pine, acrylic

INCLUDE:

  • Colored Leathers
  • Nice hardwoods
  • Anything you guys tried and were amazed it actually worked because you hadnā€™t considered it before
  • bone
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1/8 and 1/4 hardwoods
1/8 and 1/4 plywood
veneers?
clear, colored, and two-tone acrylics

No idea what Iā€™m going to make with it yet either - the materials will more or less determine the final products.

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If you are asking what Proofgrade should exist in the catalogā€¦ Can you try to formulate some acrylics which are more than just two tone?

Get full on RAINBOW acrylic, and figure out the raster settings to polish down to an EXACT layer. That would blow my mind.

Going from bottom to top, I imagine having:

black
white
red
orange
yellow
green
blue
light purple
dark purple
white
black

Maybe 1mm thickness per layer? That makes it 11mm thick for the whole piece, which is just about 1/2"ā€¦ so too thick. 1/2mm per layer possible? Not sure if you can make the colors sufficiently opaque not to show through.

If we want to hit 1/4" thickness then we have to stick to 6 layers

Black
Red
Green
Blue
Purple
White

Thereā€¦ that should work decently well. Maybe if it does work you offer a few different color combinationsā€¦

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Most of my plans would work with 1/8 and 1/4 acrylic and plywood.
Some nice hardwood or veneer for decorative stuff.
Engraveable acrylic, currently I am looking at Rowmark brand gold and silver metallic finish.
I may buy locally and calibrate myself.( and share the results)

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  • Two-tone acrylic
  • Assorted/exotic hardwoods (maple, cherry, etc I can get locally, interested in some of the more exotic ones like purpleheart, bloodwood, padauk, kiaat, etc.)
  • Death fabric :slight_smile:

Iā€™ve begun to use my laser (K40) to make composite items where I am adding something cut/engraved on the laser to something larger as an inlay or component piece of a greater whole (lamps, briefcases, furniture - chairs/tables).

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