QOTD from Glowforge: What Proofgrade materials do you want?

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Honestly I’m not looking to get a deep discount unless I pay in advance.

if I paid $50 and got $50 worth of materials I’d be very happy. If those $50 of materials were all the odd bits and pieces left from a laser Thursday with funny spots missing or just tiny samples I’d be much less than thrilled. But if it’s say a bunch of oddly assorted mostly squared pieces larger than 5" in each direction that they just had left over. I’d think I could do something with this.

If as @rebecca suggested it’s stuff for a pre-selected project, I’d be thrilled too, for a while. I’m going to be completely new to Glowforge and lasers when it arrives. It’s going to be crazy fun and exciting(hopefully not in the burn the house down way.)

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About the only way it would work for people like me is if it was not automatic. It would be fine to get an email from the company that said something like “We have put together a special surprise materials combo package for June. 25% off the standard price. Select the Ship-It-To-Me button below to accept”.

Gives me a chance to ignore. If I feel especially “spur of the moment” I might hit accept. There is a least a slight incentive to order something that I know will have some stuff I like, some stuff I don’t need.

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Y’all are just proof that as a group we are sure smarter than any single one of us.

One of my biggest thought problems is assuming that everyone experiences what I do and has interests in the same vein. Makes me a lousy tester working with software.

Sounds like we have a good start on yet another survey for @dan and co to pursue.

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If you don’t have a matching ballista you should add that to the arsenal. Those suckers throw hard :grin:

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I live at the edge of most bell curves. But totally get that many people love random little surprises.

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Love it!

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Definitely leather and wood veneers

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For several reasons, I couldn’t imagine glowforge doing something other than a design of the month club. They have in-house designers, they have proofgrade materials and they sell a laser cutter - not only is it “synergy people”, but unlike someone who just wants to sell you wine, or a book, every month, they have a lot of reputation and good will to lose by screwing it up.

The value proposition is a professional design you can make yourself with everything in the box. I would not expect it to be a discounted price proposition. That is how I would approach it at any rate. Obviously, it would only be of interest to someone who likes this kind of thing as you could always just pick a design and materials package from the store (presumably that will be a thing) every month and make your own club of one.

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Which reminds me… Thanks @rpegg! I’ve got to go return a stupid thing I forgot to decline.

Maybe a materials/design club for a year, where you know in advance what several months will bring and there are one or two “surprise” months. You sign up for a year (not unending) and you know your own interest level in many of the projects coming. Then when they arrive - SURPRISE! it’s Christmas every month, and even better, you know you actually want the design/materials.

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The bamboo plywood and exotics in the video are promising! Thank you for sharing.

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Dark Walnut in any various depths possible,
Exotic hardwoods
Leather

Ignoring the things to sell that have likely been all over this list from everyone else, have been cultivating a list of first projects to learn on. Had hoped to be able to make a cake topper and/or some groomsman gifts in time for our wedding in late October, but with the preorder units shipping later, going to have to find another way to do that.

Organizing
Want to do drawer inserts for dressers with cutouts for everything to be organized at the end of the day.
Can’t wait to have uniform spice jars and make a rack for them all.

Will be engraving everything in the office that isn’t nailed down and cut down on those “Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler” Milton moments.

Furniture/Home
Really looking forward to figuring out some cool furniture to make with that pass through door. That and wall art. Going to have some fun building some wine racks and some lighting.

Lots of wall art.

And boxes.

Tech
Cell phone cases, enclosures, cable chases and other tech random stuff like a headphone stand that has room for the charging cable in the right spot. I look forward to being able to make things everywhere fit cleanly and like a glove to reduce clutter.

Misc.
Going to have fun taking all sorts of things apart and replacing pieces of things around the house that aren’t particularly interesting with nicer hardwood pieces. Coverplates on tech things, or switch plates, whatever. Ever since the preorder I’ve started seeing these little mini projects around the house and office, this is likely the only place where people know what I mean. If it is relatively thin, has screw holes on it, and would look better in wood.

Work for a film festival, so I will probably be using it to redesign our filmmaker awards, customize them with actual campaign art, and have it all cost a lot less than going to an awards shop.

Random other thought- Pixelmator plugin?

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just like when you buy a new car, all of a sudden you start seeing that model everywhere…
I’m seeing potential projects everywhere.

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Welcome @JedTheMaker. I like the way you think. Your world is your canvas!

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I am thinking a 50" x 3/4" pure white leather belt blank/strap (mostly strap), some 1/8" laminated (layered) and non laminated hardwoods, Then verious 1/4" hardwoods. The leather strap I’d like to find a design and etch it in and create a custom belt, the 1/8" hardwoods I’m thinking of cutting a lucet (spelling maybe off) used in weaving cordage, and the 1/4" laser cut multiple layer (size dependant) inkle loom parts again a weaving device since I know a lot of individuals here that would love this concept. oh and throw in clear plexiglass around 1/8" thick I been hankering to try a modified version of the tea candle holder I saw @dan create in a video w/Adam back before the launch.

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I would love it if you sold samples of the same material that Macbooks (and other laptops/phones) are made out of, so we can test out designs before putting an actual laptop under the (laser) knife.

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I’d say between now and shipping you’d be able to find an iPhone or Macbook to play with. I’m hanging on to my 4s in a drawer for the first trial.

But you have a good point. There is no reason for the Glowfolk not to post settings for specific phones and other mobile devices that they have already engraved. In fact, we can keep encouraging them to have default settings for something as standard as an iPhone, no matter what model. Would be interesting to see how much settings would change from model to model.

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I would think that one anodized aluminum device would use very similar settings to any other similar anodized aluminum device, wouldn’t it? If so, then hopefully they will share the settings for the ones it will be able to auto-recognize, and failing that, some tips in the manual for sneaking up to it with multiple high speed, low power runs.

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You can always do like @dan said the glowforge folk did. ordering used broken things off E-bay because they are cheap. test on the E-bay one then do the final print on your target.

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DUH! That is an outstanding idea!...that I wish I’d thought of.

I’m not interested in lasering any of my gear - if I want to dress it up, I cut something out of adhesive vinyl, which has the advantage of being removable when I change my mind about liking the design, and provides additional protection from scratches to boot.

current iPad w/keyboard deco:

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But having said that, hubs has had his stolen a couple of times - lasering his name on it probably wouldn’t be a bad plan.

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Sounds like an excellent plan to me. Should think a thief might have a hard time explaining why it isn’t their name indelibly marked.

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