I had been designing in the virtual world for a while, but there was just something I could not lay my hands on… And then I realized that there was nothing I could lay my hands on. I discovered I was missing the satisfaction of having something I could hold in my hands.
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Growing up, my parents would repair anything rather than replace. Sometimes that required dressing something up to hide a repair. My Dad had all of us working to tear out the plaster walls, and we were helpers to refinish our very old house. He was a hard working man.
My mother taught us to cook, sew, knit, crochet, needlepoint, embroider, make glue, paper crafts, and on and on.
I used all of those crafty ideas to bring joy to my free time. I have done a lot of all of these, and then got into machine embroidery, quilt making, (and hiding repairs on clothing).
I was purchasing and logistics manager for a robotics systems company as my last job. I worked closely with the engineers, and we had a mutual admiration environment. They were the creators. I helped bring their creations to a completed project.
When I took early retirement to care for first one grandchild, and then a second one … I jumped at the chance to be the creator, and learn more about wood, joinery, and finishing.
I will never sell anything, because I only want the joy of creating. Usually to key into someone’s interest, sometime’s for a request from one of my kids in a gift they want for someone.
It’s not an inexpensive hobby, but it gives so much joy.
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Thanks, I knew the feeling, but not how to describe it.
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As an environmental engineer, I bow down to you! EE was the one class I passed with a ‘C’ and was glad for. All the other classes, if I didn’t get an ‘A’ or ‘B+’ it was because I just didn’t do my best.
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I’ve wanted to be some sort of Maker for most of my adult life. The more skills I have, the more I want to do. The Glowforge is the tool that lets me take my ideas and apply them to novel material. For me, it’s curiosity that needs to be satisfied. After each effort (failure or success) I think, “OK, so I did ‘this’ and got ‘x’ result…I wonder what will happen if I do ‘that’ instead. I predict ‘y’ result. Let’s see if I’m right.”
It would be nice if I can make some money off of this, but I’m not a great business person.
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I’ve found this part to be far harder for myself as well as a lot of makers than the product itself. Total respect for those who are great at both.
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Not sure why your post got flagged; it’s a weird place to ask the question, but you didn’t break any rules!
The QR codes for PG products aren’t going to do you any good on non-PG materials, so it would end up being a lot of work for nothing.
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If you’re really set on using their settings instead of your own, load a bar code reading app on your phone and scan the proofgrade code. Then use a bar code font/app to make the QR code and print away. A bar code is just a funny looking alphabet machines find easy to read.
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If you click the “unknown” box in the upper left you can pick any of the PG materials without the need of a QR code. Personally, I find this faster since I’m often using scraps without code stickers.
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Why the heck did this get flagged?? Just as @geek2nurse said no rules broken no political crap. A simple question and I myself have wondered this exact thing in the past when I first started.
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Likely because it is completely off-topic and does not belong in this thread. That is a flag option.
It’s Off-Topic
This post is not relevant to the current discussion as defined by the title and first post, and should probably be moved elsewhere.
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Dang, if people start flagging for off-topic posts there will be more flags than not, in this forum! 
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Yeah… this thread is officially off-topic. Completely sidelined by one misplaced question. And we all are making it worse by replying to/about the “off-topic” post. (Sorry, my bad!)
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I gotta say…if you really think about it, the title of the thread is : Question for all makers…which I think could easily be misconstrued as a sort of ‘catch all’ for any questions that anyone might want to ask about making stuff. So, maybe not so far off…
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Regarding the flag…if a new user is a really fast typist, the system can be temporarily tricked into thinking it’s a bot and it automatically throws a flag. It’s happened a couple of times, and Dan has had to go in and remove the flag.
So probably nothing to worry about…the system occasionally glitches.
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I have worked with such folk. They type a paragraph in the time I go from the first key to the second 
They don’t type clickety-clack but a buzzz.
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So do I, when I’m not thinking about it. (Accuracy is rather sucky though.) 
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I was busy turning long Autocad commands into single letters and he was wondering why. Typing each command out longhand, much less a string of them, would cause a fail of the command so he was pretty good about accuracy. He was still faster typing longhand than I was with the single letter commands.
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Whew.
For awhile there I thought off topic posts were going to be the new ban hammer.
Thankfully, the last 14 posts proved it is business as usual.
Truth be told, many times the off the rail discussions here becomes more interesting than the original post.
Your mileage may vary…
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Like others have said, having a tangible item of your own creation is something that is in short supply in today’s fast consumer cycle economy.
I also enjoy the mental exercise of trying to innovate on processes, my favorite thing to do is make something that no one else has tried yet.
Lastly, giving the things I make away as gifts is always fun. My favorite reaction is when someone says “you made this? How?!”
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