Woohoo, my first topic in the laser designs category! Pretty simple but I thought I would share nonetheless
My new job holds monthly ‘office events’ where people can sign up to plan and host each month’s event, and are given a small budget for food/decorations/etc. The architecture department (all four of us! lol) decided we’d put our name down for the November event, which usually has a Thanksgiving theme to it. Naturally, I wanted lasers to take part.
Went and found some basic turkey clipart for a good outline of the head and neck, live traced and edited the path in Illustrator, then hopped into SketchUp to build the rest of the pieces. This is designed with 1/8" Baltic birch in mind (aka the most cost efficient material on Ponoko lol).
I knew it couldn’t be anything too complex since we’re on a budget and need to be able to make at least 32 turkeys. Tested the design last night in paper then in 1/16" chipboard…how easy this process will be when I have a glowforge!! Each piece of the turkey is roughly 2" tall, with the feathers each at 1.5". As the file names state, this design hasn’t been tested for kerf adjustment yet. If we get the green light on sending these out to get cut, I’m going to do a test sheet first with different kerf adjustment sizes- I’ll add more files once those happen!
Thanks! The feathers remind me a bit more of flower petals than feathers, but ah well haha. Plenty of time to make a super cool Thanksgiving table centerpiece once I have a laser cutter of my own…
Thank you! I was thinking the same thing, just add a little slot for a card and they’re good to go! Lots of options for customization/additional details. For the office event we’re thinking of having some sort of decorating contest to see who can make the most tricked-out turkey lol.
Aww thanks!! Super excited I’m getting to make them for a job event. My old office loved to talk about incorporating new technologies and encouraging people to bring up new ideas, but when it came down to it all those conversations just sort of happened, then that was it.
Hahaha that’s the great part about the parties though…you don’t have to help out at all if you’re not signed up for that month! Of course, they may still ask for help with lasercut part favors, and in that case…I’d honestly probably jump at the chance to do it, who am I kidding So long as the office will pay to make 'em!
Thank you!! I’ve found that it’s much easier to come up with an idea when you have an actual goal and constraints in mind. Before this I had such a frustrating mental block trying to come up with ideas for the glowforge…I wonder if there’s a laser cutter equivalent to all those online writing-prompt generators? lol
Had to do a fair bit of tweeking on this. For 1/8" baltic birch, the slots were way too wide. The stock I have runs about .124" thick.
Also, don’t forget to use raster or vector engrave…added a bit of feathery look to the tail. As well as added an eye and cutouts in the feathers.
There is much more details that could be added but just did a few for example.
I had some scrap orange so used that…the lighting makes it look different colors though.
That would be so cool!!
So long as the office will pay to make 'em!
I’ve found that it’s much easier to come up with an idea when you have an actual goal and constraints in mind. Before this I had such a frustrating mental block trying to come up with ideas for the glowforge…I wonder if there’s a laser cutter equivalent to all those online writing-prompt generators? lol
