Weekly Highlights for the Week ending January 21, 2017

[Jules]

Last Week’s Highlights:
Weekly Highlights for January 8th-14th

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Staff Highlights:

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We’re So Cool!

Rumors about the Full Spectrum Muse Laser

The Basic uses a radiator to cool the closed-loop liquid system; the Pro adds a second, active chiller (the Peltier) that is indeed right before the exhaust.

Beta and Pre-Release Projects:

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Tiny Tikal for Two

Beta Project: Tiny Tikal

As you know, one of my passions is board games, and I intend to use Glowforge to make various bits and parts, as well as making prototypes and such. I wanted an multi-material project and I wanted it to be board game related. [image] My favorite game is Tikal (Tikal | Board Game | BoardGameGeek). Tikal is known as an action point game (that is you get an allotted number of points to use on your turn and various actions cost various numbers of points) in which you are exploring the rain forest …

Practice Patterns for Fine Tuning Cuts

Proofgrade veneer compass rose inlay: from design to finished piece

Worked on a practice cut in chipboard. I think I have the design file set. I got the basic shapes made and then cloned them. Interesting that the way the kerf works it just all collapses down. This also helped me understand how to place the parts on the grain patterns and do an efficient cut. [image]

Proofgrade veneer compass rose inlay: from design to finished piece

The trial in a full size engrave of white oak is finished. I can’t use this particular wood for the base to inlay into. The engrave doesn’t leave a smooth enough base. This is almost perfect quarter sawn so it is going to expose the most of the growth ring pattern without it being endgrain. This is understandable and has nothing to do with the Glowforge but demonstrates the variable density of wood according to growth rings. White oak is also particularly dense and aged white oak like this is …

How Baffling!

Sound Dampening Table Top for your Glowforge

I wanted to continue to cut down on the noise output from the glowforge. The major issue I had was the vent holes on the bottom of the unit reflect sound right off of the table top and out the air gap between the unit and the table. I initially tried putting up some semi sound reflective walls to see if it would help. It did help a little, but was more trouble than it was worth, and I didnt want to restrict air flow. The next step was to make an inset an-echoic like chamber for the glowforge to…

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones “dem bones”

GF cut bone?

I did a test engrave (5% power, 335 i/m, 675 lpi), score (5%, 60 i/m and cut (80%, 15 i/m) on a piece of bone that was over 1/4" thick in most places. The score and engrave of bone is really neat. Lots of potential there. The cut went maybe a millimeter deep. This was some dense cow shank. It would cut through some very thin bone at higher power and slower speed or with multiple cuts. So how I would finish this domino would be to use a bandsaw to finish the cut and then a belt or strip sander…

SVG Viewer for Explorer

Windows SVG Support

If you are on a windows machine I highly recommend installing this extension to allow for thumbnails of SVG files in windows explorer: With all of the SVGs youll be making, youre gonna need it!

Mayan Mahem

Pre-Release | A little engraving fix for you guys on this holiday

Did it just to see how it came out. Recorded a time lapse for you guys. Enjoy! [Aztec Engrave on my Glowforge] [image] After some selective weeding: [image]

Another Pre-Release in the Wild

And another Glowforge Pre-release is spotted

[image] https://twitter.com/MattStultz

Partial Masking and Stain

Pre-Release | A little engraving fix for you guys on this holiday

/uploads/db6859/optimized/2X/5/5af28359c7b8dc0d11115958cbda3aff992b0c86_1_690x452.JPG Pretty much like that?

Mixed Bag of Tricks

Pre-Release | Mixed Bag of projects

I’ve been slacking a bit on posts for the last couple days. So here’s a mix bag of some of the projects that I’ve been working on. Closed Looped 3 Axis Camera Slider. The idea was to move the gantries to a position (by hand) and have it play back the motion at any speed I want. All the parts were designed in F360. So far I have the X Axis done. 1/4" & 1/2" thick Acrylic. (non-Proofgrade) [image] [image] [image] [image] Test cut of 1/2" Acrylic (the back was rough from the miter saw) …

You Can Always Spot a Snitch

You can always spot a snitch

by it’s golden fluttery wings My older daughter is a Harry Potter fan and wanted to make some shirts for her friends. So, we designed a pattern that we could use as a stencil and cut it out of chipboard. Then we used that with some gold fabric spray to put it on some shirts. Here is the stencil. [image] Then we used it to mask our spray paint on the shirt. [image] They turned out pretty nice in various colors. [image]

Getting the Rubber Band Back Together

Getting the rubber band back together

I was looking to make something mechanical and fun. I’d seen some cool rubber band guns recently and wanted to see if I could work out the basics of making one with the Glowforge. I grabbed a picture off the web to use for tracing an outline and then added some ridges on the front and back to hold the rubber bands. I figured I could make a 3 layer sandwich of 1/8" plywood and 1/4" plywood with a sliding piece for the trigger mechanism. I cut out the design and an extra piece of chipboard to …

Itty Bitty Baby Tests

Pre-Release | Small tests from last night

Made these guys last night. Wanted to make sure the settings were good before doing them bigger as presents. I think they turned out well for being 2" & 3.5" [image][image]

They Grow Up So Quickly

Pre-Release | They grow up so quickly

Wanted to post before bed. Early sleep tonight lol. Until tomorrow… They’re all big now! Bioshock: 7x10" - 3hrs Stranger Things: 6x8" - 2.5hrs Both on proofgrade maple ply - default dark [image] [image]

Future’s so Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades:

Pre-Release | What the deuce?

Today I heard our normal morning mating call of, 'Have you seen my sunglasses?. And today I decided to do something about it. So as usual, I jump into Fusion 360. Whipped something up. While I was designing it, I wanted to do something ‘Snazzy’. For one I wanted them to be color coded. And secondly I wanted to use two different materials. I decided I was going to paint the bottom half of both holders and the stock already had the pre-mask on it which made that easy. So I added an extra line to …

Here Kitty, Kitty…

From Illustrator to Inkscape to Glowforge: eight cats!

The trace to cut feature worked fine on the cats, other than trying to isolate a cat in the multiple cat file. But there is more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak, and preparing an outline from the original drawing might be beneficial. [image] I ran into an issue working with @cynd11’s cat file to create an outline for using as a path to cut around the stickers. I have run into the clipping paths error before when importing something from AI to Inkscape to Glowforge. ignored it as it h…

Sous Vide Adapter

Beta Project Teaser - Sous Vide Stand

I’ll just post this one pic for now. I can post more later once the project is finished. It’s a mount for the Sous Vide into my chocolate tempering bowl. [image] Note that the corner of the mounting plate I didn’t account for how close the bowl was. I marked it with a sharpie and used the GF to trace and then cut.

Braided Leather Bracelets

Pre-Release | Leather Bracelet

My wife just knock this out. From a sketch on a notepad. Then vector magic in AI. To pressing the button on the Glowforge. Proofgrade Leather. [image] [image] Dang. (As a side note- While cutting it had a…interesting odor.)

Bio-Shock Medallion - Mixed Media

Pre-Release | Bioshock pt 2 - Mixed Material Plaque

So I already told you guys a friend of mines birthday is this weekend and she loves Bioshock. What better excuse to make something on a laser?! So I decided to take the bioshock logo and just put her name inside it instead. Here’s the original: [image] Had to put her name in, and fix all the light rays behind it. [image] Time to burninate! [image] It has rivets around the edge, so why not actually make those something? I’ll make those tiny little pillars which I can mount an engraved …

Forum Member Contributions:

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Warhammer Crates

Miniature Shipping Crates

I made some miniature shipping crates for my son’s “warhammer” games. This is the first time I paint one of the miniatures and I’m relatively happy with how it came out. [image] [image] But it did take longer than I hoped to paint it. I think the whole process would be easier if I had a Paint Sprayer. Does anyone have any experience with those, and if so, could you recommend one? Also, does anyone know of a good youTube channel that explains how to use paint sprayers

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Single use 3D print "piggy bank"

[image] I printed this bowl with four peaks and noticed hollows mid print, so I paused the print and added some change then finished the print

Free Online Box Generator

Online PDF box generator with symmetric notches – makeabox.io

Reviving this old post because @kigster deserves some appreciation for his work. I checked out three of the online box generators at Makercase, Box Designer and MakeaBox. The big box is the first one I did with maker case using full 1/4" heavy cardboard. I put in a kerf allowance but it is pretty tight. Holds together without assistance. The others are a bit loose so next time with cardboard I’ll add a bit more kerf allowance. So cool to get these boxes. Just add some craft paper to the exterior…

What Happens If You Downgrade an Order

Specs update

I recently downgraded from Pro to Basic without filter. I just emailed support@glowforge.com with my request, we exchanged a couple more emails to hammer out the details, and a few days later they sent me a check for the difference. They sent a check because I originally payed with PayPal and it had been more than a year since my purch… it had been a year since the original transaction. The amount refunded was reflective of the price at the time, not of current prices. (I assumed that would be…

Road Trip to the MakForge

MakForge Field Trip Report

MakForge Field Trip Report Okay, so everybody here is already aware of the generous Glowforge sharing that @marmak3261 has been engaging in. Turns out he does that in person, too. My husband and I were invited to lunch and demo at MakForge headquarters and we took him up on the offer yesterday. What a wonderful experience it was! First order of the day, after the tour of all the ‘forged samples you have already seen (although there is no substitute for in-person observation–the quality of t…

HowTo: Laser Cut Mini Acrylic Shelves

Acrylic Shelves and Stands

Grey Lightning is back with another great how to video [How to Make Laser Cut Display Shelves for Miniature Models]

Glowbabies Abound!

Glowparents: Glowbabies!

Here’s my first offering. I wanted to make 30 nice party favors for the attendees coming to my baby shower this weekend, and it’s traditional in my community for the pregnant person to make some kind of wearable that the attendees can put on when they get the “X has gone into labor!” text. They wear that item (usually an inexpensive freshwater pearl solitaire necklace or bracelet) until the baby is born, as a way of feeling connected to the mom and birth process. I always have to overdo things, …

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