Weekly Highlights for the Week Ending May 20, 2017

[Jules]

Last Week’s Highlights

In case you missed it:

THE PRODUCTION UNITS ARE SHIPPING!!!

Much happiness everywhere.
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Bay Area Maker Faire Highlights

Shapiro Interview on Twitch

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Makforge Setup

Bay Area Maker Faire 2017: On site report from MakForge

[image][image] Checked in. Unpacking kit. Setting up booth. Met Yves and Kara. And waiting for a Glowforge. Imagine that. Hah. We love you team Glowforge. I got got a corner booth!!! Woohoo. [image] Brother MICHAEL is my assistant.

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Staff Smarts

When will the Production Units start shipping?

Discussion of the May '17 Update

We are currently shipping pre-release units, and are scheduled to deliver all production units by the end of July/August depending on order date. We haven’t shared any interim dates.

(Editorial note: Pretty sure @dan meant to say ship, not deliver, based on the context of the original question.)

Are PreRelease Users allowed to make any modifications to their machines?

Can PRU borrowers make modifications to their machines? (evolved into camera focus and material height discussion)

No. They’re our machines, and while we don’t put many restrictions on what customers can do with them while they’re borrowing them, we do ask that they not modify them.

How will the final Materials setting codes work?

@dan

Lots of folks have ideas for how they want it to work: Just like it does now. Print your own barcodes. Type in material codes.

The plan of record right now is to remove saved Proofgrade settings, which have already caused their share of support problems (but are a necessary evil right now). We plan to replace them with saved “your own” settings, so you can record whatever works best for you on your own non-PG materials. (That may or, more likely, may not be the same settings used for similar-looking Proofgrade materials).

Like all plans, though, we’ll continue to listen to reports from customers about what works and what doesn’t, and see if that’s the best path.

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Beta and PR Projects

3 Hanging Planters

Beta Project: Multi-Tiered Hanging Planter Concept

Hello! Got another planter project finished, and now that they’re planted, I have pictures to share. So this continues my concept(s) of planter containers that are sealed, finger jointed, with clear acrylic fronts. Like the ‘Wall Hanging Succulent Planters’ I created here. Actually, this was the first project in this series that I had designs for. It took me a bit longer to complete because I used some older ‘unfinished’ cherry hardwood, that I had to finish over …

Catalog Jewelry

Beta Project: Some Design Catalog Jewelry

Hello there everyone, I’ll make this post quite a bit more succinct than the previous one I posted last week. I made a few of the items that are available from the design catalog. Check it out! These are done on scrap pieces I have of the hardwoods, and I went to my local bead store to snag the hardware to finish em off. ‘Summer Feather Dangle Earrings with Details’ These are actual size of the design as imported directly to the app from the catalog after purchase. Ran …

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Mother’s Day

One Last Mother's Day Thing Then I'm Done I Promise

Cranked it out at the 11th hour: [image]

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Acrylic Escutcheon

The Obligatory Escutcheon

[New photo by Mark Evans] All I have in 1/4 right now is clear. I need to get a rainbow of colors. Also, I have got to get good in some 2d program. I ended up going to F360 with this as I can get what I want most every time where I was getting my butt kicked in Inkscape. One problem with even a simple little project like this is it overstimulates me. I don’t just see the escutcheon, I see the potential for a hundred more projects…

Cider 4 Pack

Pre Release: Beer/Cider 4 Pack

A friend/colleague (he is our hospital CIO) owns a farm/animal sanctuary and he brews beer, mead and cider (he got the farm craft brewery license a couple years back) from their farm apples and bees. The farm also happens to conveniently be at the mid point of my shorter 32mi bike route, so is our water refill point, so was out there yesterday with my niece on a ride. (they have alpacas, goats, pigs, apple orchard, blue berry fields, bees, a shiitake farm, chickens, horses, geese, etc). They als…

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Beer 4 Pack Add On
That of course spawned a colleague to demand one for his brewery (standard sized bottles)

And yet more beer holding

The problem of showing your work at work, is that other colleagues go “wait, can you make one for my brewery?” He at least brews “normal sized” bottles (luckily it was all parametric so a couple of minutes work - although laser joint made some very strange choices when I downsized it, and had to “reverse” the joints, which made it slightly less goofy)… And yes the logo is spelled right. Again the amazon birch ply. [image] [image] (prior to gluing, but figured you can’t see anything with th…

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Maker faculty sign

Pre Release: Silly maker sign

I am faculty in our SPIN (Surgical Program in Innovation) which is a course designed to get surgical residents thinking about designing, making and selling medical devices. The course starts with idea generation, then a hackathon, then business plan generation, then I teach CAD, making (3D printing, etc) and electronics and now we are coming to the end of the course this weekend, and I am one of the faculty judges. There are 3 others (VCs and faculty from the Harvard Business School/Sloane Schoo…

Edge Lit Acrylic Night Light

Something Special

Some of the forum regulars know that I lost my dad a couple of weeks ago. One of them did something so nice I wanted to share it. So I’m going to share the text of his private message, and hope that it doesn’t embarrass him too greatly…Kindness like this deserves recognition though…it’s rare and special. (Thanks David.) "The Moments in Time thread with the dead tree, as I was putting that together, I thought of you and your Father… out of the blue. I share this with you that you might see it…

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Etching Metal

Who says you can't etch / engrave metal with the GF? I just did! Well, sort of, lol

Behold, the glory… [image] [image] [image] [image] Closer look… [image] Yes, folks, that is real, pure copper metal!! I think this can be done with steel, too! Now, obviously, I didn’t do it ONLY WITH the forge; there’s more to it, but it’s pretty easy. I’m guessing that a lot of you have done things like this in the past, and already know how it was done And for those who don’t: It’s really pretty easy! And using the forge makes the old process so obsolete; this …

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Napkin Holder

French Napkin Holder

I’m not happy with this one yet, so the final design is going to probably change significantly, but I wanted to show it anyway, since it’s the one with the really tight inlay I was talking about in another thread. I’ve got an old boring napkin holder in the kitchen - it’s totally dullsville, and I wanted something with a little more oomph. (I’ve got a strange mix of French Country Cafe’/Art Deco going in the kitchen, so I settled on a fleur-de-lis for the holder.) I got to playing with a desi…

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Print And Cut

Print and Cut: Thirty-two Cats

If you’ve followed my history here you will know I’m a nut about cats. One of the things I do in my “spare” time is make thank you cards for a no-kill cat shelter to send to their donors. My cards are pretty simple, they feature a single cat, which I drew based on a photo of a rescue kitten, then each cat is colored in with Copic markers with different fur patterns for variety. I add a stamped Thank You sentiment to the card, and that’s it. The cut out cats are raised on 1mm thick EVA foam f…

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Punny Physics Preview

Dispatches from the front (Pre-Release Report) - It's Just Physics Preview

If you’re following my adventures with a PRU, you can probably surmise from my last report (Dispatches from the front (Pre-Release Report) - rabbit hole edition - #9 by jamesdhatch) that I have many pieces of partially chewed acrylic on my hands. You’d surmise correctly. I have a series of Physics related coasters or knicknack plaques (aka “dust collectors” per my wife) I want to make. I figure I’ll send my daughter back to college with some come August when she returns. She’s got a new apartme…

Slide Rule Escutcheon

The Obligatory Escutcheon

My non-glowing SG-1 escutcheon was seeming a bit bland, so while today’s amazing announcements were flooding the forum, I made this… [image] Decided to call it SR-1. Yup, Slide Rule 1 Proofgrade Cherry ply, btw.

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Stained Glass Lamp

Stained Glass Lamp with Mitered Corners

Some of you may remember the teaser I posted a few days ago about miter cuts on the Glowforge. I finally scraped together enough “me” time to finish the project. I’ve been working on it a long time! (@marmak3261 saw parts of it when he visited last week). First, the finished project, then I’ll show the progress photos in case anybody is interested in trying something similar. [image] [image] Total height is 4.25" and the “stained glass” panels are 2" each side including the walnut corners…

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Talladega Nights

Mothers day gift that is going viral at work or, How I got hooked on engraving

Normally I am the last one to be impressed by my own work but this one I really like. Fortuitously the original was the wrong aspect ratio to do an 8x10, cropping would have cut out things that needed to remain so I took the elements that were going to go on the frame and put them right on the photo. I learned a lot of GIMP the hard way today but I am thrilled with the results. This is THREE hours of engraving and as big as the Glowforge will do. I wish I could get more detail in the face but ov…

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Forum Frolics

Report from ISA (and a glowfolk encounter)

I went to Las Vegas last month. It was hot. [image] I had a reason though, it wasn’t a vacation. I attended the International Sign Association Exposition (ISAExpo2017) to check out some things and buy some stuff, but I spent a significant amount of time at the show thinking about lasers, looking at lasers, and talking to material manufacturers about laserables. [image] I mentioned Glowforge to many, many people. Some had heard of it, some hadn’t. I told most of the laser guys, when appro…

Odor Control

Odor Control Solution For Lasered Items

I found a solution to a problem I was having, that people may be interested in. I have a whole pile of cardstock cat stickers that I cut out using the Glowforge, and was in the process of coloring them in when I had to stop. The strong odor of burned paper was making my eyes water and giving me a headache. So I remembered a small appliance we bought a while ago for mold odor remediation, but never used: a small ozonator. We never worked up the nerve to run it in the house due to all the dir…

[teditz]

Do you sleep??
Thank you for all you do!

[Jules]

Not much! Chuckle!

[teditz]

I’m sure!!

[cynd11]

Thanks as always, @jules, great job!