What kinds of tools are you gathering to get ready for the pending arrival of your Glowforge? From the looks of things we won’t need a ruler. 
I found a stack of flat laserable craft materials on sale before Christmas. So at least I have a bit of a start.
What is on your needs and wants list?
By now I’ve got an office FULL of stuff to test. 
Woods, veneer, cardboard, chipboard, papers, leather, acrylic, glues of several varieties for the acrylic and the wood. Syringes. Craft foams, reed, corian samples, tile. Sheet cork. Fabric. Square spice bottles. Natural paper plates. Paper masking tapes, vinyl transfer tapes, a really good set of calipers (finally).
Copper wire, butane torch, variable intensity heat gun. Mica powders, paints, brushes for char removal, steel wool, melamine sponges.
Brads, tacks, screws, roller bearings for various projects.
Sanding papers, stain, varnishes, XTC3D, Epoxy, Bondo.
Dremel with burr grinders. Drill bits. Carving knives.
Onion goggles (the one thing I wouldn’t be without…best eye protection there is), sprue cutters, needlenose pliers.
Neodidlium magnets. 
Spray bottle, fire blanket, small halotron extinguisher, laser safety glasses, window vent panel.
Oh and we’ve got the table built.
That might get me through the first week. 
WOW! What a list! And it turns out I have more of those items than I
realized. I need to start organizing.
Oh yeah, and i forgot the LEDs for the edge lit acrylic…I can barely move in here!
I’ve got so many people waiting for me to do their edge-lit acrylic.
Your creative room sounds really fun…do you take visitors?
Heh heh! Only the ones who drop in in unannounced…
You forgot the Neolithium Crystals…neh ?
Thanks for a great list Jules. There are some things on your list that I need to get. 
- Rich
Dang! 
Not even close to being finished…
Where’s that spit take emoji when you need it. 
that’s close enough I guess. I feel like a slacker. I have more cardboard than I know what to do with and calipers. Superglue. Magnets. A McMaster Carr shopping cart full of littleness round pins and spring pins. I need to start collecting wood I guess!
I really need to hit McMasters again…I’ve got a nice little selelction of hardware bits and bobs from the 3D printing, but for this I’m looking for more decorative doo-dads. (hinges, clasps, brads and nails…want to get some little square rustic ones)
I just can’t go to that site without wasting an entire day choosing this screw over that one. Only thing worse is having to sort over them in the bin at the hardware store, with a pile-up of impatient guys looming over me.
which reminds me…don’t forget about your neodidlium magnets, too! (that cracked me up when I saw that)…
Engineering school taught me that it’s hard to go wrong with a 10-32 screw for hobby stuff and if you plan on using only that then you’ll pretty much always have one in hand. Obviously won’t work for every project but that’s always where my designs start. I try to always use the same size pins too so all I have to worry about is length. Otherwise I do the same thing or I end up buying one of everything on McMaster and trying to decide from the comfort of home which works best
Speaking of barely moving, I share my Glowforge room with a small pantry. I don’t think I can cram another thing in there. I may have to rotate my laser supplies in and out depending on my projects. Ha!
You can find materials where you don’t expect…my wife bought a 20x27 picture frame and she did not need the backing from it. That backing, that I kept, was 0.10 MDF. Very nice sheet for “free” sort of. - Rich
Yup. Gonna need these. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MA08VQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
In my longing for my GF to arrive, I’ve been a crazy person measuring everything around the house.
I’ve got stacks of cardboard cut to size, wood (poplar, pine, cherry, black walnut), acrylic, and aluminum. I’ve got the table all set, room cleared, and a file full of designs ready to go.
I don’t have enough room unfortunately, at least not for where the Glowforge will be sitting. 
However I already have all of the EVA Foam I need for the starting projects. 
Further down the road I’ll buy some woods and acrylics from the hardware stores around here and set them aside for the Glowforge!
I do have a caliper and a dremel with various bits. Also, I have plenty of pocket knives and exacto blades laying around here. Paints and spray paints won’t be a problem either.
There’s still a ton of things I want and need to buy for use with the Glowforge, but for now I lack the room and the money, so I’ll just wait until I get a bit closer to that delivery date
Great topic idea by the way!
FYI Tandy leather has a February sale going on now (after typing that I realized DOH…anyways) and although nothing overly exciting caught my eye on the leather, the accessories are on sale as well. If you’re planning any leather GF use - the little threaded spikes (think spiked dog collars), the belt buckle ends, small screw on conchos (hearts crosses,stars, etc - no not lucky charm marshmallows! 
) , key ring clips and belt clips and several sizes of screw posts. I stopped by on the way to work and bought some different size screw posts ( one of the things I had gotten (for more $$) from inventables).
The neat thing was I grabbed a handful of some of the veg tanned leather scraps they sell by the pound (several odd shaped pieces larger than 10-12 square inches) and she didn’t charge me !! (on purpose!!) yea!!
