I want to make trivets or hot stands for Christmas gifts but wasn’t sure which materials, if any, could withstand the heat. Has anyone had success?
Ceramic tile would be the best I think. Search the forum plenty of ideas on tiles and settings.
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Not proofgrade, but slate is also a possibility.
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Inspiration is easy to find here:
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Oh bummer! Thank you!
Depends on how hot “heat” is going to be. For something that comes off a stove top, wood would probably work fine. For something that comes out of an oven, though, Ceramic is going to be your best bet since you can’t cut metal. Of course, you can’t cut Ceramic either, but you can engrave it…
Like this hot-beverage coaster I made from a bathroom tile for my wife, about a day after I got my Glowforge (to try and convince her it was worth the money 
).
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I really love this!
Thanks. I actually did a half dozen, each different but the same knitting theme. But apparently I don’t have any pictures. She is an avid knitter, of course. But she also likes Hedgehogs. I did a couple with small hedgehog caricatures carrying balls of yarn and/or needles.
My plan worked perfectly, and she didn’t extract a pound of flesh in exchange for accepting the machine in to our home. 
Engraved from B&W images, colored in the exposed ceramic with some Sharpie permanent markers, then shot with clear gloss acrylic to give the exposed area some protection from inevitable spills, them being coasters and all. They still look good a couple years on.
And as literally like the first thing I tried to make with the GF, it really proved the marketing strategy is valid, you literally take it out of the box and start using it. I know a lot of people who’ve gone the “China Laser” route, and while they have more power and larger work areas (I wish I had a bit more of both, myself), they took a long time to get running properly. I don’t have the bandwidth in my life for those kinds of complications.
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Exactly why I didn’t explore the less expensive options. I knew this product would be worthy of my investment.
After the first card for Valentine’s day I designed - she was good with it.
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Thank you for sharing how you did the colouring, I may actually give this technique a try myself, I can imagine the hedgehog ones were so cute. My Mum would love something like that as she has a few local ones that she always feeds with special hedgehog food!
Exactly why I chose to buy the 
, I needed low barriers to making stuff.
A friend has gone the China route with his 3D printer, he is a bit of a boffin so has no trouble figuring out what needs to be done but he spends more time faffing with it and messing about than making things with it.
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I’ve gone through a lot of 3D printers. My first was a MakerBot, got it when they first came out, I dunno, 15 years ago? It was good as a first-time introduction to the FDM technology. But I’ve studiously avoided the kit machines ever since. Pay a bit more for a solution that you can just unbox and use.
I recently broke my rule and bought in to a Kickstarter for a belt-printer, which has the ability to print “infinite” length objects. But I have to assemble it. Paid for early shipping even. It’s been sitting in the box for 2 months waiting for me to find the time to tear in to it…
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I have made several trivets using MDF, and most plywood is just veneered MDF.
Not putting on or in the heat, so heat resistance can be relative.
Point is to hold it off the expensive counter, and the double layer MDF I made do that without issues.
As mentioned above - tile for the win if you are talking HOT…
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Cork trivets from IKEA, Johnsons Plastics Plus and many other sources, engrave nicely and are designed to withstand heat from cooking. If you like hedgehogs try searching for “Hedgie Trivet” in the Free Laser Designs category and find an adorable hedgehog trivet with a living hinge by @Jules . It is one of my favorite designs.
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I saw one of these last night at Microcenter. It was made by creality and had that nozzle you could adjust to an angle too.
I think I saw it in a video once and wanted it, and there it’ll was at microcenter for 900… maybe next time, after I got there I had to leave right away to get my son from baseball practice.
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