What should I print next?

So, got the :glowforge: area all cleaned up. Finally figured out I was doing it wrong and have my settings tuned up.

Now I am ready for the next print. Don’t want anything for selling, I want something fun and just because I can.

What should I print next? I would love to see your ideas, wonderful GF community!

If you reading this and your going to tell me to search the forums. That is not anyway near as fun as this builds community. Thank you for your input though.

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Do you want a design pre-made, or are you looking for suggestions for your own design?

I have been playing around with vehicles lately (tank, helicopter, wind-up car).

I posted the helicopter in “Made on Glowforge”, but I have finished the tank or the car yet…

Edit: Of course I love playing with gears and machines… I am more engineer than artist…

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I suggest clicking on the “Gallery” tab and enjoy the pictures of what others have made. Also, take some time to look through the “Free Laser Designs” category. Lots of inspiration available.

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Print and play sound nice.

I am confident you spoiled me as the marble machine was like my 4th print after I got my machine

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I plan to post the tank or the car when I am done with them. (The tank is pretty complicated though.) The car started out as gear test and kinetic-energy storage test.
The tank was a chain drive test that I was going to use for a marble-run, but my wife wanted me to do something else with it.

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The problem is that searching the forum is exactly the best idea for how to get inspired. That’s literally why we spent all this time and effort posting things.

You want to build community? Make and post more stuff!

Anyway, yes, search the forum and use the advanced features to do stuff like sort by number of likes in the MOAG category, you’ll be amazed at all you’ll find.

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I see you and Mr. this has already been done have met.

An approach I often take for what next is "what will do the most for making my life easier? Where do I spend the most time? "

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You could try searching the #glowforge hashtag on Instagram for inspiration. :grin:

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I hear you.

So what is your goal? An artsy-object? A practical thing?

I always have dozens of projects in the works, but for me the fun is in designing and testing out small pieces as a part of it. I have very little “stuff I made” around the house. One thing I do have is a wall of pictures and objects from or inspired by Africa. One project I’ve been working on for a while is small 3D “sliced” animal heads to go up there at some point. I also have some designs for aircraft I’ve flown or that inspire me. Several people have shared stacked layer designs here that are really cool, gave me ideas on how to tackle different subjects in similar ways.

So perhaps you could make a display (framed?) of something, or a collection of things, that inspire you?

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One thing that really helps me is that I keep notes on all my random ideas. When I feel like I’m not sure what to do, I go browse the list.

Oh also, I almost forgot there is a specific tag for this, “projectinspo”. You just search for “tags:projectinspo” like this:

https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=tags%3Aprojectinspo

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I dunno, maybe I’m just contrary, but telling people how / how not to respond to your post doesn’t incline me toward participating in your version of “community.” And we’ve already accomplished a whole lot of community-building in the years we’ve been here, which you’ll miss out on if searching the forum is prohibited. :wink:

But you’ve gotten some great suggestions, anyway. Be sure and let us know what you decide on!

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Halloween is coming…something to spook the kids would be in order. :jack_o_lantern: :ghost: :robot: :skull:

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I’ve found that everyone likes these quick and easy cuts! :sunglasses:

Mandala

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yea, I need to make an Echo Dot shelf for the kitchen so that’s on the short list.

As I was cleaning up some scraps and such yesterday, I had some extra space on some pieces I was throwing away so I used a few of the shapes under the + in the interface just for fun.

It amazes me how much fun it is to have a piece of wood and end up with a fun little shape.

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THANK YOU!

I love this post. It really does inspire me. Thanks for sharing!

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Thank you. I will see if I can use Tags more. I like that

I have a pinterest board I use to tag a lot of things I want to make but when I come back to them I am not usually as impressed as I was when I tagged it.

Thanks for the reply. I really was not intending to be controversial. Some of the ideas shared here have been really inspiring. And have encouraged me this day. Sorry if I was a negative towards your day at all.

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Haha - We did just do a pumpkin thing that turned our really cute.

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That’s beautiful, did you design it also?