Photo engraving - check.
So easy to drop a file and print to you know what.

Looking at all the talent on display here, I began to feel humbled by the works of all the other PRU’s.
Since housing one in my shop, with a mass of materials at my disposal by the grace of glowforge - I find myself waking up at 5:00 AM. (she’s like - “Are you OK?”)
The education has been continuous, and I find myself filled with impatient optimism. I satisfied a long standing desire to throw away an eyesore today.

The builder grade doorbell cover.

Stickin’ out in the middle of my half million dollar home was this POS.

That blank canvas of cherry ply… oooh. @rpegg’s demo of an inlay… a laser knife sittin’ there calling my name… (“Are you OK?”).

Each model is a wee puzzle in itself (for me). Calipers in hand, I modeled that thing down. The idea was a living hinge to wrap the existing base. OK, how do I do that?
A search yielded This. Read up. There are two files you have to drop into the Inkscape “Extensions” category, it’s there, you just have to dig for it. Works like a charm.

So this is what I had…

…and this is what I made…

I wanted to try a combination of techniques. The living hinge face is an Inkscape file, but I modeled an end out of thin cardboard and traced it and printed. The laser still shows the completed file when your finished, so I printed it again. Cake.

Press-fit Sun out of florescent yellow 1/8" acrylic.

The product is a double score of the bamboo stalks and a default dark engrave of the leaves - to accommodate a black walnut veneer inlay. (the sun is backed by white paper. I thought about edge lit since the doorbell transformer provides 3 volts, but perhaps another time).

This is from someone who has no previous CNC or laser experience.
I can hardly wait to see how this forum blooms when we all have our machines!

So, the founders have given me a chance to own this machine at a greatly reduced price, graced me with a prerelease glowforge delivered at their expense, along with a generous supply of proofgrade materials to use and learn on their dime.
That tells me all I need to know about this company… except maybe how to get in on their stock. That’s what the venture capitalists saw.

Drinking the Koolaid? Actually none was being served. Cheerleader? Absolutely.

(A post I worked up for my G+ collection)