It's been a week

 After last weekend's productivity, this weekend was a bit of a letdown. But there is good reason for that. Let me explain. 

Last week we had Monday and Tuesday off. So on Monday I scheduled a demo of the xTool P2 down in Tucson. We drove down, spent an hour with the guy showing us how it works and giving us the rundown on it. It was good because not only does he use one, he has a laser business himself and has one of his own. It was awesome. Then we went to lunch in Tucson and drove home. Hubby was of the opinion that I should get one. So I did. It was delivered on Friday. 

Friday morning the science club went to the worm farm. It was actually pretty cool and I learned a lot. It also got me inspired to revitalize the garden in our backyard. But it was a very early morning and I was excited because my new laser was coming. We got home around noonish and I dove into tearing down my D1 laser. Also, we were planning on having a garage sale on Saturday so there was that to get ready for. After my laser was torn down, I made some signs for the sale with my vinyl cutter. While this was going on, my new laser was delivered. So once I finished the signs, I dove into setting up my new laser. It came with a base that had to be assembled. Then the laser itself had to be lifted from the ground to the base on my craft table and that sucker is heavy. It took Hubby and I some careful planning to get it up there, but we did. I got it all set up only to discover that I did not have any distilled water for the CO2 tube. By this time it was 6 or 7 and I called it a night. 

Saturday morning we were up early getting ready for the garage sale. What a flop that was. Literally the only person who stopped was a friend of ours. A few cars drove by but didn't stop. Ugh!! What a waste. But I had the opportunity to work with my small laser. I worked on a full tumbler wrap and it worked. I need to master that but it's not that hard. We shut the garage sale down about 11 am and packed everything all up. Took the time to organize things because we have a show next week, so that was good. Once that was all done we went shopping and grabbed some lunch and picked up distilled water. It is now about 1pm and I finally get to my laser. Got it filled and primed and fired the puppy up. It is so exciting to be able to cut acrylic. It cut well. 

When I purchased the laser, I purchased a bundle that has an extension on it so you can cut material up to 3 meters long. I was excited for making big things. But the arms of the extension would hang off my table. I needed to figure out a way to make them fit. This morning I got up with the idea of turning the laser around. I currently had it set up landscape on a landscape table. What if I put it portrait on a landscape table? I did some measurements and it looked like it would work, so I spun that puppy around. I put the extension on and it fit great. Yay!!! I figured out how I could use the extension. I then spent the next hour or so trying to figure out how to work it. Once I got that down, I was excited to make something large. My first item I discovered a major problem with the extension. Normally the laser head moves back and forth and up and down to cut the pattern on the material laying on the bed. Well with the extension moving the wood, the laser head just moves back and forth. If there are little cutouts, they fall to the bottom and just stay there with the laser going back and forth over them. I watched little fires keep starting. I was afraid that a real fire would start and I could not figure out how to get the pieces out of the way. So I stopped it. Most of the things I create have small pieces cut out of them. This was not going to work. So I decided that I would use the extension only when I needed it and proceeded to take it off and spin the laser around again. 

All this is to say that I had no time to really make anything or work on anything. That means I will have to be on it this week and next Friday. I also have to figure out how to get the wood I have cut down to fit inside the bed. 

So while a very busy weekend, I did not get anything done in terms of my business. I will need to work on that this week.