The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Smashed Glass Work Palette

Having a myriad small glass fragments and an idea for their use created the problems of organizing the pieces while not losing them under the bench.

As with the shattered shot-glass coaster, start by lining up the suspects on the scanner:

Small fragments
Small fragments

Blow out the contrast, flip right-to-left, then mask them en masse:

Small fragments - masked
Small fragments – masked

Delete the images (inside their selection masks) to create a binary mask:

Small fragments - masks
Small fragments – masks

Have LightBurn trace the binary images, wrap a rounded rectangle around the lot of them, duplicate the rectangle as a base plate, then fire the laser:

Smashed glass palette - fresh cut
Smashed glass palette – fresh cut

They’re not secured in their sockets, but they won’t fall out unless I fat-finger the whole affair:

Smashed glass palette - loaded
Smashed glass palette – loaded

The thing that takes getting used to: the whole process was about two hours of wall clock time from start to finish, with a leisurely breakfast and KP in the middle.

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One response to “Smashed Glass Work Palette”

  1. High-Impact Art: Smashed Glass Earrings, Proof of Concept – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning Avatar

    […] course, have different glass fragments requiring different shapes, but the outlines came from the same process I used to make the palette organizing the […]