Greetings, I grew up as an Air Force Brat and have moved 37 times in the last 58/9 years. When peeps ask where I’m from, I give them a blank look and either say, “Everywhere,” or “Nowhere,” depending on my INTJ mood. My Shapeoko 5 Pro arrived at the beginning of September and it’s taken nearly a month to get my table for it built and to make a thousand mistakes trying to bring my Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator skills to Carbide Create and Carbide Create Pro. I remain baffled still about some things that should be “easy.” Yesterday I tried to extend the length of a cross that already has the tool paths and a 45° chamfer and spent an hour and a half before throwing up my arms in disgust. Kinda shameful to use the Lord’s name in vain so many times while trying to manipulate software to make a crucifixion cross. But that’s the level of frustration I have with CCP right now. Oh, BTW, the freaking manual is from 2001. Download it if you buy a Shapeoko. I’m still finding it’s helpful. Fun Fact: I was noted as the foremost student iconoclast as editor of the student newspaper at Auburn University of Montgomery in 1987-88. (That means we raised hell with the paper—including a national news story from when I got a list of people with AIDS in Montgomery, AL that allegedly was being maintained by the police department.) Upon graduation, I went to work for the first Republican governor in Alabama since Reconstruction and served as the press secretary to the next. I’ve also been the communications director of the Dallas Independent School District in the double-oughts, and then did PR for one of three companies in Dallas promoting STEM programs for at-risk youth across the country. My maternal grandfather was an artist and woodworker. We lived with them while Dad was in Special Opps for the USAF in Heuy H1-N1 gunships in Nam in 1970-71. That’s where my woodworking experiences began and have continued on throughout the years. During the summer months, my 10.5 yo Great Pyrenees like to tent camp on our 40 acres of land in the deep woods NW of Marquette, MI and less than 20 miles from Lake Superior to the north!

@Clinton Jones, that’s a great series of questions. I know @Ryan Drapela will tell you that if your product begins to sell well online, it will be copied. A certain country with cheap labor that’s rising as an adversary to the US even copied the photos of his products (ones with peeps in them) and listed them on one of the cheap-ass goods sites. (Think ali-) US GOV TRADEMARK OFFICE I have used AI to do some mark searches, and then there’s the US gov free site: (https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-information) This link will allow you to search for active trademarks. US PATENT OFFICE There’s a US Patent Office site, too. ETSY AND WORDS TO AVOID IN YOUR LISTINGS/DESCRIPTIONS Etsy.com has this page for use of their logo in your marketing: (https://www.etsy.com/legal/trademarks/) Etsy also has this semi-exhaustive/generic list of words to avoid in your descriptions—one I’d not even thought about is “Onesies,” for babies. Throughout the last calendar year, Etsy has been warning and then shutting down stores that have enfringed on marked words and in some cases, it’s put people completely out of business. Here is a beginer’s list of words to watch out for: (https://thriveonetsy.com/words-to-avoid-in-etsy-listings/) PATENT ATTORNEYS From an online market research company I began in 2000, we hired patent attorneys and they charged a mere $250 per hour. And did they charge and charge and charge. My advice is to put your product out there and see if anyone even buys it before you open that rabbit hole. Ryan will assure you, again, that if your design is good, it’s going to get copied. And if it’s done by sleezy asshats in that country where a worldwide epidemic began, honestly, you’re not going to have much luck enforcing a mark or patent if you get one.

My CNC is a 4’ x 4’ Shapeoko 5 Pro that rests on a self-made 65” x 65” x 34” table with raisable casters. I’m using Carbide Create Pro and for those who say jumping into the deep end of the pool on this software is easy, well, they need a kick in the arse. Coming from an Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator world, at least 1/5 of your muscle memory shortcuts from Adobe do not work. Oh, and if you upgrade to pro, simply entering your licensing information to the free version does not automaticaly cause a change in the functionality. No, you must download another version of the software, presently the V.7 model. NOTE: The free version and the pro versions have the same model number. I went 17 days before I realized this. But I am excited about having this machine.