I designed this last year. Haven't had much time for pattern design lately. It hasn't been cut yet but my youngest daughter who thinks Halloween should be 24/7/365 has a long "want" list of patterns.
I designed the one that no one knew what it was and it took a gallon of toner. (Will have to consider ink usage in future patterns, if any) For those of you that did not know what it was (practically everyone) It was a Graboid and the Perfection Valley water tower from the movie "Tremors."
Congrats to Paul on a very cute design.
No garage here and a pretty small house so half of my dining room is my work area. There really is no convenient way to catch all of the dust flying around. My daughter that's still at home has Aspberger's (Autism) and gets pretty distressed when I run the shop vac. My husband has COPD and the dust bothers him a little so it seems like I spend more time dusting and running the regular vacuum than I do actually sawing.
I used blue tape once. It took me forever to peel off all those little tiny pieces afterward. And in my opinion it dulled my blades faster. And it seemed like the was more lift up of the pattern. I may try it again if I'm cutting something that doesn't have a lot of small areas to remove it from, but for now I'll stick with gluing directly to the wood.
I put hot dishes on mine all the time. (all 2 of them lol) It has darkened them a bit, but they are fine. I did put a thin cork backing on them to protect my tabletop from heat transfer or scratches. I finished them just like I finish about everything else, BLO and spray sealer.