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  1. #141
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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Over two years from taking orders and they have only delivered to a select few, makerspaces, etc.

    Unless you were in the first coup,e of days of order, you will be lucky to see anything before Christmas.

    I guess it's an attractive unit for the plug-and-play crowd, but with a shipping cost of $2300 to me, I would never consider one.

    I can already trace outlines and create a cutting path using existing equipment. I've done it so many times it only takes a few seconds to set up.

    My no-name blue box has a camera, Ethernet, an advanced 32-bit motion controller, and works without needing to be connected to the net.

    I don think GF are shysters, but if I'd ordered a product with a shipping date of Dec'15, by July '17 I'd be pretty disillusioned.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Sounds like lots of these people wish they had one and are upset they don't.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    just think if you took the cost of a glowforge and invested that amount in a couple of proven mutual funds 2 years ago , how much extra cash you would have today instead of nothing but a promise .
    Quote Originally Posted by videorov View Post
    Sounds like lots of these people wish they had one and are upset they don't.




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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Quote Originally Posted by videorov View Post
    Sounds like lots of these people wish they had one and are upset they don't.
    Those would be the people who "invested" in one then.....



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Some folks with production Basic Glowforges are finding that it shuts itself down when the temperature measured by the GF exceeds something like 75 °F. Eventually the cloud-only software will be upgraded so that the Basic just pauses when it sees a high temperature, but for now it shuts down and turns your partially finished work into a piece of scrap. The Basic uses a water solution to cool the tube but it can't lowered to less than ambient temperature because there is no active cooling in the Basic. There is no easy way (like a bucket of ice water) to better cool the tube given the way that cooling is integrated into the Basic unit and presumably doing so would invalidate the 6-month (12-month for early pre-orders) warranty. Some users that must use their Basics in warm rooms are installing window AC units in those rooms, but those tha planned to use them in the garage and live in warm climates are SOL for the time being.

    Pro users have some sort of Peltier cooling so should be in better shape, but GF refuses to release any info on the capacity of its active cooler so its hard to tell how effective that may be, especially since no Pro models have shipped yet. One guy received an email asking for confirmation that he still wanted his Pro back on June 30, the day that GF promised Pro shipping would start. Last I heard that guy is still waiting for tracking info on his shipment and the original email cautioned that he could expect up to 6 weeks for delivery. Out of presumably 10,000 orders, only 40 users are known to have received units and those are all Basic models.

    The folks that have received production Basic units all seem to like them and some of their lasered projects look pretty good so the GF may eventually turn out to be a decent product, but anyone considering one now that wants to use it in a room that is at more than 72 °F should really consider the Pro model for whatever active cooling it provides.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    That doesn't seem like a small issue, but rather a glaring, massive, obvious fufu.

    The ambient temps in my workshop are about 25C before the sun comes up - can get to 35-40C on a 'good' day

    Still, not an issue for me - I would never buy one of these, for one simple reason: I live 3km from the border with Malaysia. Shipping to Malaysia - even right out in the boonies of deepest Sarawak - costs ~$1100. To ship to me, a tiny country with good infrastructure and much, much easier to deliver to and in than Malaysia, costs $2300. No logic at all.

    Well, that and the fact that I wouldn't buy one anyway - too small, too limited, too low-powered. I can already scan an object to vector and my sub-$1000 K40-style unit already has a camera and I can't see it being a big job to fit one to my next unit.

    So, only 40 units delivered from an estimated sipping date of Dec 2015 - outstanding!



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Quote Originally Posted by Zootalaws View Post
    That doesn't seem like a small issue, but rather a glaring, massive, obvious fufu.

    The ambient temps in my workshop are about 25C before the sun comes up - can get to 35-40C on a 'good' day

    Still, not an issue for me - I would never buy one of these, for one simple reason: I live 3km from the border with Malaysia. Shipping to Malaysia - even right out in the boonies of deepest Sarawak - costs ~$1100. To ship to me, a tiny country with good infrastructure and much, much easier to deliver to and in than Malaysia, costs $2300. No logic at all.
    Living there, you would be waiting a very long time for a GF. They haven't even started shipping outside the US and will not provide any timeline other than International (from a US standpoint) buyers can expect delivery by October, November or December. I forget which is the current claim. They do caution that buyers units could get held up in customs for a month or so.

    So far as the 75 °F (24 °C) temperature limit for Basic units go, some forum members are starting to question why they were not made aware of this limit long ago and why the company web site still doesn't mention the limit.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Its going to be a Glowforge world before long.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Quote Originally Posted by videorov View Post
    Its going to be a Glowforge world before long.
    So long as your world never gets above 75 °F.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Just thought I'd add some quick thoughts here as I remember reading this thread while waiting for this thing to finally ship.

    I bought the Glowforge Pro for my wife - the main attraction here was the supposed ease of use as she is creative but not technical. No matter how many times I've tried to explain my 3D printers or CNC machines to her, she would always be needing my help.

    It FINALLY (seriously, seriously long wait lol) arrived today, and I have to say first impressions are positive. It arrives pretty much all built, just some shipping protection items to remove and then plug the lead into the laser head which then magnetically snaps onto the carriage. Quick little wifi setup process and then it's all good to go.

    We followed the start guide which leads to you printing a "founders ruler" which I thought would be a good test. I didn't want to waste the hardwood they suggest on it though so we just used the draft board material. Couldn't have been much simpler, just dragged the design to where we wanted it on the material (the lid camera shows you an image of the bed on the screen) and then pressed go... using this "proofgrade" stuff the thing automatically knows what the material is and sets the power/speed settings automatically through the QR code on the material. I haven't actually looked into it but I'm guessing buying more proofgrade material is a rip off, I like the idea of how easy it was though. We got enough in the package to get my wife off to a good start anyway.

    These are the results of that first job, I have precisely zero experience of lasers but it looked like a neat job to me.










    So extremely early days. Need to have more of a play around and also figure out a good workflow for my wife to follow to start doing her own designs on there, but first impressions - It pretty much does what it claimed. Makes a laser very accessible to non-technical people.

    Would I have bought it for myself? Probably not... I would have got a straight forward laser that didn't require me to wait for over 2 years to get it. For it's intended purpose for the missus though, she is ecstatic. I will post updates after we've used it a bit more if we run into any troubles or issues.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Nice job! A lot of us really liked the idea Glowforge had, but most of us were frustrated with the constant delays. Their design is neat, but the whole cloud enabled thing is a no no for me.

    I'm sure once you settle and become more familiar with it, you'll enjoy it very much.

    Good luck with the new toy!!!


    *edit*

    Wanted to add -- I bought one of the K40 type machines a little over a year ago -- mostly torn down at the moment, but what I did notice is their little "40 Watt" tube....it puts out 38 Watts at 18mA (which is dangerously close to damaging that tube), it's a 30 Watt claiming to be 40. Given the size of the Glowforge, I wonder what the actual wattage is. Power from different sized tubes is independent of the diameter and linearly proportional to the length.



  12. #152
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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Laser tube (30W): (Length=900mm, Diameter=51mm)
    Expected Life: 1200-2000 hours
    Laser Tube, 30 Watt (38 Watts MAX, 30 Watts nominal)
    $225 LTUBE-30W

    Laser tube (40W)Length=1010mm, Diameter=51mm)
    Expected Life: 2000+ hours
    Laser Tube, 40 Watt (48 Watts MAX, 40 Watts nominal)
    $300 LTUBE-40W

    Laser tube (60W): (Length=1200mm, Diameter=54mm)
    Expected Life: 2000+ hoursLaser Tube, (71 Watts MAX, 60 Watts nominal)
    $400 LTUBE-60W
    (Length=1225mm, Diameter=80mm)
    Expected Life: 8000 hours
    Laser Tube, 80 Watt, Reci or EFR Brand (101 Watts MAX, 80 Watts nominal)
    $850 LTUBE-80W-R











    Quote Originally Posted by godfrey View Post
    Nice job! A lot of us really liked the idea Glowforge had, but most of us were frustrated with the constant delays. Their design is neat, but the whole cloud enabled thing is a no no for me.

    I'm sure once you settle and become more familiar with it, you'll enjoy it very much.

    Good luck with the new toy!!!


    *edit*

    Wanted to add -- I bought one of the K40 type machines a little over a year ago -- mostly torn down at the moment, but what I did notice is their little "40 Watt" tube....it puts out 38 Watts at 18mA (which is dangerously close to damaging that tube), it's a 30 Watt claiming to be 40. Given the size of the Glowforge, I wonder what the actual wattage is. Power from different sized tubes is independent of the diameter and linearly proportional to the length.




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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    Tube is about 900mm by my estimations So how they claim 45 watts then, no idea.

    So the wife is away today and I thought I'd have a quick play... This was wonderfully simple to achieve. I just downloaded an image of a logo I wanted, I then brought it into inkscape to resize it. Uploaded to the glowforge app and using the camera just dragged it to where I wanted on the phone case.

    I used their standard thin leather settings with no modifications, just changed it from SD graphic to HD since it has some fine detail in there - Have to say I'm impressed both at how easy this was to achieve and the end result.









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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    And just one more post to show one of the main things I was hoping to be able to use it for - etching on anodised alu.


    I popped in an anodised angle bracket and and had a guess at some numbers, came out beautifully! I had to remove the honeycomb tray as the brackets are a little thick to sit on top of that, so that is why the bracket is sat on some chopping boards. This job took about 4 minutes to run through.







    I'm pretty ecstatic with the result there.... definitely opens up some new possibilities in terms of finishing items I make once I've got the anodising rig setup and working. Might find myself fighting with the wife over who gets to use it!

    My biggest concern remains reliability and serviceability. I will post if anything comes up over the next few weeks/months in that regard... So far over maybe a dozen or so jobs it's been pretty much flawless and gratifyingly easy to use, although the glowforge software is somewhat bafflingly missing some pretty basic things such as saving profiles for material settings and an option to convert to metric. I suppose it is still very much in early stages of development but that seems like quite a basic function.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true?

    I like the heading as it sums it up just right. It isn't up to any specs that Dan had promised maybe it is close but still not.



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    Angry Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true? Ive had nothing but trouble with my glowforge

    Quote Originally Posted by Bigbird48 View Post
    No I don't think your being to cynical , the machine is way over hyped and is dangerous.Its just a souped up K40. Boarders being false advertising. They make everything look so easy, just pop in a piece of leather and out pops a 100 dollar pocket book.Just pop in some wood and out pops a doll house.Not to mention its run from a cloud, if you lose internet connection it doesn't work.People are sending in their money for a machine thats never been tested tested in. a public setting. Saying its safe and easy I'm not falling for that send me 2000$ and I'll send you one in 3 or 4 months yea OK
    ive had nothing but trouble with my glowforge



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true? Ive had nothing but trouble with my glowforge

    Quote Originally Posted by Set4life89 View Post
    ive had nothing but trouble with my glowforge
    I was keeping an informal count of publicly disclosed warranty replacements and stopped when it got to 1,000 about 9 months ago. That was about 5% of presumed sales back then. Over a hundred owners had received 2 replacements and at least 3 have received 5 replacements. Glowforge runs Youtube videos a few times a month touting users that have made a business with the Glowforge but the official Glowforge forum has many threads where owners are bemoaning lost sales and refunds to customers due to breakdowns of the unit and protracted delays in getting spare parts or even contact. The forum regulars immediately tell them that the Glowforge is sold as a hobby machine and that business owners should plan accordingly. The regulars usually suggest buying a second Glowforge or finding someone to else to do your jobs while you wait for parts or repairs.. GF doesn't answer the phone so you are forced to deal with their 1-3 day turnaround on emails

    There are much better laser options out there for folks starting a business that cost about the same as a Pro GF and at least some of them have US-based support that actually answer the phone and resolve problems quickly.



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    Default Re: Glowforge, Too good to be true? Ive had nothing but trouble with my glowforge

    the problems on the Glowforge forum just keep getting worse and the mods close the thread before there is a solution to the problem. The 3 posters that always seem to chime in make it sound like the Glowforge the best thing out there. Still the Glowforge does not meet the specs that it was sold as.



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