I liken it to the small lathes and milling machines you'll find from Sieg, Harbor Freight, Grizzly, Little Machine Shop. They're roughly the same but some have better specs than others or just different parts.
I've completely dismantled my K40 and machined better parts, replaced the electronics with a AWC708C Plus, Gecko G201X drivers, better steppers, etc. Right now, the case is stripped of all of it's paint. In a few weeks it's going to the powder coater. Nothing gets in the way of progress in China...they paint over the rust.
I just wonder how the buffering would effect the cutting
I still can't figure out why people buy a cheap machine then put hundreds or even thousands of dollars into it, and uncounted hours of labor to end up with a machine that's smaller and less powerful then one they could have bought that's twice the, size twice the power for half the money .
Just boggles my mind.If all these people spending 3 to 6 K on a glowforge knew they could buy a machine thats 10 times faster, 2 x bigger and a lot more power for way less money yikes
I would rather have an Epilog, but I'm not going to drop $15,000 plus on something I'll only use a few times a year. I wanted a project to play with. A couple thousand bucks to tinker around with is nothing. If I bought a larger machine for what I've put into mine, it would still be a piece of junk that needed to be ripped apart and reworked. I'll end up with a machine that suites my needs and I'll know everything about it.
The guy that did the 4x7 engraving tells me that it took about 50 minutes to engrave. From the experiments that those with pre-release are running it sounds like they've been able to run for several hours with no need to shut down. Do you have experience with the GF or are you just extrapolating from experience with some other laser?
just been watch vids of the glowforge running saw one Adam did he said it took 40 mins to engrave and cut, Mine would do that in about 8 mins
Rabbit Laser 6040 60 watt
That does look like a nice laser cutter but it's too big and heavy for the basement office space allocated for me. Looks like it would be about 50% more than what I paid as well but it does look like you get some nice features for the extra money, especially the extra 15 watts and the larger cutting area in both X/Y and Z. A raisable table would be nice to have though I don't see any immediate need for it for myself.
It would be interesting to compare the same files engraved with different laser cutters.
You can import a Rabbit 6040 60 watt cheaper then a glow forge and a z table is absolutely necessary geesh if you have a box 2 inch thick and want to engrave a picture on top you can't do it without a up down table.
It doesn't5 take up a lot of space it 3' x 5' can be taken apart to get thru small doors and is on big casters so it rolls easy. To Heavy?? Mine sits on a 3/4 inch raised particle brd floor hasn't fell thru in 2 years LOL
Last edited by Bigbird48; 01-16-2017 at 10:49 AM.
Did you buy from RabbitUSA? Sounds like you imported it yourself and, if so, what sorts of issues did you have with payment, transport, and import taxes/duty and what do you do for tech or maintenance support?
I just don't need the raised table, 3'x5' is more space than I have available, and I don't want to deal with moving something that large down the stairs. I suspect that we each have different laser cutting needs, and consequently need different machines. If I ever get the Glowforge I've paid for, would you be interested in comparing engravings done on each of our machines? My interest would be in learning something, not in bragging rights.
I bought mine from Rabbit USA. I just happened to get lucky they had a used machine for sale , which doesn't happen very often and I got a good deal. Also I was on the east coast for the summer and going to drive home on the west coast at the end of summer so I told them to hold the machine and I would pick it up on my way home which save me another 5 or 600 bucks.I got a whole days training at Rabbit and they loaded my machine and the next day headed home.If you direct import from Rabbit in China I'm sure you'll have good support and get a better price even better then what I got on a used machine.Also you can still get parts if needed from Rabbit USA.
As far as comparing engravings I would do that. But first you have to get one and I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut thats not going to happen.. I really hate to be that negative and I'm sorry for all those who invested money, I just don't think they will ever get a unit that works as they described what 2 years ago now, and the company will either fold or put out a less then desirable laser. Look at the cost increase already and they still have not shipped lasers.A lot of people our now asking for refunds and buying other lasers. My advice would be go for the refund while they still have money to refund and go buy a real laser.
That Glowforge didnt make sense from the beginning. Lot of people bought into though. I've got two thunder lasers that have paid themselves numerous times while people are still on the waiting list for their glowforge that will never be as expected (either in cost or in quality, something will give).
Well, I've already lost a lunch bet to a friend over whether or not I'd have my Glowforge by (last) Christmas so I'm going to politely decline your bet. I still think the GFs will ship with all the hardware working and most of the features promised for the software, but I get less certain as the months pass. Fortunately for me, it doesn't have to pay for itself. If it did, I'd have bailed a while back.
And Im sure you'll loose more bets. Tell me honestly why anyone is willing to wait all this time for a cheap POS in a plastic case that is so slow working and cost way to much for what it is. Do you really think this laser will be better in any way at all to a decent Chinese Laser, if you do your 100% wrong. Dan spun a line of BS so good that he has you all fooled into thinking this machine is something great it NOT. Do you believe you can run down to Home depot buy a piece of wood stick it in the glowforge and it will know what it is and automatically put in the right settings for you. Come on my 10 year old grand daughter knows better then that.
Do you think that all of of the people on the real laser engraving forum's That have been in the business for years and know these machines inside out don't know what were talking about. I know all you that have never run a laser know all about them.
Good luck with it Hope it doesn't burn your house down.
I'm willing to wait because I have no pressing need for the laser cutter, it offers some claimed features that sound good to me, and seems to be the best bang for the buck from what I've found if you want a cutter with some US support that will fit on a bench top, weighs less than 150 lbs, and can be used 1/2 hour after unboxing. I expect to get some useful feedback from prerelease users of the Glowforge unit and already have some from what I consider to be reliable and pragmatic sources. While I wait, I'm doing competitor research and may well switch to something else if a better solution is found. Some of that research is done on those "real laser engraving forums" but I've learned over the years to take their comments with a grain of salt. Their needs and budget for a revenue-producing machine are greater than mine for a hobby machine so can afford to (and should) buy a better product than I can afford or want.
I hope it doesn't burn my house down too!