[mousert]

Searched hadn`t seem to be mentioned before:

Glowforge – the 3D Laser Printer | The Affordable Desktop Laser Cutter Engraver

40W CO2 cutter hyped as a 3D printer, ahem, the GUI looks nice but kind of struggling to see what cloud based crunching is needed for 2D cad...

The fume extraction is glossed over, hey we even do a model with air filters,not conv inced thats the best way with some materials.

Tube cooling, er, none visible, guessing its got a recirculator and rad from a P.C. liquid cooler, but with the cutting operations in same cab seems like quite a lot of heat.

Air assist, don`t need no stinking air assist apparently.

Is the optical focussing sytstem to track uneven surfaces practical? It sounds good and as if it should be out of AF phone cam parts but a lot of Kickstarter tyoe things thrive on the sound like they shoudl be possible.

Not about to purchase one of these but am I just being too cynical?

Thanks
Adam

[Bigbird48]

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

[Set4life89]

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

[MichaelHenry]

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.

[fixtureman1]

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.

[MiaNiu]

After purchasing Glowforge, the time to receive the machine is about 30-45 days, and a friend once asked for help in Sri Lanka. She once purchased Glowforge, but after leaving the United States and returning to Sri Lanka, Glow Forge did not provide him with accessories services.

[Harvid22]

I think you should drop them some questions, to see if they are knowing what they are talking about.
It will make a lot more sense than asking here ;-)
And if you get something / data out of them you can ask if it's possible or not...

[mousert]

I think you should drop them some questions, to see if they are knowing what they are talking about.
It will make a lot more sense than asking here ;-)
And if you get something / data out of them you can ask if it's possible or not...

Oh sure they know how to talk to investors, the Makerbot model, reference to supplying pre matched materials has investors drooling at an ongoing income stream from laser cutters in classrooms slicing out lanterns from high markup cheap ply.

No, I think asking here, the largest collection of machinists on the planet with many man years of experience operating CO2 lasers , it is the most sensible place to ask. The other laser forums I lurk in are more populated with display laser topics

May I ask if you are involved in the Glowforge project in any way?

Well have an interest in lasers of all kinds stretching back , er , some 30 years and take an interest in developments, wouldn`t in any way claim to be an expert so came here to ask experts with lots of experience of exactly this type of laser , what is possible.

Some of the claims made by Glowforge and methodology used is interesting to say the least, if it is possible would expect them to be unable to discuss them further due to their pending Patent applications, can see no reference to pending patents on their site.

Perhaps they are relying on trade secrets that they would naturally wish to protect until the unit is ini the wild and gets reverse engineered.

Or it could be the fluent b**lks getting talked on the promo and the deliberate mixing of 3D printing and 2D cutting terms raise a massive red flag.

Meet the Glowforge 3D Laser Printer - Tested

Much talk of using `the cloud` , honestly struggling to see where the cloud does much for 2D CAD and image processing , presumably the cutting file is downloaded in whole to the machine before commencing a cut, wobbly wifi could be a bit of a liability otherwise....

The focussing thing, it sounds like it should be possible, has everyone else being doing it wrong by moving the bed?

In the Tested video make a point of they`ve moved to mode 0 tubes, think he meant Tem00 tube, but with what still lokks like restrictive cooling , unless they have beaten the Coherents of this world to a super efficient air cooled CO2 tube the heat has to go somewhere,efficiency and mode purity may take a hit.

Air assist and fume extraction...

Mebbe all these have been solved and it`s a revolution :-)

Cheers
Adam

[Harvid22]

I really think you misunderstood me
If it sounds too good to be true it probably is, but on the other hand they are not guilty before the other has been shown...
The earth is round and a airplane fly ;-)

[Bazzer]

Clearly a well styled product with sharp people behind it it, very much a product for the smartphone generation.

To be honest, the cheap Chinese laser cutters/engravers are so easy to use, if Corel laser had a decent English instruction manual then just about anyone would be able to use a K40.

What the Chinese are not clever at is getting local support networks in place, not sure if they understand that concept.

Just my two pence worth.

Barrie

[Bigbird48]

Why do you need corel laser just use corelderaw save as a DXF and import to laser and run easy pezee. and FWIT you can buy a decent Chinese Laser not junk k40 for less then the cost of a GF.

Clearly a well styled product with sharp people behind it it, very much a product for the smartphone generation.

To be honest, the cheap Chinese laser cutters/engravers are so easy to use, if Corel laser had a decent English instruction manual then just about anyone would be able to use a K40.

What the Chinese are not clever at is getting local support networks in place, not sure if they understand that concept.

Just my two pence worth.

Barrie

[Bazzer]

I don't know about easy pezee.

Well I find Corel Laser very esy to use, I do the CAD in an AutoCAD clone and pickup the DWG in Coreldraw and with the Corel Laser add on it is so easy to cut the parts.

Do you think that K40 has become a generic term to describe that style of 40W Chinese laser? mine is sold as as a K40D but it has 3 features over what I think of as the basic K40 specification.

1) Raise and lower on cutting table, so always hit the sweet spot on focal length.
2) Red dot alignment.
3) Air assist blowing.

I seem to be able to blast through the work no problems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVHL3ECXSeM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc5RdVRyvDM

[MiaNiu]

For smoke problems, fans and air filtration systems can be a good solution

[Bigbird48]

quote from a guy who was at the NY makers fair on Friday " glowforge had 3 machines here none of them were working. When I asked why they said later. ask other questions and got different answers from different reps." Now I ask you what kind of company would take a product that didn't work to a makers fair .
Oh I did send them questions last week still have not heard back from them.

[bgriggs]

I wonder how good wifi reception was near their booth? I have been at trade show that had crappy reception.

[Bigbird48]

OH YEA no internet machines don't work.So everytime you loose your internet no laser, stormy days,snowy days, you on dial up forget it.great way to introduce your new state of the art new technology, super safe laser engraver cutter hahahahahahahahaha

I wonder how good wifi reception was near their booth? I have been at trade show that had crappy reception.

[MikeC8]

I ordered one, I have been wanting a cheap laser for some time. But do not trust the ebay machines, at least with this one there is a american company behind it who you can contact for support. The simple interface is a large part of what caught my interest. Not for my own projects, but friends and family. With this if they want something cut, They can do most of the leg work without wasting my time.

I do not expect this to be a machine that I can run 8 hours a day, more like a hour here and there. This is more of a fancy laser toy that will make some parts I make at home easier then running on my RF45 CNC mill. I plan on using it to make plastic brackets, and prototype flat parts before cutting them on the mill. Might also be able to use it for first op on some parts, cutting down on waste and setup time. But I am waiting till I actually have the machine and test it out before I decide how much use it will get.

And for a hobby grade machine, I do not see how the cloud issue is such a big problem? Most of what I do at home is online now. Power outages affect me a lot more then when I have to reboot my modem.

[cinematic2]

I ordered one...

MikeC8, I am 100% sure you did throw your money out.

[ger21]

I've seen a lot of comments on other forums on the potential dangers of cutting plastics with the Glowforge.

[MichaelHenry]

I've seen a lot of comments on other forums on the potential dangers of cutting plastics with the Glowforge.

Which plastics had the potential danger? Chlorinated and fluorinated compounds, like PVC or Teflon seem obvious, but are there others that one might commonly want to cut?