Glowforge release

[Bert Kemp]

I must mention that the rights to use the design were granted by the designer

OMG, you spent $5 in material and $120 in machine time to make something you could have bought at Hobby Lobby for $10?!? Not to mention infringing the priceless IP rights of whoever posted the design online...

(Just busting your chops, trying to get myself aligned with the prevailing sentiments here.)

[John Lifer]

$120 for an hour laser time. You guys live in a different world than I do.

I do my best to get at least $100 for the CO2 laser if I'm cutting. I only got $75 the other day cutting a couple of sheets out that took about 50 minutes. Design furnished and material. Others get a LOT more.......

[Gary Hair]

$120 for an hour laser time. You guys live in a different world than I do.

It's hard to believe anyone could actually make a living at $120/hour... That's my starting point and it usually gets up to two or three times that much on most large volume jobs.

[Kev Williams]

I shoot for $60 minimum, almost always ends up being more by default. Little old ladies and their grandkid's trophy plates, I'm lucky to get $15 an hour But those rare but occasional 400-600 per hour jobs even things out. (and because that may seem greedy, those kinds of rates are ALWAYS offered to me, I've never purposely calculated above $120...)

[Jerome Stanek]

I see they are really going at it on their forum about not shipping the filters with the lasers. some are complaining that they bought into the idea of a unit and filter so they can cut inside their homes or office and not having to vent outside or they can not vent outside. Glowforge offered a 10% discount till 2018 but these people are saying that by the time they get everything the discount will be gone or only for a short period but the units that are able to cut get over a year of discounts. the Beta testers are all over saying that is to bad for you.

[Michael Henriksen]

Would any of you vent indoors if your laser had a filter? I certainly wouldn't. I can't imagine it removing all smell or all potentially harmful gasses.

[Gary Hair]

Would any of you vent indoors if your laser had a filter? I certainly wouldn't. I can't imagine it removing all smell or all potentially harmful gasses.

That depends on what you are lasering and what type of filter you have. I just bought a Fumex filter to run my anodized aluminum parts without any smell. It has a pre-filter, a charcoal filter and finally, a hepa filter. The three layers catch the big stuff (pre-filter), the smelly stuff (charcoal) and then the really fine stuff (hepa). I haven’t tried anything else with it but it should get virtually 100% of the smell or bad stuff.

[Lee DeRaud]

Would any of you vent indoors if your laser had a filter? I certainly wouldn't. I can't imagine it removing all smell or all potentially harmful gasses.

Nope. But 99% of what I do is cut wood, MDF, and acrylic: no way a filter handles that without cleaning/replacement almost continuously.

[Michael Henriksen]

I too cut plywood, MDF and acrylic all the time. I doubt anything will fully remove the smell of acrylic.

[Scott Shepherd]

I doubt anything will fully remove the smell of acrylic.

Not to derail this marvelous thread, but my home made filter system scrubs acrylic very very well. You need coconut charcoal as the filter media. We cut a lot of acrylic and when you walk in the door, you can't smell any acrylic. When the charcoal starts getting loaded, you can smell it.

[Jerome Stanek]

Looks like the Glowforge system may be down as people are complaining that they can not log on or if they get on they can't send jobs to it. Great way to run a business if you can't do any work.

[Bill George]

The question of the day, at least for me anyway even if you can't smell the nasty are the toxins still there? Vent outside even after filtering.

[John Lifer]

Probably there Bill, trapped in the system. But there. I won't comment on if they degrade, don't know what is produced.

Yep Jerome, Having to use their server is the MAIN issue if you ever get a GF! If they fold, NONE are worth anything.....

[Gary Hair]

Looks like the Glowforge system may be down as people are complaining that they can not log on or if they get on they can't send jobs to it. Great way to run a business if you can't do any work.

If you are running a business with a Glowforge then you are destined to fail anyway, the server being down will just expedite the process...

[Matt McCoy]

Looks like the Glowforge system may be down as people are complaining that they can not log on or if they get on they can't send jobs to it. Great way to run a business if you can't do any work.

If you are running a business with a Glowforge then you are destined to fail anyway, the server being down will just expedite the process...

Exactly. It's not a business machine. It can be a hard concept to grasp for the professional user that can only see ROI. I suppose it is possibly to have a small, side-hustle business to try to recoup the cost of the machine, or make some pocket money, but it wouldn't be my first or second choice to do that.