Glowforge release

[Bill George]

Beautiful work Bert

[Kev Williams]

I did a pretty good 3D burn of a rose once with my Truimph, and it was by accident. I played with the photo in grayscale until the contrast between light & dark was extreme. I just had the Triumph create its own photo bitmap and ran it a couple of times at fairly high res and I was surprised at the varying depths.

That said, I've never actually tried to do 3D work, but it seems that almost as important as the machine is the info you're feeding it...

[Gary Hair]

but it seems that almost as important as the machine is the info you're feeding it...

And even more important? Can you make any money with it? That's a rhetorical question but I'll go ahead and answer it anyway - NO, you can't. Even with my speedy-fast Trotec, 3D engraving takes way longer than anyone would be willing to pay for. If you are interested in making money then stick with high-volume, fast-turnaround items, not one-off pieces that (almost) nobody wants.

[Jason Hilton]

And even more important? Can you make any money with it? That's a rhetorical question but I'll go ahead and answer it anyway - NO, you can't. Even with my speedy-fast Trotec, 3D engraving takes way longer than anyone would be willing to pay for. If you are interested in making money then stick with high-volume, fast-turnaround items, not one-off pieces that (almost) nobody wants.

That assumes a direct to consumer model, but for some people laser engraving isn’t the business they are in, but instead the laser is just one of several tools they’re using to produce their products.

[Nigel P. Jones]

We don't have evidence that the Glowforge 3D engrave piece was made fully on an actual Glowforge and not a CNC or some other laser, but it is at least real and not Photoshopped. You can see the CEO hold it up to the camera in the archive of their Q&A livestream from December 2. This also gives a sense of the scale of the thing, relative to his hand anyway.

https://youtu.be/3tsMmBacqwY?t=33m40s (That should go to 33:41 in the video which is where he talks about the 3D engrave.)

[Rich Harman]

We don't have evidence that the Glowforge 3D engrave piece was made fully on an actual Glowforge and not a CNC or some other laser, but it is at least real and not Photoshopped.

I didn't expect it to be half inch thick maple. No mention of how long it took. He also shows an unfinished one before cleaning up, not cut out.

[Bert Kemp]

now your telling us it cut half inch maple with a 40 watt laser , must have taken 20 pass's or more and hours and hours and hours to do it.

[Jason Hilton]

There is a recent tested.com video that mentions an engrave took 40 minutes and it wasn't a complicated or large piece. I would guess the 3d sample that GlowForge posted took quite some time. They aren't advertising superspeed or anything, and it's a hobby machine for low volume, so it's not really a strike against them, just is what it is.

[Martin Raynsford]

now your telling us it cut half inch maple with a 40 watt laser , must have taken 20 pass's or more and hours and hours and hours to do it.

Actually they can cut 1/2 inch thick maple with a single pass, from what I could tell they were engraving around the item, lots of single pulses rather than one continuous cut. It's an interesting idea and I keep meaning to try it on one of our smaller machines. It was dirty but that's just a compromise if it actually works.

[Bert Kemp]

Martin where do you get your info from? Did you see it cut 1/2" maple ? I have a 60 watt laser that can't cut 1/2 in one pass not even to pass's . I can see how a 40 watt laser could do it unless its running at 1/2mmps at 100% pwr and then it would still not be likely.

Actually they can cut 1/2 inch thick maple with a single pass, from what I could tell they were engraving around the item, lots of single pulses rather than one continuous cut. It's an interesting idea and I keep meaning to try it on one of our smaller machines. It was dirty but that's just a compromise if it actually works.

[Matt McCoy]

Here's a time-lapse video of the 3D laser engraving. You can slow it down to examine the grassy knoll before submitting to the Warren Commission.

Looks like 1/4" walnut to me.

[Lee DeRaud]

Here's a time-lapse video of the 3D laser engraving. You can slow it down to examine the grassy knoll before submitting to the Warren Commission.

Looks like 1/4" walnut to me.

Two engraving passes, (at least) 4 cut-out passes. Comparing the piece to the width of the bed and allowing for lens distortion, maybe 5"-6" overall, comparing thickness to the honeycomb cells, 1/2" thick. I wish there some indication of how much time compression, but 10:1 seems reasonable.

But I'd guess cherry, not walnut. :-)

[Matt McCoy]

Two engraving passes, (at least) 4 cut-out passes. Comparing the piece to the width of the bed and allowing for lens distortion, maybe 5"-6" overall, comparing thickness to the honeycomb cells, 1/2" thick. I wish there some indication of how much time compression, but 10:1 seems reasonable.

But I'd guess cherry, not walnut. :-)

I guess I could have checked.

"Published on Dec 11, 2016

We used a Glowforge to 3D engrave a medallion on 1/4" (6mm) Proofgrade walnut hardwood."

The original photo looks like maple, though.

[Bill George]

Almost looks to be two different jobs? Maybe all the former GlowForge buyers need to look at getting one of those Woodpecker dual machines, router and laser all in one referenced above. It would have been nice to have a working one.

[Kev Williams]

Two engraving passes... I wish there some indication of how much time compression, but 10:1 seems reasonable

running that vid it at 1/4 speed, the machine 'appears' to be running at near normal speed, however, it also appears that it skipping 1 or 2 frames of the video. That puts it somewhere between 8x or 12x speed, at 8x 2:15 = exactly 9 minutes for the one pass, 13-1/2 minutes at 12x Given the apparent size of the part, either speed sounds reasonable, but I'm leaning more towards 10 or 12x speed simply because I know how fast my 40w LS900 cuts wood that deep, and it's not all that fast-- 2 passes to get that deep I'd be looking at a minimum of 20-25 minutes at 400dpi.

anyway...