GLOWFORGE BASIC
Does It Still Work One Year Later?
It has officially been one year since we got our Glowforge, so I wanted to take the time to do a proper review of the machine and give my overall thoughts now that I have had a year with it. These are all of my personal feelings after using the machine for a year. Please know I am a full paying Glowforge customer and I was not incentivized in any way to release this video.
Let’s start with why I chose the Glowforge Basic and what I would consider the PROs for the Glowforge:
Pros-
Low price point to entry for a non-k40 machine
Easy to use
- Camera alignment (pro and con)
- Very approachable to start learning. You can use word and PowerPoint to design. I almost exclusively use 3 tools: my iPad with Autodesk Sketchbook, Inkscape, and Gimp.
Community support
- Huge network of information available on the community tab on Glowforge website and on Facebook. I go to them for product recommendations, support, material settings, and to share my projects
Safe
- Vents out the window
- Self-contained
- Marketed towards children use. Makes me feel safer having it in my house.
Cons-
Bed size
- 12x 20 inch with a realistic piece size of 11x18 inch
Web-based interface
Camera Alignment – Not accurate unless you make it accurate.
Marketing Image
- Glowforge is marketed as a 3d laser printer.
• It is heavily marketed that way because it’s easy to use and easy to understand. It is not marketed to the maker community very well.
• Because of this many makers I’m friends with believe it’s an expensive unnecessary machine.
Was it expensive, yes.
Price point for the model I bought was $2495. That’s no cheap what so ever. But it worked right out of the box and still works 365 days later…. Knock on wood.
Do I regret it? No.
• It’s exactly what I needed and has allowed me to do so much.
Build Quality:
Overall, holding up really well. I clean the machine once a month to get ride of the dust because I record for this channel. Its hard to see in there if I keep it a mess. Honestly, you don’t need to clean it often at all if you don’t want too.
Before every cut, I take a quick peak at the mirrors to make sure they are clean. If they aren’t, I clean it with a lens wipe. I just for the first time, removed the print head to clean the main lens and the mirror. Super easy to do and there are tons of tutorials online for this.
Below is a mixture of links to Companies I like to buy from and Amazon Affiliate Links to some of the products discussed. Using these links don't cost you any extra, they just help us feed the cats and leave the lights on:
Glowforge proof grade materials www.shop.glowforge.com
Johnson Plastics Plus: https://www.jpplus.com - Wide selection of materials available often at the same price or cheaper than Glowforge’s site.
Canal Plastics: https://www.canalplastic.com/ - Acrylic at good prices. Also mirrored acrylic!!
Amazon Affiliate Links:
3 mm 1/8 x 12 x 12 Inch Premium Baltic Birch Plywood by Woodpeckers - https://amzn.to/3c76oja
Medium Density Untempered Hardboard (12 pack) , 6×6 - https://amzn.to/32o7fYk
Clear, 1 Piece, 12×12 Inch, 0.118″ Acrylic Sheet - https://amzn.to/38WPthr
Source One LLC 1/8th Inch Thick Acrylic Plexiglass Sheet (12″ x 12″, Black) - https://amzn.to/37QYQhe
3M Masking Tape – 6 in. (W) x 180 ft. (L) - https://amzn.to/32oHyH0
Glowforge Community - https://community.glowforge.com/
Glowforge Users Group - FaceBook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1126134367496957/
Connect: Feel free to comment any questions below, I’ll do my best to answer them or point you in the right direction. If you want to follow along with the projects we are working on, we are on social media with the handle @whengeekscraft on almost all platforms.
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