Hey @bailey, I’m sure you are super busy, but if you get a chance I’d still love to see photos of your stamps!
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That is a little alligator lapel pin type of thingy. Not entirely sure what it is meant for, nor really sure what a lapel pin is. But that seems an apt description.
I had picked that one up to see how fragile it was, and it is remarkable robust.
@cynd11: I had really meant to get back to the booth and snag pictures of the stamps. I lurked nearby briefly, but couldn’t remember what I wanted to do, so wading through the crowd did not appeal to me. The stamps were sadly way in the back on the table where everyone was busy drawing their soon-to-be-engraved mementos, so aren’t likely to show up in anyone’s booth shots. 
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I appreciate the intention!
Likee the li’l gator! 
It wasn’t there when the team left last week so I’m guessing it was something one of the visitors printed for themselves. 
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First off I’d like to thank @bailey for her hospitality this past Saturday.
My wife and I arrived @ the faire at about 9:30. We didn’t get in till about 10:15’ish and B-Lined to the GF Booth. In which I ran into @takitus, @polarbrainfreeze, @joe & @jacobturner. There was already a line for the demo cuts from the PDF that was provided beforehand. They had 2 units at the booth and the 3rd was at the Show & Tell that was starting at 10:30.
The very first observation is how big the Glowforge actually is. I KNEW the dimensions- I’ve measured the desk that its going to be placed on. But ‘IRL’ it’s pretty damn big.
The unit on the far left of the booth had some small differences from the units we have seen in the pictures. i.e. Hinge covers on the interior. It’s seems that particular unit is a early prototype? I was not able to get a straight answer about that.
Here’s a rundown of what I saw.
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Basically they ran one pre-canned demo all day. End users goes to one line to get the design sheet. Then goes into another to get it ‘scanned’ and engraved. It’s does that very well. (As long there is no wifi issues.)
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From what I’ve gather from the Show & Tell, Nothing really new was discussed.
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The demo parts for the most part are the same ones that we’ve all seen before.
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Will Smith is truly a nice guy. We talked for about 10 mins about CNCs and closed-loop systems and the future of CAD.
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The unanimous answer about the delivery date is still ‘All pre-order units in December.’ No matter how carefully I worded the question- I got the same answer.
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Beta units outside of Seattle is going to happen ‘Soon’ I truly hope one lands in VA.
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The lid on the Glowforge is weighty. The hinges will hold it’s own weight from full vertical to about 30 degrees before gravity takes over.
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The lid will be a smudge magnet. If you are OCD about people touching your monitor- have your microfiber cloth at the ready.
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The lighting in the unit is very nice. Evenly lit. Not a harsh/hard color temp.
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I am assuming the Glowforge display units where in draft/medium mode (as far as print quality) The feed rate look fairly low to me. But the cuts that it did where nice. Pictures / Video Below.
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Did I mention that the Glowforge is larger in person?
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I asked @bailey about if there will be a storage cap on end users designs in the design catalog and will there a means of exporting them if there is a limit or just for safe keeping (Remember a backup is not a backup if you keep one secondary copy of the original. Make Backups… DOOOO IT.) She said she would get back to me on that.
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I also asked if there was a means of exporting the vector that the GF Cloud makes of a image from the lid camera. She also said she’d get back to me on that.
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I asked about the filter unit. As they were not at faire. (they had a massive industrial unit for the units at the show.) I was told that they have smart people working on it and it works great. Well- Okay. Why haven’t we seen any videos of it in action? shrug
For now, Seeing a glowforge first hand has brought my spirit up a bit. But I’d still like to see a couple things in action. Greyscale rastering. Manual focus. Pass-thru functionality and duplexing. Basically anything that we have not seen before. There are quite a few new beta users out there. But the post from them seems to have slowed down.
On to the pictures and videos.
My wife asked a couple good key questions in this video.
General overview of the booth.
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Thank you for a very detailed report.
This leaves me wondering, what was all the hype?
@dan kept talking like something amazing was going to be at the NY Fair.
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Ah yeah, I forgot to mention that. I asked the folks manning the 'forges on the left of the booth.
They had no clue what I was talking about. Unless dan was referring to Will Smith being there?
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Nice design on that laptop/pad/tablet/whatever it was! (Might have to rethink the etching thing once I get comfy.)
Thanks for the pics and vid! 
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Thank you, I enjoyed the photos and videos!
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Nice interrogation.
The file limit and the lid tension are questions I had also.
With your equipment experience, having actually touched a Glowforge, the build quality is as you anticipated?
Thanks for the post, eases my pain of not being able to attend. 
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For build quality they were very high considering these are preproduction units. I assume final quality will be even higher.
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Built quality is very good. Nothing cheap or flimsy about it. The honeycomb tray is much heavy then I’ve originally thought. All the plastic parts in the front of the unit have a nice sharp snap fit to them. Not a interference fit. But tight enough to not make noises during operation or loosen over time. As for noise level that was impossible to gauge in a outdoor venue like a Maker faire. The smell was very low. So the exhaust was doing it job.
Basically, The hardware looks like something that’s MSRP’d for 3k (As it should).
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@henryhbk and @karaelena, thank you gentlemen!
The pictures that attendees post are fodder for those of us imprisoned by daily life/finances - thanks for that!
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It was mostly geography than anything else should since Boston to NYC is a tolerable drive
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Awesome write-up!
I should probably add some pictures too.
We went to the Glowforge booth first thing as well. It was nice putting names to faces! I met @polarbrainfreeze, @takitus, @karaelena, @jacobturner, @henryhbk and a bunch of awesome Glowfolks. (@dan @bailey, you need to make them all join the forums!).
I was in line ahead of @henryhbk and we chatted with one of the staff scientists for awhile! I horrible with names, and it was loud, but I believe his name was @jared. He was a really smart guy! He is right in from of the last video @karaelena posted.
A few things I found out:
Proofgrade material should be available for purchase when the units start shipping 
Proofgrade currently includes hard woods, plywood, leather, acrylic, and possibly chipboard.
The glowing button does have a very solid, very satisfying click.
Here is a picture of my wife and I while our print is going (thanks for the picture @henryhbk)!
I was going to take a video of the action, until I realize my personal information was on it.
Here are some pictures of the final products. I hastily cropped out our info in paint.
The Glowforge symbol, the house, and the plane were made with the lasered (I think) stamps they had available.
@fan-of-glowforge, this is the best I could do for a picture underneath the tray. It was way to busy to try to get more. Thank you @bailey for letting me take this!
I wish I took more pictures, but I think everyone else captured it very well.
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Thank you Joe!
That beautiful woman next to you makes you look a little rough around the edges…
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I looked back and found Dan’s “We have something big!” post, that was the 6th. The PDF templates was the 14th… so I am pretty sure the PDF templates were the big thing.
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Ah. Alright then.
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I thought Will Smith in attendance was cool too!
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