Pass through slot, GF workbench mounting

I’m not sure I follow @flyingwatchmaker - the leather is more than 1/4" thick? If it’s that or less, you’re golden.

1/4" or less, but not even, so it’ll fit through the slot, but have contours (it’s not a flat leather, more of a wrinkly cow finish) I should probably start/find a topic that is more relevant… Fitting through the slot won’t be an issue though :slight_smile:

Thanks

Tom

Is there any way (even warranty voiding) that the slot could take pieces thicker than 1/4" ? Was really hoping the slot would take a more reasonable thickness of material when I preordered. That really limits the freedom you gain with the passthrough ability. Larger pieces are also more likely to be thicker, so doing something like engraving a larger sign that’s only 1/2" thick is now not possible. :frowning:

Thickness constraints doesn’t restrict too heavily, as long as you are willing to accept some more post-processing. And in the case of a sign, it is actually better to accept a degree of extra post-processing.

Glue together multiple layers to get the extra depth, and since you already have multiple layers, don’t be boring, go ahead and make some of the layers considerably different (at least in color).

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As a regular laser user I can say that the thickness constraints will have an unavoidable impact for me. I often find myself doing engraving work for clients on exotic woods that are on average between 1/2" and 3/4" thick. In that case, I’m working with a solid piece of wood and would not be able to build up a thicker piece from many thin pieces as you suggest. I do this on an Epilog laser which allows for larger pieces to be slid in from the front.

It’s not the end of the world, it just means that the passthrough slot on my Glowforge will likely be of no use to me (unless I mod it and void the warranty as I expect I will have to), and that I’ll still have to rely on other lasers to complete some jobs.

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Although I must recommend against it for safety reasons, opening the lower door in front and overriding the safety interlocks by placing magnets against the sensors would not void your warranty.

The slot in the back, however, doesn’t have a corresponding door.

–dan

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I hadn’t thought of the case with specialty materials which aren’t thin enough. Would come up when using found or vintage wood as well (many amazing projects with those that I have seen).

Given the ability to cut ½" wood by cutting both sides, I would hope the sides should be able to accept ½" wood so we can cut long, thick pieces of wood. If it’s a matter of making the flaps ¼" taller…

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Has there been an answer yet to the depth issue. Is there a reason the full 1.5" depth cannot be handled. To be honest this is a make or break issue for me on a Pro, having pass through is what sold me on the entire idea of the glow forge, if I can only pass 1/4" material through then I might as well just have a basic, or even not bother at all.

The pass through really needs to accommodate at least 1/2". Ideally it should accommodate whatever can be cut in the unit.

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You can only pass 0.25" material through - if that doesn’t work for you, drat! We’ll get you a partial or full refund as soon as the insanity of the next few days finishes (bailey and jason are swamped). The specs for this aren’t going to change now.

This makes me a bit sad - but not enough to cancel my Pro order. Hopefully there will be a way to mod the case to support ½" or thicker pass-through pieces.

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I don’t think that came off as cute as it probably was when you were thinking it.
I think the biggest question is why won’t it accept 1/2" when it is advertised as being able to cut 1/2". I understand we are free to walk away but I’m sure there’s some very good reason why the device can’t accommodate it and we would very much like to know that reason since it may likely prevent a bunch of people form taking a dremel to the back and bottom of the case as soon as it arrives and if it is a safety reason you might just prevent some injuries. If it is simply that it’s too difficult to make the slot a 1/4" larger then say that and people will do what people always do.

I second that request! Sadly, I suspect it was an arbitrary decision that didn’t get a second thought until it was too late in production plans. On the bright side, if that is the case, then cutting a larger pass-through slot might be feasible. (Hopefully I’m not offending our beloved Dan with this post!)

The decision was made ages ago. I think it was an extra safety measure (hard to accidentally stick your fingers in), plus structural integrity (know how convertibles wobble more than sedans?).

Believe it or not, though, I don’t make all the design decisions on the device personally. :wink: I don’t know for sure off the top of my head and I’m not going to bother the engineering team to dig up the relevant emails when they could be off making you Glowforges!

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OK so I saw a reply that I need some clarification on please… The part where you say that the slot in the back of the machine doesn’t have a corresponding door. How does the material leave the back of the machine? I have no problem using quarter inch material and building layers with what I want to do with the machine.

I read it as meaning there is just an open slot with no door to seal it.

That’s why I wanted clarification. If it’s just an open slot, why the stringent adherence to the door in the front? I think a lot of people (not me) are going to take dremels to their machines to get them to take 1.5 inches of material.

The front has a flip-down door; you can see it in the video scene where she’s loading leather to make a wallet. That door has a slot. The back has a slot, no door. The slots have a curtain as well.

Put in slightly different wording since it took me a while to piece together and so may help others:

The basic model has a glass-top lid you flip up in order to pull out your material.

The front of that lid closes down on a door, which you can lower to allow sliding the honeycomb in and out, which is useful for carefully arranging pieces on the bed prior to loading.

The Pro also has this glass and door arrangement. The slots for passthrough material are located just above the honeycomb, which places one in the front on the flip-down door (not on the lift up glass), and one in the back at the same height.


The great news about this for passthrough, is it makes it possible that the 1/4" restriction is based on how much space was available in the front of the machine on that door (slot had to be above the honeycomb, and leave enough room to attach the cover flap to the door), rather than how much was available in the back in any regard.

So expanding the passthrough size will require either leaving the door open, or removing the honeycomb (or finding a thinner one?) and cutting the slot to drop lower. While in the back of the machine, there may be no obstruction at all to expanding the size of the passthrough.