No idea what qualifies as top-of-the-line in your situation, but my experience has been that many above-stove fans are a joke. The filters used in them tend to be so laughably thin, they can’t efficiently do much of anything. If you want to filter out especially stinky smells, you need to do either a thicker or multi-stage filtration, depending on the particles and their size you’re trying to filter.
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X[quote=“jamesaellis1, post:77, topic:3468”]
I’m beginning to think that the GF was in its infancy, if not an embryonic state when being marketed over a year ago and that they new it
[/quote]
I believe that is not an unreasonable assessment. At this point, I’m hoping we are getting somewhat closer to the Glowforge in the promotional video of September 2015, bare the stated software features that won’t be delivered out of the gate. As an early in line crowdfunder, I’m hoping to see one at the door by the spring. If it arrives sooner, I’ll be happy (and Pleasantly surprised).
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Hey Rich, no need to be so aggressive in your response. I was not venting, just penning my current thoughts. I have the ability to purchase whatever I want. The reason for the GF is for my hobby in which I design and manufacture large radio controlled jets and other aircraft. What appealed to me about the GF is that I would be able to draw on a piece of material and have it scan and then cut for a rapid prototype turn around. This alone would save many hours of continuously drawing and redrawing in vector graphics then sending the file out for cutting.
I ordered the pro so that I could cut longer parts for airfoils and the like. So forgive me if I’m a little skeptical after waiting fourteen months or so. Other than seeing maker fair people draw and cut/etch very simple examples. I have not today seen anything that approaches any other laser on the market. Include to this that the very few beta folks have not as yet produced anything of complexity that uses the so called advanced features that we have all been sold on.
Regarding disappointment. Currently I am disappointed in regards to the shipping always being promised then changed. Yes, this can happen but it does tend to make one feel a little jumpy with a few bucks on the table. If the GF does have at least scan and cut with a usable and accurate pass through and can actually cut 1/4" ply then I will be more than happy. The other item of import is the multi platform ability which it obviously does have. So you are totally wrong in assuming that nothing would please me.
Dodds… Yes, You are totally correct in regards to the microwave filters being crappy. All that I’m saying is that it made me think that I should not bother having one and hence the cancellation.
I personally would like to see more update on the shipping and also live video of this thing doing what it is supposed to do. Until then its really vapor ware.
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Got the wrong guy on the filter discussion I’m afraid. 
I wouldn’t say that’s a fair characterization. There was some ambiguity over the Dec ‘15 date was with regards to shipping of their backers’ machines but they made one shipping date change after that (in April when the June date was pushed to Dec). Since then all we’ve been able to get out of @Dan is that it will ship when it’s ready and they are still targeting the end of this year for all crowd-funding backers (who bought before 10/25/15).
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Videos of the machine doing it’s thing…front to end:
The next update on shipping will be given next month:
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Actually it’s “before the end of the month” so only about a week or so before we hear what’s up for December. 
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They’ll ship the pre-release units out at the end of this month if all goes well. Then he’ll tell us how things went. (I’m guessing a week or two into December.)
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If you go back and read @Dan’s statement that you quoted, he definitely said the end of this month here:
" I’ll update everyone before the end of the month with the latest progress towards shipping."
and here:
“when, we have definitive news to report. We’ll have that by the end of the month.”
Not being a pain in the ass, but just an example of how people are reading things into statements that aren’t necessarily there. Similar to the ones who think he’s promised delivery by year end when he’s only said shipping.
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Well…yes, I know that’s what he typed, but i also think we spend way too much time on the forum trying to parse every single thing Dan says and pin him to the wall, and too many folks are still pinning all their hopes on it being the definitive answer.
All these members are doing is setting themselves up to be disappointed again. Dan just doesn’t have that much control over what is happening. All he can ever give us is his best guess.
I expect this kind of thinking from people who have no experience in how much has to happen in order to bring a prototype to market, but believe it or not…this one has gone very rapidly for something this complex.
It was a prototype a year ago. (I know a lot of people didn’t understand that, and they got mad, and felt personally slighted, but the facts are that you just can’t rush something like this. All that anyone can do is give you their best guess when they can have it ready. And they can be wrong.)
They’re still giving us their best guess, but there is still no guarantee, and they might miss it again. If they do, it will probably not be for long…certainly not another 6 months, because the things we are seeing from them on the forum indicate that they are getting very close now to it having it ready.
I don’t take people’s word on faith. I look for results and I’m seeing them. If anyone wants to look at the Beta Projects on display, they will see them too.
Has every single thing been shown…not yet. But enough has been shown so far to make me feel fairly comfortable, and despite my unfortunate tendency to squeeee a lot…I’m no fool.
I’m going to take a second to warn those who are still harboring anger and resentment about the delays we’ve all had to wait through…there’s a danger that you do not see… coming at you like a freight train. If you spend all of your time resenting the delays, or whatever else, up until the machine arrives on your doorstep, you will never be able to set that resentment aside, and you will totally ruin any chance of ever enjoying your purchase. There’s just no machine, no matter how wonderful, that could ever be spectacular enough to overcome a year of frustration and worry.
So think about it for a little, for your own sakes. I think we all deserve to enjoy what we have waited so long for.
Try to recapture a little of that excitement you felt when you bought the machine…we’re getting close enough that you can dust it off and try it on for size again.
If you absolutely can’t get past it…get your refund before you get the shipping notice, your window to change your mind is closing pretty rapidly.
I’m done. 
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Dan actually did say we should expect the Glowforge would be delivered by the end of the year in one reply in the original delay announcement thread.
He never said anything like that again, and things could have certainly changed, but it’s pretty clear that he intended for them to be in our homes by the end of the year at the time.
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It wasn’t sold as a prototype. It was sold as a machine that would be shipping in 3 months (for those of us who ordered in september). Thats part of the problem and the frustration many of us have. I can tell you had I known this was a prototype and we are probably still a year out from shipping, I would have waited to order.
I know I’ve stuck around because of the promises of what the GF can do, but some of those features are still MIA. We will find out soon enough if we will start shipping orders in December or not.
Another delay and I bet a lot of people will have lost faith, especially since the communication about the delays and progress has been pretty crappy so far (you might disagree on that, but I expected quite a bit more on the update front than what we’ve been getting). You would be surprised just how small little victories are important to get communicated. It doesn’t mean something can’t go wrong later, but at least people know things are moving in the right direction
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@dawime, I think we are going to see the features that we were promised. We might not get to see them on the time schedule that we would like, but I think they are going to eventually deliver everything they said they would.
A couple of things might not make it into the initial release, (DXF comes to mind) but if it’s something that is a deal-breaker for someone…like them not being able to do variable depth engraving…they are going to tell us about it so that those folks can get their money back. They are not going to stick us with something that doesn’t work. That’s just not the read I get on them.
And they know that if another delay happens, they are going to lose some sales, so they are moving it along as fast as they can, while still not compromising on the qualities they promised us.
The victories are being communicated to us through the beta projects. If you look closely at what people are doing in them, you will discover about 80% or more of the functionality that was promised for the initial release. It’s enough to make me very happy.
For the other 20% that we haven’t seen yet - i think they are working to make them spectacular. Those are the hardest to implement, and I fully expect to get blown away when I see them. That’s just from offhand comments from Dan and the crew, over the last year or so. Making something look easy is very hard, and they might have a few bugs to squash…that’s okay too. The advantage to them having the control of the software is that they can continue to squash the bugs after they send the machines to us.
Dan has done as good a job as he can to keep us informed, but the one thing he can’t do is make promises and he knows that. We keep asking him to, when we press him for proof and firm deadlines, and he just can’t do it. He knows that there could still be something that could bite him in the ass if he does, and he doesn’t want to completely lose faith with us.
That’s the sign of someone who is going to do a good job for us. So that’s why I’m not worried.
Please try to remember the excitement, and understand that he is doing all he can.
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You do realize do you not that there would an NDA that comes with a beta test unit and part of that agreement would no doubt be that any issues they may encounter with the GF are to be communicated back to Glowforge and never discussed with anyone else.
It must be crushing to carry the weight of the varying levels of uncertainty or disappointment of 10,000 crowdfunders without actually having any direct knowledge whatsoever of the state of the product at any given time. I do not believe it appropriate to diminish the anxiety other members may be experiencing with respect to features or timelines or whatever. Just allow everyone to feel the way they feel and not try and coerce them into feeling the way you feel about things.
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I have no intention of trying to coerce anyone into anything. It’s entirely your own choice. 
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I am what KickStarter calls a Superbacker - I have backed over 150 different projects between KickStarter, IndieGoGo, and now the Glowforge. I have seen many projects succeed and some fail. My feelings about GlowForge are positive. They are providing proof that the beta units are in the wild and they are providing updates and consistent communication. They are showing people that the device works at trade shows. These are all positive signs.
The infamous Zano quadcopter showed pictures of production and testing. They showed pictures of it being used. But what they didn’t show was any real-world use of the device. When the first units went out, the owners reported how they didn’t work. That isn’t what I see happening with the GlowForge. The beta users are showing the results of projects completed on the GlowForge. I trust that @dan and his crew are working as hard as they can to meet their deadline.
I have been in a beta test segment for a product similar to the GlowForge. It was interesting - beta users could talk to each other and to the company about the problems, but they could not release those problems publicly. There were several reasons for this; including confidence in the product and the fact that we tested features that were not necessarily going to be released to the public. A company has to be very careful - if the beta testers show the results of a feature publicly and then that feature is not available when the public release comes, it raises an outcry from the users. So it makes sense that the public is seeing a filtered version of the testing. I also suspect that each beta tester has to run through a more structured set of projects and tests and provide a pretty fair amount of data back to GlowForge. This data is used to improve and determine what will be released to the public. There may be not insignificant changes between now and shipping.
I am sticking with GlowForge. I have confidence from the history they have shown us and from my experience with similar projects that they will deliver. It may not be in December but that won’t be from a lack of trying.
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If only it was. I think it was just a mock up and some CGI animations. A prototype should have been able to do all the things claimed in the specification, at least to some extent. But we know the PSU for variable depth engraving didn’t exist then and we have no evidence pass through has been implemented.
I ordered a pro with an air filter in Sept and it says at the top that my order will be shipped by the end of Dec, but I haven’t seen any evidence the pro or the air filter exist yet. Has anybody seen either? Do any of the beta testers have them? It would be odd / risky to send them out without any beta testing, so I can’t see how mine can ship in Dec unless pro versions have been secretly developed and beta tested.
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Isn’t it more accurate to say that a longterm reliable PSU for variable depth engraving didn’t exist then? I was under the impression that a big reason for the first big delay was that they had a power supply, started testing it, and discovered that in actual use the magic smoke came out way too often. (Which is exactly the kind of thing that you find out when going from prototype to production.)
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I suspect they had a lot without the one true power supply to rule them all.
There was all the firmware, the motors, the laser tube itself. the ability to reliably position the laser to lase only what is desired, the cameras, the autofocus, probably dozens of things I haven’t thought of.
I’m pretty sure you can find some very early videos doing most if not all of those on a temporary power supply that Glowforge enlisted to be abel to operate until the actual one arrived.
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I believe @Dan posted that the hardware for the Pro was completed alongside the Basic back when we had a thread on maximum thickness and the slot configuration. But he’s also stated that the filter is likely to be delivered after the initial lasers ship (no specific timeframe - just “afterwards”). He’s also stated that there are software features that support the Pro (like the automatic alignment of things being slid through the pass through slot) would likely come later as well. So a Pro shipping in December is likely to be a Basic with the improved cooling & tube with a pass through slot door and that’s it (oh, and the extended warranty). We Pro buyers can either defer delivery until the Pro features are enabled or take what’s essentially a slightly beefed up Basic.
I’m unconcerned about the pass-through support since it’s pretty worthless to me with a 1/4" material thickness limitation (I have another laser with 9" of material thickness capacity). The lack of the filter irritates me a bit as it means I have to put the machine somewhere other than I planned due to the need to exhaust out a window. But I’m getting the higher duty cycle and extra warranty which is pretty much all I’ll “use” of the Pro feature set.
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