I think part of the purchase agreement is that you are agreeing to comply with all local laws and regulations that pertain to your use of the machine.
Thanks all for your replies.
@dan - any chance you could chip in here please? I hadn’t heard of the ‘safety officer program’ mentioned by @brokendrum . I’d also appreciate it if you could provide the ‘declaration of conformity’ you plan on shipping it with (mentioned by @palmercr ). Are there any courses you recommend? Is there something I’ve missed from the website which could help?
@jbmanning5 - I agree - they currently only seem to cover laser pointers and health/beauty treatment products and not the more cutting edge uses of lasers in the home. As I’ll be using it non-commercially at home, not many (if any?) of those regulations apply to me - it’s sort of the opposite of a catch-22.
@bdm - I hope not! I’m sure they’ve got it sorted, but I’d like to know how. One of the upsides of a 2 year wait is that there’s plenty of time to go dating and find someone (@dan - why wasn’t that in your marketing material??), but that person wants more reassurance about safety aspects.
1 Like
I’ve had this fairly humorously base level of safety thought up but we’re not really supposed to talk safety specifics here(some lawyer apparently thinks it’s a liability thing because you may get bad/wrong advice from another customer but it’s on a company forum or they find an old answer that’s now bad/wrong from an official source) so you’ll have to wait until you get your e-packet after agreeing to have yours shipped.
…or someone who saved theirs could link it with a note stating how old it is and that it may/may not be up to date.
Think the biggest thing anyone has figured out is that it’s sometimes difficult to get the smell down to tolerable levels, which is of course highly subjective. @chris1 is the resident king of this, I believe.
Here in the US it’s apparently required that someone working around a Class 4 laser (the Pro Models) receive some safety training and assume responsibility for keeping people from getting hurt doing stupid things. They provide a mini-course for Pro owners in the form of a link to a lengthy writeup that outlines some simple safety measures. (Mostly common sense stuff, and don’t laser materials that are not safe to be lasered.)
Tell the person you’re dating that they have an awful lot of safety measures built into this thing, it’s one of the reasons it’s taken so long. 
The machine stops instantly if you lift the lid just a fraction of an inch. They have sensors built into it to stop the machine if the head comes close to hitting something, they provide glasses with the Pro models, and they’re not even necessary with the Pro shields in place.
I’m not certain what palmer means by “declaration of conformity”. If he’s talking about the standard Terms of Service, that’s listed on the main Glowforge website and you can read them there. It’s the usual legalese.
I hope you get it soon, you’ll really enjoy it. And congratulations on finding someone special who asks the right questions.
Just to clarify, so that people do not get the wrong idea about the safety mechanisms…
The built in safety devices do not detect if the head is about to hit something.
There are not any proximity sensors on the device to detect if something is in the path of the motion components.
There is an accelerometer built into the head, but it currently does not stop the device if the head impacts an object. You can see that this is the case by the many posts about the head impacting the front right side during prints. Here’s a video of it happening on my machine.
1 Like
He’s talking about the CE certification that electronics sold in Europe must have.
Ah! Thanks.
Yes as well as the CE mark there must be a DOC signed by someone in authority at the company. It states what standards the machine claims to comply with: https://www.conformance.co.uk/our-services/declaration-of-conformity-ce-marking
1 Like
Gotcha, thanks.
The announcement of the safety officer training provided with the Pro is here:
I’m afraid you’ll need to click through to see the part where he says they’ll provide training materials because that’s all the quote discourse grabbed.
@markwal - thanks for the link. But I think @brokendrum was talking about some software switch that prevents the laser being used if the slot shields aren’t in place. I’ve looked here - https://glowforge.com/support/topic/safety/safety-overview#Laser-safety - which implies that such a thing exists:
These materials will train you to operate your Glowforge Pro in Class 1 conditions, which do not require additional special precautions.
Unfortunately, these are only being emailed to Pro users at shipping. I wish they would make these documents available for download to anyone, so that we can see if we can follow the recommended advice beforehand.
It’s looking likely that I’m going to downgrade to a Basic. If I do, it’s still going to be fascinating and a lot of fun, but it grates a little that Glowforge isn’t a little more forthcoming to make this decision clearer.
Not to speak for him but I assume he was speaking from a regulations standpoint. There is no software/hardware detection/switch that disables the use of the laser if the shields are not in place.
As for downgrading, guess you have a choice to make. That stinks. I wouldn’t let any little regulations convince me one way or the other though - especially when they state it’s not an offense for you to buy it (and presumably use it). But, that’s just me 
1 Like
Jbmannnig5 is correct. The document is a walk through of safety regulations necessary to make the Glowforge acceptable (safe) to use when the pass through slots are removed. The assumption is that the owner//user will be the adult in the room and follow the guidelines.
As long as you have the guards in place, however, the thing is as safe as a toaster.
4 Likes
I appreciate that. It may seem like a short instructional course is a small thing that we could just post, but we actually spent an enormous sum of money preparing it for you, and while we’re not charging you for it, you’d likely pay over $1,000 to have a similar educational document provided by anyone else. (I know, I’ve purchased and read several of them!) So owning the document is an exclusive perk of Pro ownership.
Should you have any questions about recommended procuedures, though, I bet the folks here who’ve read it could answer them.
And to address your question there: no, the software does not have an interlock related to the slot, only the lid and the rear (optional, rarely used but legally mandated) door interlock connector.
I appreciate that you want to differentiate your two products. And also that you’ve spent a lot on creating these safety materials (the courses I’m looking at also cost four digit numbers). But that’s now a sunk cost (unless you’re paying some sort of fee per copy sent) and in my case releasing the materials would better the odds of me sticking with the Pro.
Coming back to this: https://glowforge.com/support/topic/safety/safety-overview#Laser-safety
- which says:
These materials will train you to operate your Glowforge Pro in Class 1 conditions, which do not require additional special precautions.
Can anyone with the training materials explain what “class 1 conditions” means? Does it mean not needing to wear safety goggles, for example?
Thanks again,
Joshua
If you fasten the pro shields and take the necessary precautions to avoid having them removed (ie don’t allow the machine to be in the sole custody of mischievous teenagers) then you can operate it like you would a Basic.
1 Like
Yes. No special precautions or other equipment (beyond using the GF as designed - don’t override the safeties) needed for Class 1.
Class 4 exposes the operator to potentially harmful lasers so laser safe glasses for all people in the room are required whenever the shields are not screwed in place blocking the slots.
2 Likes
The reason for the complicated verbage here is that the device class applies to the device and it’s intended usage. It’s a Class IV device no matter what, but you can attach the shields and it behaves like a Class I device for all intents and purposes. So they call it “Class I Conditions”.
2 Likes
And if you’re using it in a commercial establishment (not a single person crafts person making things for sale), OSHA has certain requirements for policies & procedures that the Pro training applies to.
1 Like