Discussion of March 2022 Update

Everything Else
21

I have to agree with you on this one. The whole Glowforge NFT thing puts me off.

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22

^^^^^^^^

23

Glowforge was founded with the belief that design has value, and designers should be able to earn a living from their work. Itā€™s why our forum has rules against asking people to give files away (although theyā€™re welcome to). Itā€™s why we have a catalog of designs you can purchase. Supporting designers in delivering their creations how they want is part of who we are since the beginning.

NFTs might be a new way for artists and designers to earn a living. Then again, they might not. We launched with a very small experiment (10 NFTs each with Kate and Exploding Kittens) to learn more about it.

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24

I feel like that could use some optimizationā€¦but given the diameters, I could also be wrong. Unless one was to introduce puzzle like locking breaks in the larger circumference pieces. Might be able to reduce that to half the amount of waste material.

Also, already being part owner in a company that orders boxes for product might help. Boxes arenā€™t cheap new though. I mean they areā€¦but buying bulk is still costly.

25

I got an email today talking about smart snapping and alignment tool in the glowforge editor (something I have been wanting since I got my GF!). I practically ran to the app to check it out and it still isnt there. Do I need to do an update somehow or is it not out yet? I cannot wait for this tool. Will make lining up cuts 100x easier!

26

Laser tube repair / replacement $500? Crickets

Jonathan

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27

Or if not, addition of tubes to purchasable parts and a way to align mirrors. Seems like that would be a good way to cut the costs on the ā€œforever 500 dollar tube replacementā€ promise.

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28

or even a $750 laser tube option to cover the additional cost of shipping.
I have my big boy pants on.

Jonathan

29

@dan Did you and the Glowforge team just add a March Easter Egg? I just noticed the ability to align and distribute in the GF app. Iā€™m doing a happy dance now! Woot woot!! Thank you!

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30

IIRC, the teardowns have pretty much confirmed that tube replacement at home isnā€™t very practical.

Iā€™m really surprised there hasnā€™t been a redesign yet to improve on some of the things that have been problematic with the current machines. Including making more parts easily swappable.

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31

With a design open, select an item and see if you have the tool.

32

Hang onā€¦give him a minute or two!

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33

I did do that and the only tool on the bottom left is the ruler one

34

he replied to NFTā€™s ā€“ his ā€˜staffā€™ are < 3 feet from his desk ā€œHEY BRANDON HOW MUCH IS A LASER SWAPā€

:expressionless:

35

The relevant staff member is 4 states away and on vacation this week, but Iā€™ll get back to you as soon as I have an answer.

Yes! Snapping is a premium tool I believe - should be turning on for folks this week.

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36

from Glowforge tech support:

Iā€™m part of the technical support team here at Glowforge and Iā€™ll be helping you troubleshoot today.

We are no longer offering the 500$ repair rate for the laser. All repairs ( with some exceptions ) are 1125 $ moving forward. I hope this helps with your decision!

Regards,

37

I got back an answer: yes. It looks like @Deleted got an email saying the opposite - the teamā€™s going to do some sleuthing to see what went wrong there. Iā€™ll let folks know when I have an update, likely next week.

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38

Thank you, Dan. I know many folks will be anxiously awaiting an answer on this. :slightly_smiling_face:

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39

Thank you @Dan I am so glad I was wrong on this.

Jonathan

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40

ok from Glowforge tech support!

I have a correction to share regarding the other unit you asked us about. Iā€™m so sorry for the mix up. My colleague received some misinformation and the replacement tube is absolutely still available if it is diagnosed to be an end of life laser tube issue. If it is just in need of a new tube, the price to send it in to us and receive a replacement refurbished unit would be $499 including round trip shipping within the United States, plus any applicable taxes.

Our team would just need to get some more information from the logs and some images of whatā€™s going on with this printer. Would the current owner be able to contact our team directly with the following information?

The unitā€™s serial number
A video of the tube while printing
A photo of the mirror that goes into the top of the print head

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