Well that was a fantastic happenstance. I kind of want to see the gradient bridge printed out anyhow. Thanks for sharing!
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This is an excellent example of how the Glowforge will help us not only to our designs but also will help us to solve some last minute problems. 
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That story is beyond incredible – what a gift you could give her!
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correct, cork and lube to seal the joints.
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That trace function is absolutely brilliant 
Thanks for the update Dan!
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I never really thought about it before. That is, I never considered it to be a lot of work. A little sanding. Usually just a few minutes. Man, haven’t done that in… wow… 20 years since I managed a music store. I guess if you happen to own a Glowforge you’d want to have it saved for future use once you dialed it in. I mean, that’s the way I’ll look at pretty much everything once I get mine. 
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Cork is used for joints on the clarinet. Saxes (maybe clars too?) have a couple of corks for things to rest on when they’re pressed. Also on the neck where the mouthpiece attaches. Me, I’m a piano/keyboard and trumpet player. Not a wind player at all, so I don’t know all the details of where cork goes on them.
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Where’s the open source firmware?
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I guess it depends on how many you do. If you can save a few bucks worth of time on each one and cut out most of your inventory cost.
And probably all those stupid little pads…
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Great update Dan! I have to say that the deluge of posts from the pre-release units as well as the more frequent updates from you have put many of my fears about production to rest. Keep fighting the good fight.
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Not trying to assume anything. Thinking we were promised “a” production version of the firmware, not “all” versions of the firmware. Personally wouldn’t want the firmware until it was a bug free ready for production version, or better.
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I hadn’t thought of replacing corks on instruments. I have a clarinet that could use some work… Another project added to the huge list that has been building since I first heard about the Glowforge. Seriously can’t wait. Thanks @dan for the update!
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id be pretty surprised if it were published any time before they were shipping to end users in quantity
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As a luthier of violins, this is of absolutely no use to us.
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There’s a reason why the techniques used for hundreds of years are the best. There’s a reason why the shape of the violin, the f-hole pattern, the curves, the types of wood are used. It’s true that there is little or nothing to be gained using a Glowforge for making a fine instrument. Quality would likely suffer and an experienced maker can often do it faster and far better using standard methods.
Still, the imagination is what we are dealing with here. On Thursday, I will be playing a gig with these guys. The fiddle on the left is made by the musician from an old cigar box, The fiddle in the middle was custom made by a luthier from Nova Scotia for about $4000. There is certainly a major difference, but the untrained ear probably wouldn’t notice. And we have lots of fun doing it. Will certainly use the Glowforge for non-standard purposes.
edit: Thought I would mention. The musician with the cigar box fiddle plays fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, upright bass, ukulele, piano and several other instruments. All quite well. His father played for the US Navy band and his mother played classically for a symphony. The musician playing the $4000 fiddle is a local farmer. He plays purty good too. Looks are deceiving.
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I used to know a luthier. It was amazing to see him make violins. The process takes months. I would stop by his shop weekly to see progress. It’s always something special to see a master at work. He passed away at 79 in 2009. Few are those who carry on the craft, I imagine.
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Thank you for the update @dan . Happy to read all is going well. Cannot wait for my GF and all the wisdom I will receive from all these great folks.
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I loved the sound of this. Really neat photo. My husband was a musician for decades and at one time played bluegrass music in a band with his two brothers and a couple more guys. Great memories.
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At this point, I’d be pretty surprised if they released anything at all without public shaming.
The open source firmware commitment was for “when we launch”. Marketeers usually consider “launch” to be just about the minute they have a vaguely working prototype. Shipping even one unit of “basically final” product is definitely “launch”. So it’s already late.
I fully expect them to release the absolute minimum they can get away with. At the last possible moment. With maximum excuses about how important and difficult it is to sanitize the firmware of their precious intellectual property (but, hey, we’ll throw in this week’s feel-good story!). I definitely don’t expect to get the source for the “real” firmware, because I notice that the original message carefully didn’t promise that (while at the same time carefully not calling attention to that fact). And I wouldn’t be too surprised if there were never a single update.
But if they weren’t hounded, then I wouldn’t expect even that.
The whole cloud dependency is a critical limitation that was mentioned nowhere in the original crowdfunding promotion. It took about 50 percent off the value of the product. When people noticed it, we got a “well of course it’s obviously cloud dependent” act. Which I guess may look true if you’re deep enough in the “Internet of Things” lemming herd, but sure isn’t if you’re not.
If I’d thought of the the thing as anything but a toy, I would have cancelled instantly.
After that, Glowforge burned any remaining “benefit of the doubt”, not so much with the extreme delays, but with the lack of communication about them. That lack of communication was so extreme as to make one suspect a deliberate attempt to mislead. And it’s still going on, under thin “trade secret” justifications that may indeed be the true reasons… but are frankly irrelevant from the customer’s point of view.
I still can’t understand the people in these forums who ordered these for actual businesses and have NOT cancelled.
So I’m not inclined to be very trusting about any delay or lack of communication with respect to the minimal mitigation we’re supposed to get for the original bait and switch. At this point it’s time to start telling them that people remember their promise.
Hmmmm… “bait and switch”…life must have consistently handed you a very large number of results that meet your expectations of being tricked and misused. I’m really sorry – that must be hard to deal with.
I have been incredibly fortunate and am grateful for the very opposite - life generally surprises and delights me, but I kind of think that is due to how I approach it as much as anything.
I, for one, feel no misuse in this situation, am extremely excited about what is being created here – and am really glad that if I did, I could get all my money back and move on to some other laser machine…
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