The Glowbaby has been sitting in the box in my living room for about 3 weeks waiting for my new shop to be built. It looks like it will be another 3-4 weeks before that is done and on the very good advice of the folks here I followed their suggestion to fire up the machine just to make sure it set up, centered and could do a print.
Well… I cannot believe how easy it is do work. I use AutoCad, Illustrator, and other graphics packages on a daily basis so the drawing part of the equation could not have been simpler. What amazed me is the accuracy of the machine, the relatively straightforward use of the app, and the overall results.
I can see very clearly that Glowfriend is going to be very useful for both practical and decorative items. The first thing I 'Forged (after the ruler that is…) was a sample layout for a replacement vernier for my survey transit. In very little time I had a perfect circle divided into 360 deg, numbered with all of the lines. I will cut this out of aluminum for the final install, but wow, so easy and fine result.
The other stuff was just for fun. A couple of luggage tags in acrylic and maple, and of course, an escutcheon plate. I don’t have a name for this fine piece of craftsmanship yet, but I will. I name everything I own.
If I have any beefs at all it would be the cloud interface. It needs a pretty robust wifi signal and the upload is not always the best. The other item is that sometimes the interface gets stuck on ‘preparing your project’ and never tells you why that is. I have figured out that it is sometimes a piece of the graphic, but it would be nice to have some error codes. Anyway, really having fun!
JWS, I meant engrave or score it on an anodized aluminum disk. I would love the GF to be able to cut metal, I can use my CNC mill to do that job for me. And I believe that I saw a post here of someone painting the score lines of a control panel, I will likely do that as well.
Yes, it was a long wait and yes, most of us vented once, twice, or constantly. That is true. What is also true is that machine sitting in my living room on it’s makeshift stand is tour de force. And every time I look
at it I stand in appreciation of Dan and all the others that kept the course and followed the vision to produce something as powerful, useful, intuitive, polished and finely crafted as the Glowforge.
It is not until the machine is sitting in front of you that one begins to appreciate the fit and finish, the lines and design, the thought, the care. The very obvious care that was taken to create something truly worth
having. And the time. Despite the lengthy path this was clearly time well spent, worth all of the sleep that was likely lost, meals that were missed. And as sometimes happens when people are thrown together, the long period from Kickstart to delivery allowed
a user community to form first in frustration and then in cooperation. And every day I see that community get larger, the ideas flow, the projects displayed and we all get better and better and better.
I design and build for a living and I depend on my tools, demand that my tools perform all of the time and every time. I have a few hall of famers in my workshop and though it is early I can see the day when this machine
that cuts with light joins that very select group. My hope for myself is that I can learn to use this tool to its full potential. My hope for Dan and his crew is that they will continue to develop what they have started and bring their company with all of
the new generations of the Glowforge to full potential as well.
I feel like everyone is at the start of the path with no idea what lay ahead. If I could make one request of Dan it would be to please take the time to feel proud of what you have achieved to this point and to take that
feeling and go out and make something even more wonderful to amaze us all once again.
I am not the first to say it, but I will be the next. It was worth the wait. Thank you.
David, thank you so much for your thoughts and your generosity. We’re working hard to bring your Glowforge to its full potential, and posts like this keep our spirits high!
