How did you see it?
I followed Kickstarter very closely and this came up on the front page
What did you first think?
how amazing it was, I have seen laser cutters before, but the user friendliness of this machine looked amazing. A large part of my job is designing machines that work with people and seeing something this easy to use was great.
How long did it take you to decide?
It took me a couple days to decide to buy it and that is only because I had to convince my boss that we could use it. It didn’t take much convincing.
What, if any, reading did you do or discussions did you have before deciding?
I did a lot of research on laser cutters out there at the time of the Glowforge Kickstarter campaign and nothing was nearly as easy to use or had the capabilities as the Glowforge.
Was anyone else a part of the decision?
While I do consider myself a “maker” and very knowledgeable when it comes to things like this, I am simply a software programmer at my work so I did have to get the okay from the engineers/ fabricators in my lab.
What do you hope to get from your Glowforge?
I hoped to get an easy to use machine that could be easily integrated into our fabrication workflow for robot prototyping/parts. we are constantly using 3d printers for creating covers and prototype parts for our robots/ exoskeletons/ drones, and a lot of these 3d printed parts are flat (perfect for a laser cutter) and the ability to cut cases out of acrylic vs printing out of abs, not only is faster, but much stronger and looks good enough to use on final parts.
If the purchase was wildly successful, tell us why and how you feel about it!
This was an amazingly successful purchase, how easy it is to use is the biggest thing for me and all my coworkers that have had the chance to use it. the ability to give a coworker a 5-minute tutorial on how to use it, and then let them go off and start making things without me having to worry about them screwing this up is amazing. Another great thing is that when I am giving a tour of our lab (which I do a couple times a week) if there are any kids in the tour group, I can let them draw something on a piece of paper, put it in the machine and cut out a little keepsake for them to take home and remember their tour, something that would be impossible with a 3d printer due to the print time, and impossible with a different laser cutter as it would not be as user-friendly and easy to show off.