Yea limit switches and an actual machine 0,0 that is repeatable is not an industrial feature that takes $1000s of dollars to add. The $1000 shapeoko cnc machine even has them. And not having that or very accurate camera placement creates an insanely large inconveniance for certain operations.
For instance, i want to use mine to make custom board game tokens. This requires a sheet of printed stuff being glued to the top of chipboard and then cut out. If I had a way of knowing where the glowforge would cut before I hit go I could simply put two straight edges on the table to make a corner and put my 11x17 combo on the table, load my file and hit go. Without either of those I need to use 8.5x11 sheets, laminate those together and make a new cardboard template every time I turn the glowforge on to know I will get proper cuts.
And in the vein of jigs; i would 100% prefer to make acrylic ones and reuse them every time. But without a physical machine 0,0 you cant (if they get the camera home accurate enought to be +- 0.005 each time that would also work) I cant use acrylic and keep them because I cant position them properly
If they had released it with this version of software in early 2016 I would have zero issues honestly, it would be expected it would be rough. But this far along and basic things are not worked out? That is very dissapointing
Exactly.
Particularly since the software is clearly stated to still be beta.
I am one of those who is completely new to CNC and lasers. To me it’s all magic. Personally I have had no real problems getting this machine to do what I want. My ignorance of design has been mitigated by the helpful people like @marmak3261, @Jules, @mpipes and many more.
I have completed 2 large jobs that required precision placement totalling 2,000 pieces. Thanks to @marmak3261’s guidence all perfect.
I have not been limited by the machine at all, just the opposite. I have been empowered by it.
On top of everything, improvements are in the pipe.
All a matter of perspective. Rah-Rah!
There is no reason to believe that Glowforge pays people to post complimentary things on this forum, as that has always been the job of George Soros. Or maybe it was the Koch brothers. Pick your boogeyman.
The only time I have been paid to say something was when my brother paid me $20 to lie to our parents about where he was one Friday night. Might be the only time I’ve lied since puberty. But you gotta do what you gotta do when you’re a paid employee.
No it certainly does not. It is a best a very buggy basic laser cutter. It was sold as a very advanced laser cutter. Here is the list of missing features: Glowforge Features promised / delivered
As for precision homing needing high end industrial machinery costing thousands, rubbish. Even cheap Chinese laser cutters have repeatable homing.
Cheap limit switches on my home built CNC mill have a demonstrated repeatability of .001". I’m not even looking for something that close from this laser.
If I could get .010" out this machine, that would be sublime.
And the homing isn’t the only issue. The list is too long to repeat here.
Again, this is just my view in its current state. I do expect it to get better.
For everyone else, it may be perfect just like it is, and I have no argument with them.
Not sure why everyone has to argue with me about “my” view of this as it applies to “me”.
I wish we had some visibility into what the software team is doing.
Working in software myself, I know exactly why we aren’t provided that information, it is a never-ending rathole of questions and disappointment no matter how good the news really is… but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to know anyway.
I would think that alignment issues, and making good use of the camera, would be a very high priority. Since we’re still awaiting those improvements with no ETA even hinted at, they are surely working on something of a higher priority; but what could that be? It may still all be behind the scenes stuff. There is a lot going on in the firmware and the cloud which we don’t see.
(I do expect the major camera improvements that @dan has promised to be delivered. The last update included a lot of details on how they will accomplish that. It was very reassuring.)
It delivered on it’s promises for me, and it’s getting better.
Yes, cheap machines do have homing switches, they are hardly accurate and reliable unless your definitions of those words allow for variances. Homing is only part of the equation. Open loop drive systems with cheap linear motion setups (bearings, rails, etc.) contribute significant variance in positioning.
I have several machines (2 cnc, and several 3d printers) that make claims of fantastic precision (stuff in the 0.001" range claimed), but in reality they all often miss those marks by huge margins. Missed steps, play in the linear motion, backlash, it’s all stuff that you can’t get really reliable and precise without spending a lot of money on higher end systems (closed loop drive systems, much higher precision linear motion, etc.). These machines I have are accurate enough for most needs, but I would not rely on them for truly precision work (which it sounded like you were wanting, Scott). Perhaps we just have differing opinions on what precise and reliable mean?
The Glowforge meets my expectations for precision and reliability, so far. As I said, I have had no problems with it homing/calibrating. Admittedly, I have not had mine very long, and I have not done a large number of jobs yet. I would like the software to have more features, but I find it usable for many things.
