Because the WIFI is such a critical element to the Glow Forge , the Muse would be the better choice .
Not only do you have to have to negotiate to get the WIFI signal but you also have to put up with how many times you will need to reset the WIFI .
Its nice you have a couple choices in the matter but the muse would be my go to.
WiFi integrity can be an issue depending on several variables like interference, but I’ve had my machine for 4 years and never had to reset the WiFi.
I’ve also never had a fire. That would mostly be affected by what materials you use, and the condition of the air assist fan. The materials that pose the greatest threat of fire that I’m aware of are cardboard and acrylic. In the case of acrylic, cuts that are close like in fine detail bear close watching because you are dumping a lot of heat in a small area.
agreed.
wifi issues are strength of connection issues (and yes, it’s a potential issue), but resetting routers isn’t anything that seems to help. i fixed the minor issues i had with that by getting a mesh router and having a hub near my machine instead of downstairs.
and fires? that’s just a laser cutter issue. the GF hardware isn’t any more susceptible than any other laser. i have yet to see a fire on a GF that wasn’t in the end an issue of lack of attention. material is burning, if you’re not watching and especially if you are burning something that is more of a fire threat (like corrugated cardboard or acrylic), then they can get out of hand when you don’t pay attention. doesn’t matter if it’s GF or trotec or universal or whoever.
i’ve worked in a very large architecture firm for 15 years and i don’t know a single person who doesn’t have an architecture school story about another student causing a fire at the end of a semester and screwing up everyone’s production schedule on their final projects. and these are all industrial machines.
if you’ve set your glowforge on fire multiple times, you need to look at your production process and not blame the equipment.
I’ve been dealing with this kind of question in my main line of work for decades. The salt air will probably destroy the GF. Marine electronics tend to be specially treated (special gasketed connectors that seal those contacts and conformal coating to seal the electronics, usually) to survive in that environment, which is one reason why marine electronics tend to cost more. The salt air is highly corrosive. Any exposed copper inside the machine will immediately start to degrade.
The question to be asking isn’t “will it be able to function?”, it’s “how long will it continue to work?”.
I’d bet on no better than a year or so.
Or the first good storm.
Yeah. But just think how much better life would have been for the castaways if the Professor had brought his Glowforge along on that 3 hour tour…
Just put the glowforge on your pool table. Problem solved.
Somehow I doubt this will work when your walking on the bulkheads haha.
If you are on a yacht that big and you are walking on bulkheads you will have gone from pool to Poseidon. I can imagine the inquest… “The boat was very seaworthy till they put that pool table on the upper deck”
I grew up in Florida. been on many boats.
IMHO, a GLOWFORGE and a boat of pretty much any size is simply not a good mix.
the salt air is super corrosive. my brother was a marine mechanic for 10 years. used cases of PB BLASTER penetrating oil. that unit will LIVE by sucking air into it. ALL of the air. humidity is one thing to deal with. corrosive humidity is something completely different.
I would think it would work as long as the unit was flat on a surface. but if you were in open sea, just how well is your internet connection going to be?
Sailboats are very hard to roll upside down unless you lose the keel. If they plan on sailing the world they will at times be walking on the bulkheads.
well you know… if the professor had had wifi they woudln’t have been stranded now would they?
it always amazed me as a kid that the skipper’s and gilligan’s clothes never aged. now watch 3 episodes of Survivor and see how quickly those folks are in tatters. LOL
They are traveling by catamaran and of all sailboats they are the most likely to show how stable they are upside down. Very rarely do big cats get blown over like little cats as they should never fly a hull, but when surfing down a big wave it is a bad thing when the front goes in and is suddenly a lot slower than the back. There have been a number of those cases.
However if the big power yachts that pool table is designed for have you walking on bulkheads you have bigger problems than keeping your pool table flat. Then again any extended distance would cost more in fuel than those catamarans.
I was supposed to be doing something before I came across this thread. I forgot though…
Either way, some things just need to be done in the name of science.
So here’s my recommendation…
Bring along a 3D printer also. You WILL find things along the way that you could use it for. It could be a repair. It could be a tool to make life much easier.
And a gyro table. 
I was ashore then in Coconut Grove. Until I discovered LPS-3 I might as well have been on a boat for all the corrosion. I was spending several hours a day trying to keep jewelry pliers able to move at all. One spray of LPS3 and 50 years later they are still fine. Having your Glowforge packed in cosmoline (which LPS3 is like) might hinder its acting correctly anyway.
Yeah I know the pool table was designed for large yachts with their own stabilizers. I sailed on large ships myself and occasionally we ran into weather where we did some very heavy rolling. That pool table would have been tossed on its ear lol. I’ve seen lots of things that were bolted down get ripped loose and destroyed. The sea can be a wild ride. I remember a time (on a Canadian destroyer) when we lost both bubbles from one of these:
Gimballed tables would be a good thing but like any of those machines when you bump them in your house even can through them off. In dock the 3D printer could be amazing for parts.
I was in Wilcox AZ when a truck with a load of strawberries came into a repair shop that the aluminum generator bracket was broken and without it a truckload of strawberries would be goop. I had some aluminum “solder” I had to experiment with and while the result was not pretty it saved his chops. Such a thing in the South Pacific could be a lot more dire.
Yes indeed. LPS makes some great products! a childhood buddy of mine had a dad who was the local LPS rep. he had cases of their products in the garage.
for tool preservation. have you ever used BOESHIELD?
I have that on my table saw table drill press and bandsaw tables no rust.
The only problem I ever had with LPS was that the wax would set and an old spray can would no longer work, but now the hand spray lasts much better. I never tried for something that would last better than 50 years however and google did not find it either.
