Anyone interested in buying an almost new Glowforge Plus?
location, price?
$3000
I’m located in St Paul, MN. I received it on Oct 24. I need to upgrade to the PRO.
just a quick Q - why are you upgrading to the pro?
Check out my easy shop at www.modlodeetsy.com and my main site www.modlode.com . Modlode Inc supplies decor and signage to the wedding and special event markets to North America and abroad. I expanded into custom laser acrylics and spent Nov and December creating my line and launched late December. I am getting 2-3 orders per day for custom acrylics and this is my off season. The feedback and inquiries I am getting from customers tells me that my Plus machine will not be able to handle all day use. It is not designed for this.
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The Class 4 rating does not mean it is more powerful - it means that laser light has a potential to escape the machine and cause injury (because of the pass through slots). It has the exact same power as the plus which is up to 20% faster than the basic which is 40 watts. The Plus and Pro are 45 watts.
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The primary difference here (as far as running all day) is going to be the active cooling. If you can keep the workspace in temps appropriate for the Plus, it oughta run as long as the Pro. If you expect workspace temps in excess of 74-75, the Pro will work better since it’s actively removing heat via the peltier cooler.
However, you mention the passthrough - so that’s the definite game changer between the units.
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With that much sales Why not add a second one?
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I am glad that you made this post @wilsonpf. I obviously didn’t read the specs correctly. I presumed it was 20% faster than the Plus, not the basic. I guess the question is how many hours can I run the PLUS per day? Will it give an overheating warning once it needs a break? Anyone every had this happen with the PLUS?
If it isn’t faster then that’s a game changer. I may just need to purchase the PRO and run both.
Thanks for the info.
Very good question. I think I may keep my PLUS and add the PRO in a few months once the busy season begins. Just concerned it may be sold out when I go to purchase. If Glowforge would give me the equivalent of the referral fee off the second unit that would be great. I’ve already emailed them to ask. We’ll see.
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Purchase with their time payments once it ships, and pay it off when you can but get at the head of the line and worry less.
In my experience, it would be better to purchase with a credit card, then do a balance transfer to another card that has a promotional low rate or 0% for balance transfers. The interest rate on their payment plans are kind of high from what I’ve heard.
My understanding of the differences on the Plus and Pro are, first, the Pro is designated a class 4 because of the passthrough slot which I found here: Email update June 2017: Glowforge shipments underway, schedule update, and more
The Glowforge Basic is a Class 1 laser - the same classification as a DVD player. It’s fully enclosed and automatically shuts off as soon as you lift the lid.The Pro, however, is classified as a Class 4 laser because, with the passthrough slots, it is not completely sealed.
Then the other official differences are listed here, which mentions that the Plus is a Class 1 on account of being within a sealed machine, but has the same capabilities of the Pro’s laser: Hardware | Glowforge
I’d agree that keeping your plus and adding a second machine to cut your labor hours in half is a great idea; it’s something that I’ve been contemplating for nearly a year. You may not need the Pro’s passthrough, but it’s not a bad idea to have it available in case a project comes up that does require it.
Hope you’re able to figure out something that works for you!
To me the biggest difference between the machines is that the Pro has much better cooling, Main reason I purchased it.
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You’re right, and I was going to point it out, but wasn’t sure of the particular degrees so I looked it up. Figured I’d just put the official page instead of copying and pasting everything 
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