@dan Is @jkopel still beta testing or is his glowforge down again? Haven’t seen any beta posts in a while
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I agree. Otherwise I’d generally just wait until it became commercial & available in stores (I’d also be less impulsive because I would likely evaluate the buy decision more 
). I don’t back things for the money savings - those are projections and not likely to be real - especially when weighed against the risk. I like knowing I’m helping make something real that might otherwise be nothing more than a good idea.
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As soon as my email from the forum blew up this morning, I knew something big was going on. What a wonderful update, @dan! I’m one of the quiet ones when it comes to asking for things like that and feel totally comfortable with whatever is going on. But for the sake of those who do NOT feel the same way, I found it very gratifying to see that you really dug in and sent out such an expansive and quite detailed update. Thank you very much.
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That particular machine was on loan to the Institute for the Future in CA. They’re a customer but not yet a beta site.
We’re not in full production - still lots of hardware bugs to squash - but you’d be astonished how fast a world-class assembly line can move once it’s hit full speed. 
Honestly I love to share that - but unfortunately these things usually come back to haunt us in everything from laser manufacturers’ manifestos to terrified customers’ emails who read the part where we had a problem and skipped the part where we had a solution. (Many of these are international customers for whom English is a second language, so I don’t fault them for being confused - but it makes for especially challenging communications setting things straight).
Oh yes, just heard from him a few days ago about some experiments in progress.
Appreciate the feedback as always, keep it coming!
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Thank you for the clarification.
I suspect I would!
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Thanks - that’s the sort of update that eases the mind. The format reminds me of the status meetings we would have with R&D project sponsors. Acknowledge the problems and explain the proposed (or better yet, confirmed) solutions. If it was easy anybody could have done it.
If you still feel like writing books, one on the process of building Glowforge, especially from the engineering side, would be a good read.
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A few years back I worked on the installation and operating manuals for a wind turbine. There was a guy. Who worked for a company. That did safety rules and training for machinery on top of tall structures. Period. We got him for a day, of which I was graciously allowed an hour and a half. He probably cost as much as I did for the whole project.
Proofread those labels! 
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Thank you so much for this update!
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I was the first of now 54 people to like this but I failed to say thanx, thanx!.
Oh, and do you EVER sleep?
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Very appreciative for the update. It obviously took a great deal of time formulating the response to our unrelenting questions and pleas for an update. I am on an ever-steeping anticipation curve for the arrival of my GlowForge.
Brian
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Thanks for the update! Much appreciated
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Yikes, I was tired just reading that!
You guys have a lot on your plate and I appreciate all the work that goes into a hopefully great finished product! Thank you so much for the very insightful update. I don’t know anything about any of this, so it’s interesting to read the sorts of things you guys are dealing with.
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Thanks for the update. My boys and I are truly excited to get the Glowforge
into our creator space. Great engineering process. Appreciate you taking
the time out of your busy schedule to keep us all in the loop.
Ev Stanton
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Once all NDA etc has been lifted I’m sure we all would LOVE to see that. Launch party video?
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Thanks for the update @dan, sounds like nothing to bad so far.
When I think of all these betas and production test units it just makes me wonder. What do you do with them all?
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This is the kind of update I like to see. Its real. Having an idea of the issues you guys are facing, and seeing how you fixed them gives us an understanding of the progress that you are making and feels much more honest than ‘everything is moving along as planned’.
It feels like from a hardware standpoint you guys have gotten almost all of the major pieces finished (not including the minor physical bugs like what youve mentioned above). The only major concern I have on the hardware front is greyscale engraving, as that is the one big functional piece that I have yet to see working (that isnt basically something that can be fixed by a software update). Hopefully we will see some sort of update or demo of that in the near future, as it is something I will definitely be using.
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Goodonyer cobber, “flat out like a lizard drinking” springs to mind.
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I saw the post at 3am and was like that too…then I realized I had failed to take into account the 3 hour difference from east to west coast time and it was only midnight yet so not as bad as I though.
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“write an update”, they say. “sleep”, they say. Well, you can’t have everything.
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I appreciate the newsy update and the sense of perspective it adds to the story. I have been looking at the team page regularly and of all the metrics possible, that has been the best silent (mostly, from my perspective) witness to the progress of the project. I will continue to support the project as I can on this forum. It is getting harder and harder not to order a Chinese laser. But I’ve been putting my energy into seeing what I would do with a CNC router and whether or not I’d go with a homebrew one or get an XCarve.
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