I’ll try to not pat myself on the back too hard, but while trying to manage my first really big project order that has my GlowForge running nearly all day, I have found myself unable to really do much else besides hang out around the machine.
Then it occurred to me that I have a nanny cam! I purchased it before the pandemic when we would occasionally leave the house and leave my doggie for occasion stretches. We haven’t even used it because we do t go anywhere now!
I now have a new use for it!
I can officially roam about the cabin again.
I knew I couldn’t have been the first! I’ve hit the ground running, learning as I go - I am looking forward to getting to taking some time sitting with everyone’s posts and tutorials! There so much to learn!
Well, it takes a lot less time for the ribbon cables and head to get toasted, and the GF cabinet itself will try and stop your house from burning TOO fast
I hope you have good insurance. We have seen Glowforge units pretty much completely ruined in as little as 30 seconds of a fire while cutting acrylic.
While engraving will be less danger, we have seen print heads, belts, and cables ruined with masking fires.
Don’t trust the camera. Be there with the unit. The time spent is worth the piece of mind to me.
We, the users of this forum whom have been around for a while, have seen posts of fires. We have seen both videos of fires as they have occurred and pictures of the results of those fires. There is one especially illustrative view of someone using a camera to monitor their Glowforge while cutting the Eiffel Tower. The user gets distracted and the video shows about 30 seconds or so after the user stops paying attention to the Glowforge the first flame starts up. About 30 seconds later, the user is alerted to the fire by the glass top shattering due to the heat, if I recall correctly.
I have lost count of the number of belts, heads, fans, and cables I have seen photos of after a fire. From little flare-ups that aren’t so little that char the belts and fans and coat the lenses with soot to full out melted crumb trays, broken lids, and melted cases.
This unit isn’t the toy that a lot of users like to think it is. It is only as safe as the user and leaving the unit alone isn’t safe. I won’t even leave it alone while engraving stone or glass, even though that is about the safest one can get for fire danger. If I am cutting or scoring I am watching it the whole time. If I am engraving something flammable I have eyes on the contact point at least every 5-10 seconds. For slate, I am in the room and looking at the unit every 30-60 seconds. Just to make sure everything is OK.
I decided it is easy to ignore the person who offends, then to challenge.
since I don’t really value their opinion anyway.
As far as my comments “YMMV” - laser = fire / on flammable material
it’s remarkable that the glowforge works as well as it does for keeping flare ups
at a minimum, and proper caution is needed when using it. - as far as keeping an eye on the job, a camera is easier then popping out of your chair every 5 mins, and walking across the room to look at the status, a constant feed makes me feel a lot more ‘in control’ [Editors note: the ‘worst’ security, is the feeling of security’]