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I was. The amount of hassle in the standard k40 isnt worth the price savings. They ship with bottom of the line components, need a lot of adjustments and tweaking to get to work properly and consistently, and the software is generally laden with trojans and bitcoin miners.

The k40 pros are as follows:

  • Its hackable
  • It has numeric positioning/adjustment
  • You can open the lid while its running (only a pro in some cases. Some people will consider this a safety issue)

Outside of that, the glowforge is a lot better piece of equipment all around. Much better quality/results. Autofocus and the settings library are a HUGE time/money saver, and you dont have to worry about overdriving your tube.

If youre wanting to hack stuff together and end up with a quality laser, youre probably better off buying quality components from lightobject.com and just doing it yourself. K40s are fun to have while youre waiting for your glowforge, but for the majority of people, once they get a forge they probably wont ever touch the k40 again. Ive scrapped mine to use for parts for a large format laser.

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Iā€™ve replaced everything but the tube (& I need to do that - mine metered out at 32W and itā€™s declining output). Replacing everything makes it a pretty nice machine :grinning:

A K40 with new power supplies and a Cohesion board replacing the stock Nano board allows the use of LaserWeb 3 (now LaserWeb 4) open source control software.

LightObject has good mirrors & lenses as well as a bunch of other stuff like air assist or adjustable heads.

Thatā€™s why I said itā€™s a tinkererā€™s machine.

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If you love to work on a machine just about all the timeā€¦ then go for it. There is a reason that I own three of these machines and am looking forward to the Glowforge. Just about no one that has ever owned one has not had to spend a great deal of time working on one. I will be keeping my machines even after I have received my Glowforgeā€¦just not sure how much dust they will be collectingā€¦

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Yeah I probably have more hours tweaking than cutting on mine. Not the case with the Redsail though (but that cost more and has real software and onshore support).

Great learning machines though if youā€™ve got the patience.

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To help you in your research, here is a good resource to get details on what to expect:

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I do not have a Chinese laser or one of the US brands. I have had a Glowforge pre-release for six months. You will spend only a fraction of your time dealing with setting up your prints. It just works. If you learn how to craft a well-defined design, it will just work. My PRU is a workhorse. I just started a 2 hour cutting job and have no doubts that it would finish or screw up. Last week I did four three hour engraving jobs that used the whole bed interspersed with twenty minute cutting jobs. Perfect, every single one of the memorial tokens.

I love the fact that I can jump from one device to another and not have to worry about loading software and updating it. This is one of the top reasons I got a Glowforge, that it is cloud based. Not for every use case, but it is a robust solution. The only maintenance I have had to have on the Glowforge is cleaning the windows along the beam path (two of them) and cleaning the lens, and cleaning the lid camera. I do clean the tube and glass lid, but that is really cosmetic. I do have to clean a wire screen I have on my vent hose. I cleaned the exhaust port after the first three months. I did give the bed a bath once, but doubt if Iā€™ll do that again. Not really needed for me.

One thing you will have is the Glowforge community forum. This is as good as it gets with assistance and fellowship on a common task. Design ideas, inspiration, free designs, design software help. Funny, amazing, brilliant, inspired, dedicated, international, experienced, friendly, challenging, did I mention brilliant? You can post a well-formed question at any time of the day and someone will get to it fairly soon.

The Glowforge has self-contained cooling and air assist. It has one plug and an exhaust hose. Thatā€™s all you need. I just got a new car that has three months of free wifi. I could stick it in the trunk and take it to where I had a power hookup. Laser camping! Stick the vent out the side and get to it.

One question I have for you. You are a hobbyist and not necessarily looking at mass quantities of production. What materials and object are you interested in? Sometimes that determines what is best. The bed size is a real limitation. The Pro with the pass through will help, but it will only do 1/4" materials, even though a pro could cut thicker stuff. Iā€™m finding with the latest upgrade to addressable bed, Iā€™m much happier with the size. Really if you are wanting to do bigger stuff, a CNC might be more efficient. Engraving a full bed-sized bitmap takes a long time with anything but a very expensive laser. Cutting bigger stuff might be better with a router.

I am biased, but I do like my Glowforge.

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Hey, congrats on the new car!

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Takes a very long time on a ShopBot too :slight_smile: (At least the Desktop.)

Iā€™m working on a design for a 2 piece cheese board - the top is the board and the bottom holds the cheese knives. Iā€™ll CNC the bottom because I canā€™t dish out 1 1/2 walnut with the laser but Iā€™m going to engrave the top because I canā€™t get the detail I want with the CNC (the 1/16" bits are the smallest I can use and they break pretty easily). The GF is still my go-to machine.

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yeah, I feel like people understate the utility of having a self-contained design, sometimes. it seems one of the best gf features for me.

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Iā€™ve had a blue and white K40 for about a year now, I bought it when the December delay was announced.

Itā€™s work to play with it. I wind up using it ā€œbecause I have toā€ rather than ā€œbecause I want toā€. Fiddling, tweaking, windoze, Corel. Ickā€¦ (Apologies to those of you who use those on a regular basis. I donā€™t have the patience.)

My theory was use it for 6mo, gain the experience, learn, and then I would truly appreciate the Glowforge when it arrives.

As the GF time approaches I use it less and less.

The experience was worth every penny. Iā€™ll probably sell it for $200 when the GF arrives. Iā€™ve had it a year, so $16 a month?

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