I guess my point was it really depends on what youre trying to make with it. If you make greeting cards might need something with really high speed. if youre making deep engraved signs its not as much of an issue.
Back to the power cord derailment… I want one like this, but for big boy power levels…
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I almost got one of those, but sleeping wouldnt be happening for me haha. I do have extension cords in my shop that have a light at the end so I can know its plugged in or find it in the dark
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It’s not (as far as I understand) that important for the GF, but for some other machines it can be: that number of millimeters per second is a top speed. How much of your zapping gets done at that speed is seriously dependent on the shape and size of your design. So for example with a 1x1" engrave you are never going to reach that speed before the head has to turn around and try to zoom the other way. Which may affect your power levels depending on how the laser calculates that.
(Speaking of which @dan if someone is doing multiples of something involving an engrave, is there a way to gang them in the UI to minimize head acceleration/deceleration, or do you have to put them all in one image-to-be-zapped?)
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Thanks. I was largely ignorant about larger machines, hence my question. My assumption was that bed size and power increased, but axial movement remained somewhat the same. This could be because those are the two most quoted specs for machines. Thanks for the info.
I think I understand your question, that is if it is the same one I had. I was excited by this:
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Correct. Pathing is critical. It depends on how the software treats the individual copies of the base item - as part of a single whole or one of many. And then for vectors, what’s the order of the paths. Really complicated if you want it to be 
nano one does it great but once you’re used to your machine’s software, you can adjust for it at least to some extent.
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Do laser heads travel the same speed when firing as when not? I mean if I set the speed at 300mm/sec, and am engraving a big letter “U”, the laser head is going to travel that speed when engraving and for the blank space in between, correct? Do more sophisticated lasers move faster when not firing?
for a raster engrave, yes. I dont know if larger lasers have some sort of gap detection and will accelerate faster to clear those gaps more quickly, but i know the lasers Ive used dont. They just go across at the same speed.
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I will have probably a 5 foot run to my window. when I get the forge set up in the basement. I probably will make a double wallled tube with foam between the two.
This applies to all CNC like machines. When tool is not active (or if Z is raised) these moves are called ‘rapids’ (aka G0 X-100) these are limited by the controller itself.
Tool engagement moves (tool is active) these are dictated by the feedrate. i.e. G1 X-100 F3000 (feedrate is 3000mm/sec in this case)
The thing that determines if that feedrate can be hit is the acceleration / deceleration values. This is used to tune the machine so where if there is a short move (or aggressive) instead of the gantry going from 0mm/sec to lets say 3000mm/sec it gradually get to that speed. But this depends on the distance specified.
For example. If you told it to go from 0 to 3000mm/sec is a distance of 3ft- There is more than enough space and time to gradually get to that speed then ramp down. That same move in a distance of 3in- it would not hit the max feedrate specified.
In the case of the glowforge. The head assembly is pretty hefty. (a lot going on in there) so they need to tune it where the weight and inertia does not affect the performance of the machine. Tuning that value keeps vibrations and swaying under control. And this also dictates if a high speed move can be done (if at all possible)
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Those red power cords were supposed to be “don’t trip on me” cords for expensive lab equipment, but it looks like they somehow found their way out of the lab and into your homes. My loss is your gain 
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so youre the one with good taste in power cords eh… =)
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I’d like to think myself a connoisseur of wire harnesses
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your appreciation is appreciated =).
When I was younger I would get excited about scavenging molex connector covers out of the trash at my uncles computer company so I could put them in my computer, which was of course cleanly routed before it was a thing.
I have such an obsession with cabling I was given a custom made sweatshirt one year for christmas that just said CABLES!!!1 on it across the chest.
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so satisfying
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It’s going to be a great Glowforge Trivia Night question… “Originally Glowforges shipped with a red power cord. Why was it red?”
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ow wow… Ive been on the internet a long time, and its not often I see something ive never seen before. you just made that happen…
thats definitely rule 34 material for someone lol
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Spot on. I don’t get to mess with the accel/decel speed settings on my lasers for engraves/rasters (except set them at the machine level globally) although I can try to manipulate them with the cuts if I’m doing something I’ve order-pathed appropriately to take advantage of bouncing the speed up. It’s a level of complexity that seems to be anti-GF philosophy though. That’s something the software should take care of because their target market just got glazed eyes reading these posts 
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