So happy for you!!! Can’t wait to see what you will create!
Nothing for me yet… starting to suspect something wrong with email… agh… 
I did pretend to eat the imaginary cake you baked me - it was delicious! 
4 Likes
I hope you get yours soon, glad you liked the 
3 Likes
In that case you have to print a cake 
1 Like
I could not print a cake as pretty as what @SunnyStarbucks can make, check the link on her profile
3 Likes
Thank you! you are so sweet!
So I didn’t get the Email…until AFTER I got the Glowforge… Yes - it arrived without prior announcement… at my mailbox… I can’t get it now because I’m stuck in a bloody meeting…
12 Likes
You got a laser!!!
I’m happy for you and happy that I got at least a little bit of warning 
I’m looking forward to seeing your creativity come alive via the GF
3 Likes
Congratulations!
At least that way you were spared the anticipation of delivery. BAM!
"Why… why that looks like…
6 Likes
What is this box… BAAAM! It’s a 
5 Likes
I’ll save a new post for projects, but in the meantime… MY GLOWFORGE IS HERE!!!
First things first:
The Glowforge Box.
The Glowforge box is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to your Glowforge box. (with apologies to DNA)
OK, that’s out of my system.
The box survived shipping pretty well. On the bottom there was a long gouge/tear but all of the tape held amazingly well.
I knew from reading other people unboxing that the power cord is in the big box. It was tucked in a corner behind some of the support foam. Make sure you look for it. It wasn’t red.
The first thing I saw was a piece of paper saying “Stop, go look at app website first” (paraphrasing) so I did and, yeah, back to the unboxing. This is one of the little things that I’m sure will get tweaked since there really isn’t anything to do at the website until the GF is powered up. A link telling people to (politely of course) RTFM would be more useful.
The second box with the crumb tray also contained the GF laser head and the vent kit. This is also a big box, but it’s light enough that there was no damage at all to the box. The tape job held up awesome as well. The boxes are neatly put away for future use if/as needed.
The Glowforge Assembly
My wife was kind enough to help me lift the GF out of the box and place it gently on my work table. At that point her curiosity was sated and she went shopping. I was on my own. I cranked up STP and settled in to figure out what goes where.
I started with hooking up the exhaust (after reading all the safety stuff) per that manual. Done.
Then done again when clamp slipped.
Then done once more. All good now.
The manual is a draft, and there are a few things that need fixing. One of the things that is 100% correct is the “Read this before proceeding to …” part. I proceeded, noted the Red Knobs, then went back and actually did RTFM that verified the Red Knobs do get removed. You’d think I’d learn, but…
Actually. I did read ahead for the next step, that got the GF head installed and located in the proper position (Including a strange sidestep in the middle to install the crumb tray. That was the one step I did perfectly. Yay me!), the ribbon cable hooked up, and the head seated properly. Check, check, check.
I plugged in the power cord at both ends and It’s Alive! I have no idea if I hit the power button when blindly installing the power cable or if it was already in the ON position, but I’m happy either way.
Run The APP
Back into my “not following directions explicitly” mode. When hooking the GF to your network you’re told to wait to see the button glow, then connect to the GF, enter all the pertinent data and carry on with a happy life. They word that differently but you get the idea.
Mistake number one: Don’t hit the button on the GF. The website doesn’t tell you to hit the button, it also doesn’t tell you to not hit the button. Button hit (that would be “mashed” for my friends in Mississippi). Turn it off and turn it back on again. Restart process.
Mistake number two: This was all me and my network. I ented the NW password in all uppercase. Bad result. Second try, no changes to either entry method or result. Sit back, contemplate, third try change case on password. Success!
I think at this point you’re asked to name your Glowforge. Something unique (but can be changed later). Hmmm. HoniForge is born (named after my little dog who was helping for a few minutes)
The Design Catalog and Printing First Item
Time to see what all the fuss is about 
I entered the Design Catalog just fine from the set-up steps. It’s just a button in the middle of the screen at that point, hard to miss.
There are a number of items there just waiting for me to try. I’ll get to most of them later. I selected the Ruler for my first “out of the box” print figuring nothing could go wrong, right?
Wrong. At this point I hadn’t opened my Proofgrade Starter Box yet. Opened the package and pulled out one of the sheets of Maple. As others have noted, there is residue from a previous QR code sticker. I placed the sheet in the Glowforge and kind of lined it up on the top left corner of the crumb tray. That put the QR code on the botton right.
When I loaded the design the APP did not recognize the material via the QR code. OK, I just selected the material from the menu. I positioned the Founder’s Ruler, rotated it 90 degrees hoping that holding the shft key during rotation would help snap to positions, it did. I selected the dark engrave (I think - hard to tell in the interface).
I selected the Print button and was informed that it would take 6 minutes, 26 seconds. OK, whatever. I’ve got a laser now, I’ve waited this long, it’s cool. I was also informed the material couldn’t be identified again. Sign. Ignore, got it. Downloading to laser.
Glowy Button. Button depressed correctly this time. Magic.
Front and back pre-weeding.
And the final result.
I’ll start new threads after this when it’s time to share. I need to go figure out how to submit a bug now…
32 Likes
Great story! Felt like I was reliving it right along with you. (Yeah, did pretty much the same things, in the same order.)
Send an email to support@glowforge.com if you have an issue…otherwise, can’t wait to see the forthcoming projects! 
3 Likes
Love your play by play…
Congrats!! Get a move on…lets see some stuff…lmao 
6 Likes
I knew your story was going to have a happy ending when you started with the Douglas Adams quote! Thanks for the play-by-play. And yeah, I’ll probably mess with my for 10 minutes or so and then think “Maybe I should read the manual…”.
5 Likes
WHAAAAAT??? I’m out.
7 Likes
I know, right? Such a small thing to make so many happy
I’m keeping it anyway 
4 Likes
You’re quite dedicated! 
5 Likes
Thanks for the fun report Rocket Man!
Enjoy your long awaited exploration and indoctrination! Welcome to the ‘Actually have one now club’!
5 Likes
Thank you!
One would have thought I’d have a lot of projects lined up.
One would be wrong.
The projects I had will be good for someday, but not necessarily today
12 Likes
Yay yay yay!
3 Likes
Curious as to why you rotated the ruler? I did one rotated too to see if the tick marks would be straighter on my prerelease. Different grain too.
And congrats to you and thanks for the writeup.
4 Likes