I ordered the “Pro” unit under the false assumption that Glowforge would deliver something magical. Instead, I got a flaming bag on my doorstep. Here is a list of problems with the unit:
The unit cant cut through material, including proofgrade, the farther right of center it goes.
The camera is horrible and the only thing it does consistently is misaligns and blurs the preview
The passthrough slot - save the extra money. Why pay for something that doesn’t function?
The support is not supportive…I guess you guys are busy juggling the hundreds of others with the same issues we are all having.
is your material FLAT on the crumb tray? I have found that if it is not flat you WILL get unpredictable results.
as to the passthrough slot. it is being worked on agressively. THE Glowforge timeline was cratered when the original power supplies for the laser did NOT hold up. it is very difficult to work on the software for a laser cutter/engraver, when the laser won’t fire.
this is an amazing power supply BTW. you can engrave paper and cut through .25" wood. You have opened a ticket by posting here. So you should get a response soon.
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, its been an issue since day 1…I’m now at day 30. I’ve read the forums, tried all the suggestions, and even used Google. It’s an issue that literally has over 80K results from a Google search (pic attached). I’m shocked that so many of us have the issue with new machines. I’ll give it a couple more years and maybe buy again, but for now, I’ll take a refund.
Sorry to hear you’re giving up. I assume you have ensured the crumb tray is seated in all 4 indents in the bottom of the machine with no obstruction keeping it slightly lofted on one side? Also, as previously mentioned by ca_worth the project board should be as flat as possible and sitting squarely on the honey comb area of the tray (not off to one side or the other).
Even magic needs a mechanism. Not understanding the mechanism of what you are doing will lead to unexpected magic which is usually not a good thing. I use the passthrough all the time, more often to work on materials that would not otherwise fit, than giant sized parts.
Have you made all the starting steps, run the calibration routine and give it time to do its job, that “reworks” the image to be amazingly accurate but only at a precise distance? If the material slants errors emerge. Have you made a collection of bed pins to hold the materials in place? Hold down pins mod the material tight yo the grill.
The laser cuts the same no matter where it is but if the material is overlapping on the side, rather than down on the metal grid you will get that effect. If the bed is not sitting in the “dimples” or something is blocking them you will get that effect.
Of course! All those words are in those too, but if they are talking about cutting fabric with the scissors in your right hand then that would be a part of the 82k as well.
I get your frustration, but you are still well within warranty. The GF support has a lot to improve on in terms of how quickly they are able to get through the requests, but from everything I’ve seen, they will work with you and get machine issues sorted out (whether through settings, or a repair or replacement). Part of the painful part is they have to remotely troubleshoot hardware, software/internet, and material and procedure issues. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at your issues…
If your GF is not performing, specifically cutting and engraving properly on proofgrade materials with proofgrade settings, then support will get it sorted out to make sure you have a working machine. Yes, it may take a couple business days (I think, I’m not up to date on their support backlog) for them to respond, which is frustrating, but not really reason for a refund. I’m assuming you have started a ticket through email, but if they have not responded yet, they will want you cut the Gift of Good Measure on proofgrade material at proofgrade settings and take pictures of the results-if you are having issues on the right side, then obviously do this on the right side where you’re having issues. Make sure the material is held down with honeycomb pins to keep it flat.
Camera issues…have you wiped the camera with a Zeiss wipe? Have you completed the camera calibration? And finally, are you using the Set Focus to make sure the camera is focused on the material? The alignment of the camera will shift based on the thickness of the material-if set focus isn’t set (with the red dot actually on the material), then things will not appear aligned. Again, if the features are being used properly and things are not working, you’re under warranty-make the company stand behind the warranty (from everything I’ve seen, they will). The only camera ‘issue’ that I will say does not perform well is recognizing QR codes on proofgrade materials-the solution is 2 mouse clicks to just click the upper left material area and select your material, so not really a big deal.
Passthrough not working…um…you haven’t provided any detail at all about what isn’t working for you. With some info, folks on this forum can certainly either help you solve them or point you to forum threads that have helpful info.
Support…again, I think this is something that needs improvement, but that’s not necessarily a reason for refund-the support is slow, not non-existent. And just a side note on this-by starting a thread in Problems and Support, you have automatically created a new support ticket. So if you have also emailed them, there are now 2 tickets that Support has to go through, read the issue, communicate and troubleshoot with the customer (which is often multiple steps/back and forth), and close out once resolved. This is an extremely common issue and makes a significant impact on how quickly the support staff can work through things to get to every customer issue.
Even if there are hundreds of issues, there are tens of thousands of happy customers with working machines. If you are willing to deal with a bit of frustration from an overloaded support system that could use improving, you will certainly wind up with a working machine (I wouldn’t go so far to promise something magical-as with any tool, there is trial and error, a learning curve, and experimentation depending on what you want to do).
