I own a Glowforge Pro, but the only place I can setup it in my home is not capable of the passthrough function due to there’s no extra space behind it.
I’ve tried to check the threats but what I found is Pro is required to wear a safety glasses because of the passthrough slot.
What if I don’t use nor open my passthrough slot, do I require to wear a safety glasses? Can the glass lid protects eyes as it states on the “Glowforge Safety”? (The Glowforge unit has a case and glass lid which block harmful levels of infrared and ultraviolet light to allow you to operate the laser safely.)
Sometimes I cut prints with my kids, so I just want to double check again.
The short version: yes and no. If you have the slot protectors in place, then it’s quite safe. If not, there is a small risk of laser light exiting the machine and glasses are the safest way to proceed.
This is all explained in the manual for your pro:
Also, just as an aside, just because you don’t have much room behind your machine doesn’t mean the passthrough slot is useless. You could slide your machine a bit forward on the work surface and then measure from the window to the front of the machine, I am guessing you have at least 25-30" (70-75 cm) of space. That means you could pass materials that are up to about 20x30" through the slot. Also, using that slot as a “pass-into” can be very useful. I have many hardwoods that are 6" x 24", sometimes it’s much simpler to push the material in through the front slot to cut something out of or off the end of the piece of wood.
I don’t wear glasses when I use my pro, but I don’t peek through the crack either. If I had kids in the room I would require them to wear the glasses, because of their possible impulse to peek. If you look down through the glass it is the same protection as the basic. Also I also have a tight space but I have used my pass through for game boards and purse designs that are just a little larger than the 12 X 20 space. I also made a long sign once by cutting a long living hing and rolling the sign up as I passed it through.
