And it doesn’t have a fancy name - just JB’s Glowforge. Nor does it yet have a fancy escutcheon. I wasn’t planning on making any kind of a post because we’ve all seen the Founders Ruler by now (and some cool variations of it), and we’ve seen unboxing videos (that are better than the effort that I would put into it). We’ve also seen or heard of the damaged units that have arrived. Or maybe about alignment not yet being as precise as we’d hoped.
But, I am so damn impressed with the ease of this machine, I felt that I should post something to assuage those who are waiting for their machines still. First, the box arrived in a condition I would rate about 7.5-8/10. It was missing (1) plastic handle. The tape was in good shape as was the outer boxing. I watched my UPS guy stand it up on the dolly and then cartwheel it up the 4 steps to my front porch. Thanks, Brown. I wasn’t too worried about it though - others have experienced similar and while the packaging may not be perfect, it was designed for an imperfect world.
I haven’t yet bought a dedicated table for the Glowforge. Crazy, huh? After 2 years? Shame. But, I also wanted to get a feel for the size of the actual machine and how I will use it before I bought or built a table for it. Do I want onboard storage, or as small of a footprint as possible that I can move to utilize the passthrough easier, etc.? Those questions will be answered while it sits temporarily on my dining room table. Good thing I’m a bachelor and eat in the living room.
Set up was mostly flawless. Load up the instructions on the Glowforge website, take some foam out, pop her up on the table and get going. I don’t know how strong the WiFi receiver is; the first scan didn’t pick up my primary network. I typed in the SSID and it complained for a minute, rescanned, and found my primary SSID. The only wireless signals I can pick up out here in the boondocks are my own, and I’m not too far from the unit (25 ft and a wall?). Maybe it just had a hiccup. A signal indicator in the GFUI might be nice, just a simple dBi number somewhere?
After 23 months, I think I’m just about ready to print the glorious Founder’s Ruler. Not. Sitting in a 95 degree truck all day left the unit a little warm, I believe. Not to mention, I had it at probably 81f or so in the dining room area. Turned the unit off, dropped the AC a couple of degrees and grabbed some dinner; 30 minutes later, I was golden. Founders Ruler done and perfect.
UPS delivered my ProofGrade yesterday at about 10:45AM, so I was hoping for a repeat performance of being at the front of the daily delivery line. Wrong. I was the very last 2 packages on the truck. The point of telling you that is that I was supposed to go help my sister out and tear some palettes down for some project she’s working on - thanks Pinterest. Needless to say, I didn’t get a chance to do that. To make up for it, I grabbed a crappy low-res jpeg of the logo from her and her business partners store here in Wimberley, TX (come shop, y’all!), did a quick image trace in Illustrator and reversed it, plopped in some freebie Medium Clear Acrylic and sent it on its way to the magic cloud.
I’m impressed. A few minutes later, I had a coaster that will make amends. The only nitpick I could make about the engrave is that a section of the ropes for the swing didn’t seem to make it through. I measured the thickness in Illustrator of that part and they came out to .01". But, a 500% view in Illustrator showed a couple of problems in the trace (which is typical) which corresponded exactly with the missing areas. For literally less than 30 seconds of “design” work and 10 minutes of printing, color me impressed. Or, is that, I’m clearly impressed. Sorry, bad acrylic joke.
Oh, how accurate was it? Well, I shoved that design way up in the upper left side of the bed, just for the heck of it. The only thing you’re seeing that’s “off” is shadow. Dead. Spot. On. As far as I’m concerned.
The closer you get to the finish line, the tougher this wait gets. Time is relative. And it can be tough watching other people make on their units when you don’t have yours yet. I know. That’s how I felt. Then I kicked myself in the derriere and told myself to quit being childish and petty. It’s coming. It’s real. And it’s awesome.
