Latest: Price has increased, Shipping, Maker Faire recap

@walendo, AMEN! I am hoping I am included by March 31st. :pray::pray::pray:

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I would speculate that once the ball is rolling, the company would not allow that momentum to diminish. Everyone has busted their arse to achieve shipping, and I think Dan would be remiss not to provide the team an appropriate celebration of that threshold - but like liberty in the Navyā€¦ ā€œBe back onboard by the break of dawn.ā€

I think the initial ā€œdeadlineā€ is the hard one to make, if they can do that - the next one should be much easier.
Unless a quality issue surfaces during initial shipping, I would be confident of receiving the order as expected.

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Donā€™t forget: if youā€™re venting outside, and are in freeze-prone climates, donā€™t leave the vent hose connected to the outside after youā€™re done cutting. This might seem obvious, but if youā€™d planned for a filter, it might not have occurred to you yet.
(Experience shared here: Vent Specifics)

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The voice of experience. Thank you for sharing that lesson!

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Thanks for that. As someone who was planning for the filter and hadnā€™t actually even considered the returning cold air issue, you might have just saved me and my 'forge from a very sad winter.

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And, of course, the coolant in the tube will affect thisā€“I canā€™t remember what the latest word is on what thatā€™ll be, but I doubt the GF team are using pure water. Even if there is an antifreeze component, Iā€™d still recommend a gate, if only for your own comfort/heating-cooling cost minimization.

Edited to cite @dan on this:
Not water: Water Cooling
Blast gate still recommended: Winter issues

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You can probably make one yourself once you have your Glowforge!

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Is it just me, or does @dan have a particular talent for making innocuous things sound really ominous?
I mean sure, itā€™s probably just some other cooling fluid, but it soundly suspiciously like he might be having the GF engineers cool our lasers with tenuously contained Lovecraftian horrors.

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I once had a hewlett-packard printer that was possessed with electronic gremlins.

  • H.P. Lovecraftian horrors. -
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Iā€™m guessing something like a coolant and water wetter or purple ice combination.

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Heā€™s the Father of two energetic kids, Iā€™m sure he has experience in making things sound ominous to prevent really bad ideas turning into really bad mistakes.

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There once was an engineer type that converted a VW Cabriolet to electric drive. To cool the motor controller he used propane as a phase change coolant. It would go into the controller as liquid and come out as gas. Then it would turn to liquid again in the heat exchanger. Not what I would do. Letā€™s hope @dan and company are not considering this fluid for cooling! - Rich

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I think air conditioners switched to butane when CFCs were banned.

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Too many years agoā€¦you are correct, he used butane to cool his controller. The butane turned to gas (phase change) and cooled the heat sink of the controller. The problemā€¦if any of the gas escapes and contactors clack*clack SPARK! BOOM. Not good. To his credit, he did use sealed contactors and it was ventilated with forced air to disperse any gas. - Rich

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All of this nervous chatter will abruptly dry up when real Glowforges are occupying our attention

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Kitchen-size butane refrigerators reportedly use about one small lighter-refill canister worth of liquid/gas. Enough to make a big whoosh. But before CFCs and HFCs the ā€œsafeā€ refrigerant was anhydrous ammonia. I canā€™t wait till they work the kinks out of the acoustic ones.

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Anhydrous ammonia? Really?! - Rich

Weā€™re trying to avoid making more promises, so all weā€™ve shared is the ā€œexpect byā€ dates. Also, I hear Tahitiā€™s nice this time of year.

As Iā€™ve always said, though - getting you your Glowforge ASAP is the second most important thing to us, eclipsed only by making sure your Glowforge is awesome.

Weā€™re using something very expensive and very magical. :slight_smile: (Seriously, Iā€™ll share more about it later, but itā€™s something we put a lot of effort into getting right)

There are those who say I respond to cold as others do to a bad odour, and I am the last to deny the impression.

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Anhydrous ammonia is still used in refrigeration systems today. It isnā€™t much fun to work with, but at least you know when you have a leak

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Thank you so much for the update @dan!

Itā€™s updates like these, and statements like this:

that gives me absolute confidence that you will deliver a stellar product! I donā€™t mind waiting for that. It will be so very worth it in the end :heart_eyes:

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