Long Beach NBM

Well I made it back this weekend (unlike last year…) from the NBM convention in Long Beach, CA. Lots of interesting vendors and ideas - spent the entire 3 days this time. I’ll post pics tonight or tomorrow, but wanted to mention how, when at the Universal laser exhibit, the vendor asked what laser do I currently have. He was so excited when I said a :glowforge: . He ran and got his buddy and started 20 (or more) questions… I explained I had ProdForgeOne and yes, they are out in the wild now. They were jealous about the camera and asked if that was standard or an option (standard !!!). Was a fun weekend - got some samples and saw some HUGE lasers ( like twin bed size) from foreign vendors as well as Trotec, Universal, and Epilog… A big part of the show was car wraps (was not really into, but interesting to watch !), and also popular this year was dye sublimation. I ended up picking up a dye sublimation printer… saw some things you could combine with laser cutting… hmmm :thinking: Was worth the road trip !!

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How nice that they were excited about the GF instead of being critical! :grinning:

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That’s so cool! I love that Universal was excited and inquisitive about what :glowforge: is up to, rather than negative or even nasty. That speaks highly of their confidence in their own product, as well as their commitment to the industry as a whole.

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I went to NBM on Saturday. Although I avoided telling any of the laser booths I had a :glowforge: coming because I wanted to avoid anyone grumbling at me. But I’m glad to hear your experience was good. My fiancee does embroidery as part of her employment so we went primarily to see what kind of thing were possible to mix the use of the laser with her embroidery business. I don’t remember what booth it was, but I was most impressed with how one company was using a product called Fashion Film by Stahl’s, a heat transfer vinyl to make T-shirt designs by laser engraving off the vinyl from the plastic coating leaving nothing but the design to be ironed to the shirt. No need to peal off the pieces that are not needed.

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That’s great that Universal folks weren’t dismissive of Glowforge. Can’t wait to see what you do with sublimation and the laser. I have a dye sub printer and have started to think of a few ideas that combine both technologies.

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Universal doesn’t have much to lose to Glowforge, business-wise. They only have one small laser and even it can have a rotary attachment. The rest of their line is bigger and more capable than Glowforge and is aimed at a higher segment of the market. It’s the small-time players making cheap small lasers that are worried.

Edit: And actually Glowforge is potentially good for the higher-end manufacturers like Universal, as it can be a gateway to a small business that will need a larger laser as it grows.

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The Universal Laser company is great…they’ve been around quite a long time. Always supportive of customers…great customer service. I’ve gotten to know the tech guys pretty well over the years…lol
Even though both my machines are out of the warranty period, they still help out owners.

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