I’ve been patiently waiting for almost 2 years (minus a day ). Almost 4 weeks ago the email arrived in my inbox and I didn’t know what to think. After such a long wait, my anticipation for my own gforge was only a minor itch at the back of my mind anymore. Not because I wasn’t ready for what it could do, but because I didn’t want to drag my wait time out anymore than I needed to!
With that said, about a week after receiving my email my proofgrade materials arrived, but no forge in sight The email had said give them up to six weeks, and I was prepared to do so, but the anticipation had started to mount after receiving my materials. Again, I had to be patient.
That is, until two days ago I got another email saying my machine was finally on it’s way hoozah! I input the tracking number into a wonderful app by the name of Aftership (fantastic for keeping track of your tracking numbers and updating you all in one convenient place). To my surprise if said that my forge was going to be delivered the next day. Which is surprising because I live in Hawaii! Regardless, I thought I was reading the transit time incorrectly and dismissed it. Yesterday I received a notification that, yes, my package was in fact going to be delivered that day!
UPS typically doesn’t arrive until 8pm my time, and I work until 7-7:30 so I wasn’t too worried. My wife was going to be home in the impossible event that UPS got their act together and delivered earlier than the usual. Which, of course they did the one day I would have never guessed . She had sent me a few Instagram messages and texts telling me to go check them. I already knew before finishing the text why she had added so many exclamations onto the text.
A while later I was notified that the eagle had landed at my home. I was fortunate enough to be able to leave closer to 7 and hurried home. I’m not the type to let my emotions take over, and my wife was certainly more excited for me to get home and set it up. I’ll be honest, I had no idea how large it was…If you’re familiar with the movie Dodgeball, you may remember when the main actor is offered a decent chunk of money (at least 250,000) the briefcase is opened and it’s one stack of cash a couple of inches thick and the quote used is,“There’s something lost in translation in the movies.” this is in regards to how small the stack is compared to what you’d expect.
Anyway…
This was quite the opposite. The pictures I had seen before gave me the impression that it wasn’t nearly as big as it is. Here’s a picture of my wife standing next to the box!
So I cleared the space that I had designated for it (and happened to be just big enough, so much for extra desk space!). Got it setup, and immediately ran into the cooling error…to my dismay I had to wait. And wait. And wait. I went to the forums to see if there was any ray of hope and read a few worrying things. It’s much hotter here than the “safe” operating temperatures, but it had had plenty of time to cool down so I was didn’t know what to do. I unplugged it. Disassembled the parts that were safe to do so, and gave it a minute unplugged and off. I moved the laser head to below the camera as well, turned it on, and voila! I was up and running. I of course cut the founder ruler, which is truly an amazing thing to behold in person.
With the mindset I’ve had over the last two years, I had zero designs made or prepared. I had one specific one in my mind that I knew would be my first when I learned how to use it. I prepared the design last night, and then finished it this morning. Sent it in, no errors were detected and I hit that print button for the second time. It was a 26min print, and I stood smiling there for at least 23mins. I am hooked.
This post is getting a bit long, so I’ll just post my images that I’ve taken. I also took a time lapse, but I’ll have to upload that later as I’m going into work now.
Also I had realized that the circular cut out was usable, waste not want not, right?
And finally, I was just blown away at the contrast and results of the engrave. I had to take a picture to believe it!
Long story short: This was absolutely worth the wait. I thank everybody that has contributed to the forum over the last two years, and supported those who may have otherwise returned their devices. I sent a pic to a friend who was skeptical when I ordered it and he’s so jealous! So if that’s your motivation, then this is the perfect opportunity to rub it in haha. Again, thanks for the support and I can’t wait to be able to put Harrison to the test