Is the current two box shipping the final solution? Seems odd that the crumb tray, head and duct can’t be inside the GF with moulded foam to stop them moving around. Does it exceed some weight limitation or is the casing not strong enough perhaps?
It seems like shipping two boxes will be much more expensive and a problem through customs.
Might be for weight, I know my local UPS will not put anything over 70lbs on a local one man truck it has to go freight if 71lbs plus.
Yes I think 32kg is a general safe one man handling limit. Funny because UPS regularly delivered 48kg packages with one man to my house.
And is was cheaper to ship one 48kg box than two 24kg boxes, which are much easier to handle.
perhaps but given how we’ve seen a number of lasers from other companies in this price range arrive (yes, the muse, but not only) i’m content with the shipping setup; they seem to have put quite a bit of effort into packaging this time around - maybe this is an easy and relatively cheap way to “guarantee” that a strike against the box can’t damage anything (foam spacers notwithstanding).
I’ve been the courier. 2@24 is easier than 1@48, at least for the driver.
Yes the packaging does seem to do a good job keeping it safe but I would prefer not to pay double brokerage fees unless I have to. Triple including the free Proofgrade that comes from a different source which, depending on how it is invoiced, could end up with negative value. If it comes as a free gift worth $150 then I will have to pay import duty, VAT and brokerage on that plus the shipping cost.
I did manage to get a free spool of filament from Makerbot duty free for filling in a customer survey. The invoice said it was a warranty replacement. Funny because I haven’t bought anything from them since 2011.
That’s correct. So I was really surprised to see “Weight: 72.00 LBS” in my shipping info. So now I wonder if it’s coming on a two-man truck or not.
I’m sure they have a little leeway on the weight limit.
Could be. Hell, I don’t care if it takes an army of UPSers as long as it shows up. 
It would have been cheaper to put it in one box, but it would have increased the risk of damage and made it more difficult for you to move around when it arrived.
i’m sorry aren’t you interested in moving around a 200 pound, 4’ x 3’ x 3’ box?
I’ve handled that box. It is no fun. (I also dislike trampolines, Walmart, Bowflex, and the Total Gym system. At least Total Gym is only 98#.)
yeah, i ordered a treadmill from amazon.
once.
never again.
LOL!
I could tell stories. It sounds like a Glowforge is a set of boxes I’d be happy to carry, though. It sounds like they really did it right on the balance of weight, soundness of the packaging, and number of boxes. That is really saying something, because @dan is right about how shipping would be cheaper putting everything in one box. It would also create its own logistics and customer nightmares.
I don’t know what point they decided to go with a steel crumb tray but I think that is what caused it to be two boxes. Much better than the aluminium ones but much heavier.
It seems to be their intent for quality over cheap/convenience. Actually, they have maintained such a high concern for that, it would have been my only concern about getting to market, not being able to produce a machine ‘perfect’ enough. As it is, they are shipping. The hardware is amazing quality, from what has been reported. The functionality is up, and they are still working software for 100% of the originally planned features, much of which will be operating ahead of most customers receiving their shipments. They are not resting there.
Yes it does look very good at this stage but not yet what they marketed it as. It seems that most people here are happy with a basic laser cutter that is easy to use but there are still many revolutionary features missing.
And they have expressed project deadlines for those features, all of which are software-based at this point. Even if there is some slippage on the software finish, the hardware is physically capable of performing all the promised features at this point. It is just finalizing those coding for those, which they can do with the units already shipped. Even so, they have been constantly improving the software, and they may beat their goals for completing all the features. They certainly are not giving up on them.
I ordered a kitchen worth of cabinets from Ikea. For a 5th floor walkup. I think the two big boxes were 55kg each.