My Glowforge up and running!

Made on a Glowforge
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I got my Glowforge last night. I opted to pick it up at the UPS facility about 30 minutes drive from my house. I am very happy with this decision as I did not have to wait around home for 4 plus hours waiting on the UPS driver.

The carton for the laser came in pretty bad shape, but the machine itself came through with flying colors.

I was extremely worried about hooking this up to my hotspot for the WIFI. It was very easy without any real confusion on my part. FYI, I have been trying to hook up my smart TV to WIFI for weeks without success.

The first thing I noticed is that all the feedback on this forum has been extremely helpful. I am sure I would have had problems if I did not read the forum regularly. Not any big items, it’s just that things look different in real life than how you imagine them.

Anyways, got the machine in place, exhaust duct run and Glowforge founder’s ruler made. Easy Peasy.

816Ă—612 137 KB

Fits perfectly on an old table I had.
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Here is the ruler. It came out very nice.
I then decided to print out a photo, just to see what it would look like. I just added a cut border to a jpeg I already had. I did this in Affinity designer then saved out as a PNG file.
The image imported perfectly into the Glowforge software. My only complaint was that I could not rotate the image on the table. I could resize and move it around however.
Here is the final engraving. My girlfriend is a fan of IZombie and the Walking Dead so this is her in a zombie pose.
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Finished picture is about 6" x 10". It took 1-1/2 hours to make.
I was very impressed with how good it looks with very little effort on my part.

Overall, a great start.
A couple of points that I might disagree with other users.

I have this in a 10’ x 12’ craft room (ok, spare bedroom). It is loud. My noise cancelling headphones work fine, but I am glad I am a bachelor. My ex would have made me shut it down after 5 minutes.
I went outside and listened around the exhaust and it seemed ok to me. It is on the 2nd floor however so I was not right next to it.

The smoke smell is kind of disagreeable. I went back and put duct tape over any connection on the exhaust venting and it helps but not 100%. Again, refer to my comments about the ex.

I wish I would have bookmarked specific forum postings whenever detailed information was given. The written material given with the Glowforge is sparse, so this forum is vital.

All in all, the machine is very professional looking, does a great job, and looks like it is going to be worth every penny I spent on it.
Trent

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Congratulations!

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Congrats. Checks out great. No wobbles and an ease to set up and use. :crossed_fingers::+1:

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Looks great! :grinning: :+1:
(And I don’t disagree - I sit about 12 feet away from it, and it’s loud. Not blender loud, but definitely vacuum cleaner loud.)

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So great! WELCOME!

Wow, your ruler looks way better than mine. The contrast is great and the lines look a lot thicker than mine. I wonder if that’s a new version of the ruler?!

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Go back and rip off the duct tape. Get the foil version from your local big box store.

Tape everything - the end where it seals to the outlet, the end it goes over your exhaust. Any seams in any piping/tubing it attaches to (like the one on the exhaust). Even if it doesn’t look like it could leak, if it’s not a one piece thing or glued plastic, tape it.

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Congrats and nice job on the first couple of projects!

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Good advice on that tape. I will try it.

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I had this issue. I also have the hose running through a rectangle board, out the window. I put tape over the gaps between the board and window to make a tight seal. Also I taped up the end of the pipe and the board, in case of any gaps there. The smell is much better!
Edit: I also used the silver tape that was recommended above. It does not stretch.

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Oh, and if the window is double-hung, make sure you seal off the gap between the upper & lower panels because when it’s pushed up 6 inches to make room for the exhaust there’s a gap between the top of the bottom sash and the glass of the top one.

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So happy for you! Have fun now!

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Probably the best description of the noise level I’ve heard so far. I can relate–my wife loves her smoothies. :confounded:

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Congratulations! I’m looking forward to seeing what you crank out–especially since I’m a big, shambling fan of iZombie as well.

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Yay yay yay! :tada::tada: Great first projects! Looking forward to your next ones.

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Hey Jules, does anyone have any idea what sort of frequencies it’s kicking out? I thought I saw you testing stuff with a flow gauge and wondered what other testing kit you might have too. If it’s high-frequency sound, then I’m hopeful that muffles and foam will help cut a lot of the sound but low-frequency stuff… well not so hopeful.

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Congratulations @buschtrent.
Your girlfriend is scary but I like your delta printer. Which one is it?

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The delta makes the GF look tiny.

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What’s the exhaust smell like outside nearby the vent as it’s working?

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No, that wasn’t me…although I remember seeing someone doing that recently…hmmmm.

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