We purchased this machine with the understanding it fit 3/4" wood on pass through. Support chat told us again today that was possible, then correcting herself, that it is not. We’ve now spent over $6,000 and can’t create what we intended. We bought this with the plan to create 1x4x64 inch shot skis. I see there’s “hacks” on engraving with the front door open, but wondering if anyone has cut open or enlarged the back slot to allow slightly bigger material pass through for engraving large items?
Edit Sorry for the confusion, we are not trying to cut the 3/4" wood, just engrave long materials that thick
Sorry for your hassles. I would not modify the body of a new machine when there are other options. Also, it does not cut 3/4" wood, but it can engrave on something that thick. The open door hack is a possibility, but maybe you create stencils or find another way to accomplish what you want. Perhaps you could create a layer for the shot ski that is 1/4" and adhere that to a 1/2" master ski.
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We’ve made them using three pieces of 1/4" but it doesn’t look as nice and isn’t as sturdy as shot skis made of single 3/4" material engraved directly. On top of the amount of time it takes to piece together, it isn’t something we’re happy to do. I’ve seen notes stating there isn’t wiring the front or back. Wondering if anyone else has tried to make the back slot larger? If there’s any reason (aside from safety) that cutting through the back isn’t a good idea. I see people have cut open the bottom, but I don’t think that would allow the laser close enough for such a long piece. Trying to see what other “beyond the manual” options we have.
Are you still new enough to be within your return window?
If these skis are the only/primary reason for you to own a laser cutter GF really isn’t the right machine for you. As much as I love mine, it does have some specific limitations. Cutting any portion of the casing creates a legal safety issue. While you may certainly be willing to rip into your machine - they very likely won’t take it back for repairs or tube replacement, even if you’re under warranty. There are other other laser systems that are better suited to what you describe, especially for just engraving.
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If you decide to enlarge the rear slot bear in mind the elevation of the slot is located to place a 1/4" piece of material at bed level. To work 3/4" goods you will be lowering the slot. For anything thicker than 1/2" you have to remove the tray and block the work up to be within the 1/2" the lens can focus at.
Those of us who have modified the machine waited until the warranty turned into a pumpkin, and ekla makes a good point that the company may not be able to repair your machine for liability reasons.
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We are looking into the return policy, we’re hoping that’s an option. Also looking for alternate machine suggestions that would fit our needs if anyone has any recommendations?
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We entirely understand modifying the machine voids warranty and GF won’t be able to assist. We know we’re not the only ones interested in modifying, just looking for confirmation that someone has played with cutting open the back & that it’s possible
Enlarging the slot on the back will seriously weaken the machine. There is a metal plate across the back that provides the rigidity needed to keep the carriage square and flat.
If the machine is unused, returning it shouldn’t be a problem (just a 15% restocking fee)…
The specs are posted. - 3/8" slot, designed for 1/4" material.
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Even if you can modify it to fit the 3/4" wood through the slot, it’s not going to cut wood that thick. I’m in the “return it and cut your losses” camp on this one!
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It’s a little more than voiding the warranty. Inevitably the machine will break outside of warranty. Might be tomorrow, might be 6 years. The company usually offers a significantly reduced price swap for a refurbished machine. I doubt that offer would be available if the bottom or structural case had been cut out.
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I had several ideas that the Glowforge is not designed to do, and several more that cannot be done in this universe. You misread the 3/8" as 3/4"and now want to figure out how to do what it (or almost any other CO2 laser) cannot do. I reworked my expectations and have been happy with my machine. If you have only this one product as a possibility you may want a CNC machine, though those too have their own limitations,
In any case you probably want to do deeper research in how to accomplish what you want to do, especially for a very narrow part of the process. You might even look into a company that could process your materials for you until you have the process down.
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I agree. That’s probably the more appropriate choice. But a high-end hobby machine would be in the 2-4K range with a much larger bed and capabilities that exceed the GF in almost all cases. You can even get blue laser heads that attach to the router or spindle mount and get both CNC (for physical machining) and a laser for burned engraving - the CNC can do a lot of engraving using different bits without the laser but won’t get the char that darkens many laser engravings. You won’t get the capability to do extremely thin items like paper although veneer is doable. You also get the ability to cut (mill) aluminum and brass.
If going that route, the OneFinity is an excellent machine with serious capabilities that probably out paces almost any other machine less than 10K. A few of the folks here have that machine.
Oh, a CNC is slower than a laser even a slow one like the GF. In the pantheon of CNC machines, the speed laggard is resin 3D printing, FDM 3D printing, CNC routers and then lasers.
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Thank you sooo much for that info, that’s extremely helpful! We will continue to research some more before deciding what path to take.
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For any kind of efficiency on a laser, you’re going to need some serious wattage. I’ve cut 3/4” on the Trotec, putting out 140-watts, and it wasn’t much fun (just to see what happened). Going to need a long lens to get a straight’ish edge profile, plus the color change, etc. like you mentioned. CNC would definitely be the way to go, and way less worry about any deficiencies in the material.
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If I were doing it again from nothing, I’d buy a CNC before a laser. But I’m comfortable with design software (I use VCarve Pro for the CNC and CorelDraw for the GF). The ease of use goes in favor of the GF because you have to change physical bits to do different operations on a CNC router so that takes a minute or two each operation change. You also have to assign bits to paths individually with a few more steps than the GF takes.
Adding a JTech laser module is about $750 for most CNCs and VCarve (and Fusion 360) have laser post-processors available to drive it.
You have far more flexibility in materials and cutting operations. You can also get diamond bits for real engraving of metals and glass. You can get drag knives for cutting vinyl sheet goods. You can also get true 3D engraves with VCarve Pro’s automatic 2-sided support where you mill one half of the 3D object and then flip the board over and mill the back side or you can do the same 2.5D “3D” milling that you can do on a GF where the top of the material is cut in a 3-dimensional shape. Rotary operations are a simple add-on.
There are lots of other bits available as well to be able to make chamfered edges or roundovers or other specialty shapes that the GF or traditional laser just isn’t going to be able to do.
And then of course you have the ability to really engrave or cut metals like aluminum or brass (steel can be engraved but is typically outside the ability of this level of CNC to cut).
The bed size is almost always larger than a laser at the same price point. For less than the price of a GF Pro you can get a 48"x33" bed, with a laser attachment, a nice assortment of bits and a purpose built table for the CNC. The 33" bed size does not limit you to that length - you can use tiling in the software to break the design up automatically so you can slide longer pieces into the machine as you work your project. It’s similar to the GF pass-through concept except it’s not subject to the GF software to analyze what’s been completed already to know where to pick up and start on the new section. You move the material in specific steps (like 30") that you define up front in your design and the machine just does its thing.
Your material cutting depth is limited to the bits you can buy - they need to have cutting edges (flutes) sufficiently long to cut the material. Practically speaking that’s about 3" thick. No issues with voids or weird stuff in the layers of plywood. You can fit materials up to about 5 1/2" generally speaking for this class of machine - more if you put risers on the rails to raise the starting Z height.
I already had a laser and a CNC before I got the GF. My first CNC was actually a very cheap 40W CO2 Chinese made laser that wasn’t really safe at all - the wiring was just awful but I’m a tinkerer so I got it to learn/play. I graduated to a bigger laser and a decent sized (but ridiculously expensive CNC router). The CNC world has vastly expanded the offerings in the past 5 years so the 9,000 CNC I had is eclipsed by the $4,000 latest one. It was the GF’s form factor & 3D laser engraving capabilities are what got me. I could run it in my basement instead of the cold cold garage 
The CNC and my other laser were much bigger footprints (but that’s the cost of larger beds) and the software wasn’t where it is now.
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The OneFinity seems like the way to go. We were considering the X Carve Pro but after watching comparison video on YouTube and seeing the price difference… we’re leaning towards adding the OneFinity CNC machine to our inventory and keeping Glowforge for other items. We’ve also now heard back we’re not able to return the GF, so time to research some good moneymaking products to create with that!
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Love the creative idea of the skis!
You could test your market and start with offering skis that are engraved with designs on each end and don’t extend into the center. That way you could make some money back before investing in another machine and also get an idea for how much interest there is in engraved skis in general. There are some good design options that don’t have to go in the center of the board. This is an engraving I did for a friend and the wood board is 35”x12”x1”
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You’re on the right path, but I’ll add - I would not recommend the x-carve for business use. I have one. Like the GlowForge, it’s great if you’re doing stuff as a hobby but I would not want to be dependent on it for income.
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I spent 7K on a CNC (~20+ years ago?!) and had all kinds of issues and eventually designed for other folks with gantry machines able to do whole sheets of plywood. In the end the tightest inside curve was dictated by the size of the bit and a half sized bit took a minimum of 4 times as long, usually much more, doing relief carving, I learned to use Art-cam but the price was worse than for the machines, and all the effort wasted if you could not sustain the costs.
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The major advantage to the OneFinity is the use of ball screws & linear bearings on a tubular frame.
The others in the price range rely on belts and v-groove wheels. The accuracy and reliability you get with ball screws & bearings can’t be matched by belts and wheels.
There are at least a couple of other folks here with OneFinities and they were the ones who convinced me when I bought it as I was looking at the alternatives. The upgradability if the OneFinity also seems much better than the others like Xcarve.
I had a Shopbot Desktop which was similarly constructed and the only thing it had that the OneFinity doesn’t is a spindle instead of using a router (although you can add a spindle to your OneFinity). But it also had a much smaller work area and cost more than $5,000 more 
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