If you have the correct laser goggles for CO2 and you are lasering untreated wood, so the fumes are just wood smoke, I don’t see a big problem. Obviously you need to keep your hands out of the machine.
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Or a child’s.
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Yep no children or animals or adults without glasses in the same room. Similar to an unguarded table saw.
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You know that video of that Japanese streamer who was filling lighters and then caught his fuel-soaked rags on fire, and then sprinkled the fire around his apartment, and then tried to smother it with more flammable things, and then burned down his whole apartment?
Just… Don’t do that. Surely covering a burny, burny laser with a blanket is just a terrible idea? If you’re going to do it, build that thing a moat or something.
Although I feel pretty strongly there’s probably a better way to accomplish your goal. Maybe if you post what you’re trying to accomplish, people could help you troubleshoot some solutions that maybe don’t involve overriding safety features.
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Yeah, but that isn’t enough information. You could engrave an image in the center of the wood by shrinking the image and offsetting it in the engrave area. Or you could break apart the design so that you engrave half, rotate the wood, and engrave the other half. But neither of those options would work for every design. So some more information could lead to some more, better suggestions.
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Nor would you get those features yet if you have a pro…
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Well they agreed with you when you said he should post here for that help.
They were responding to his first post that the front door was not a pass through, I believe.
Listen guys, we know that Support is overloaded, and parsing their words isn’t going to help the situation.
What helps even less is people dropping hints all over the place about how to defeat the system. We know that some folks know more than others and that it can be done. But if you help someone (or more than just one) defeat it, or drop hints about how it can be done, and they hurt themselves, you’re going to feel really bad I suspect, and you’re going to be partially responsible for it happening. Glowforge doesn’t monitor this section.
Maybe, in the interests of not getting anyone hurt, it would be a good idea for all of those who have dropped hints to edit their posts and remove them.
Just a suggestion.
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This… I fully support a personal right to take the risks that you are comfortable with but to encourage it in someone who will not get in and figure it out themselves and take proper care is just irresponsible.
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If you defeat the door interlocks you have turned it into a class 4 laser system. You need to read up class 4 safety guidelines, understand them and follow them. I play with class 4 lasers and haven’t managed to blind myself or burn myself yet. They are dangerous but so are a lot of things in this life.
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While cutting the plastic case would be no problem, there is an 1//8" thick aluminum plate that spans the entire back of the machine and is essentially molded into the case which would make that exceeding difficult and problematic.
Now this is from a guy who has built a lot of his own equipment and scares ‘normal’ people by running saws and angle grinders without guards, and is known for doing end-runs around such safety features designed to protect me from myself.
I also had grand ideas for hacking my glowforge when I joined this club 2 years ago, but after using this machine and seeing how well it is built I believe hacking it up would be a poor choice. That’s just me.
Because cutting through that aluminum plate you would generate a great quantity of metal filings to short electronics, the only way to do that would be to completely disassemble the machine and then rebuild it.
I salute the adventurous spirit to explore and modify to achieve expanded capability, but a cheap Chinese laser is a perfect candidate for that action as opposed to a $3,000 glowforge IMO.
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Lots of cheap chinese lasers don’t need to have the back hacked off to have a full size pass through, comes with the machine (at least most of the ones with the $1000 price point) 
But, I wouldn’t have expected that to be a huge use case for the GF market. I was amazed to see that half or more of the machines sold were Pros. Not sure how much of that was improved power or cooling and how much due to the pass through but it’s a higher percentage than I would have thought (and GF too from Dan’s earlier comments).
If I were projecting use cases I’d have put a rotary attachment & increased Z-axis capacity ahead of a pass through in terms of need/demand.
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A lot, if not the majority here seem to be planning to use their GF for business. I expect that is a big reason for the pro orders. It was always described as needed for continuous operation.
For myself it was the pass through because I wanted to do large pieces but don’t have the space for a large machine. I doubt the small increase in power and speed was a major draw.
I wonder what future sales will be like because it looks like a machine aimed for home users but even at half price not many orders seem to be from hobbyists. With the new pricing it seems to be more for small businesses.
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When ordering, the speed/power sounded like a good idea. I have no basis for comparison though (i.e., race a basic) so it’s the kind of thing that it’s there but you don’t notice it. As machines are being delivered, the cooling has turned into the biggest factor. I’ve had 2 cooling alerts - one when it was first delivered off of the truck (95f day) and the other when it was 82 in the house (but likely a few degrees higher where the unit is located by the open window).
I’ve found myself using the passthrough quite a bit though, even just for laying a piece of sacrificial paper beneath the project, that I don’t feel like cutting down to the bed dimensions. If one was using a piece of sacrificial paper regularly for projects, it would make sense just to set a roll up and run it through the passthrough. Pull it through and tear it off.
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I hear that. I seem to recall the last iteration of the manual that was released indicated to NEVER try to disable the safeties preventing operation with an open front.
What I’m curious about is if the whole piece fits into the unit, why can’t the center be engraved using normal means?
It depends on how big of an engraving he wants to do.
This is the bed size with max engrave and a piece of 18x14" material overlaid.
Oh, I get it. I was off on the dimensions.
For me it was 95% the extra cooling. If a company highlights extra cooling as an improvement that means the basic version is likely operating at the edge of specifications. I automatically assumed a potential lifespan impact. Has nothing to do with GF. If Tesla advertised better cooling for their electric motors as an option, you probably would want to think hard about why that option might be needed.
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@hivemind I didn’t know you had a Glowforge!
Everyone else - @hivemind is an old and dear friend. We were at each other’s son’s bris, although we opted for traditional tools instead of lasers for the actual operation. For that reason I’m going to offer something to him that isn’t generally available. @hivemind, you should just drop by the office for lunch and use one of our pros. Shoot me a note and we’ll find some time. 
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What a terrific resolution. It’s always nice to be able to help out a friend.
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