Pro Passthrough Slot

I have seen it mentioned that it may be possible to bypass the front door safety mechanism and run the GF with the door open without voiding the warranty. This may be a suitable workaround in many cases…

If we’re able to cut 1/2" by flipping the material, it does not make sense to limit the passthrough slot to half that. I bought the Pro for the because it has the passthrough facility but this defeats the object to a large extent.

@dan is the 1/4" passthrough limitation final?

Hendrik

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Yea but then I have to wait a year for the warranty to expire and then try to modify it myself, not something I want to do for a 4k machine. I just wanted to make sure its the final size since thats whats stopping me from upgrading from the basic

dang! I wanted to engrave longboards or skateboards… :frowning: super sad about that, too…

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I recall reading a post on a similar thread that stated the limit on the pass through is a function of hardware mounted to the rear of the case. No idea if that is true or not, but if it is after-market mods will be considerably more difficult. There is an unrelated post somewhere from Dan where he said the Pro model made it to the feature list late in development, as opposed to being planned from the start. Having worked on plenty of new development projects I understand how it happened even if as a soon to be Pro owner I’m disappointed as well.

Dan has addressed this several times I believe. Here’s one reply he made that stuck with me.

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I don’t mind if increased pass through depth requires a mod, I can live with that, I would just like to know if that will be possible. I’d be more than happy to build myself a custom table to support long materials and then you just need a selection of shims to raise the height for focus. A minor issue.
If the pass through is limited to 1/4" though, then I fail to see any reason to buy a pro, might as well just get a basic and save a butt load of cash. Maybe I will have to downgrade?

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The Pro also includes a more powerful laser and better cooling. I think I would consider the pro for the cooling and stronger laser over the pass through slot. If they had a basic with the upgraded cooling I would be on the fence about that + airfilter.

Lets be fair though, nobody wants a pro for the slightly better laser or cooling, they might make a little bit of sense for those planning on running non-stop but that’s about all, you can’t cut or engrave anything extra with the pro that you can’t already do with the basic. The reason for ordering the pro is the pass through facility with the implication that you can run items of any length through the machine for large work. In reality this feature is very limited to thin materials only.

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Maybe it’s my lack of knowledge about what I can do with a laser and specifically the 40 vs 45 watt.

But I’m pretty sure my saying I would does make 1 person more than nobody.

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Ok I apologise, I am sure there are people out there who are buying a pro for that reason but the vast majority fall into the same category as me, wanting it for the bigger area. I am sure this was your main reason too wasn’t it? You didn’t shell out an extra $1500 for 5W of laser did you?

honestly, the pro cost wise is a significant stretch for me. But I have a history of picking a slightly cheaper option being horribly disappointed and then having to spend significantly more to get to the functionality I really wanted.

In this case with the crazy heat here in my part of the Southern US, me being a cheapskate with the air conditioning and burning out a few electronics before their time as a result. Yeah the cooling really caught my eye.

But I also posted here because I know how little I know about laser cutters and can stand to learn from everyone here’s differing views.

For me the pass through is a nice to have but not a real consideration in my decision to go Pro. Mostly better cooling, improved optics and additional warranty. The Pro is designed to run for longer periods and yet has twice the warranty. That implies to me it may be mechanically and electrically more robust. Of course it’s always possible the additional $1500 just pays for the longer warranty but I doubt that was their business plan.

It only seems worth it to upgrade if you going to use the laser a ton, for me thats not the case and I just wanted the passthrough, but since its so small it doesn’t have much if any use for me

“Furniture” related… the computer monitor stand in the promotional video is something which the Pro can make, but the Basic cannot.

Well, for some monitors at least. Not sure if that specific one pictured is more than 20" lengthwise. And MAYBE it could fit in the basic on a diagonal. But if the total width is meant to allow a keyboard to slide under the stand, then the keyboard in front of me right now is 18" long, and the legs on the stand look to be well over 1" wide (plus you don’t exactly want a tight fit here).

So to make that stand, you are cutting multiple thin sheets of wood, staining them various colors, then gluing them together. And there you have furniture which is laser cut, and needed the pass-through.

I plan to mostly be making enclosures and other structural elements for small demo apparatus. So in my case 1/4" is almost always good enough, or gluing a few sheets together is great if 1/4" is not strong enough. And many times I will want to make something rather tall or long, at least as a stabilization/alignment element.

Now… if you want to make a couch, or a coffee table, then doing the entire thing in the Forge may be unrealistic. But you could just do the decorative bits here, and do the structural with more traditional methods.

You designs on skateboards may not be able to be laser etched, but you can still make nice stencils to spray-paint through, or even guides to use old woodburning techniques with (I assume people still do woodburning, but I haven’t seen the stuff at all since I had a kit as a kid, so I call it old)

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@jacobturner hit a nail on the head, mentioning the stencil option. As launch was approaching, I was perpetually telling people that if the GF can’t make a thing, it can assist in making the thing to make the thing. :smile:

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I know the purists in the audience may cringe, but there is no shortage of furniture that is made out of slabs of cheap wood with a thin veneer of nicer wood over it. If you are willing to accept that as an option, the 1/4" limitation becomes less of an obstacle. Also, there are options to laminate a Glowforge - engraved 1/4" layer (possibly with Glowforge - created inlays too) onto a thicker slab of the same species. As long as you’re not using a species with widely variable grain and coloration, the seam could well be nearly invisible.

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I also bought Pro for the passthrough.

So GF confirmed that the slot is 3/8" and designed for 1/4" material. It seems rediculous not to increase that to 1/2" - anyone know why? But at least we may be able to use maybe 3/8" for cutting…(?)

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I said this elsewhere, but just to be sure it doesn’t get missed - don’t buy the Pro (or the Glowforge, regretfully) if you need to use material thicker than 1/4" with the passthrough. Hopefully this was clear in the specs, and if not, my deepest apologies.

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The tech specs on glowforge.com don’t actually say that the height restriction is 1/4" (site copy is pasted below). Only the Material Capability section mentions 1/4" as a height restriction, except where the material is flipped, and is not in the context of the pass-through:

PRO UPGRADE
Passthrough slot allows the use of material that’s 20” (50.8cm) wide and as long as desired
Passthrough software uses the camera to maintain alignment as long material is pushed through
Laser tube is upgraded from 40W to 45W
Higher quality optics provide for more beam power at the head
Upgraded solid state thermoelectric cooling

MATERIAL CAPABILITY
Thickness: Varies by material; can cut most 1/4″ (6mm) plywood and acrylic on one side; twice as thick by reversing and cutting from both sides with optical alignment