Home Depot cuts it to size for me (at no extra cost). And I’ve never had any problem with their materials.
“Too bad, adapt” isn’t what we were sold. This was the answer 2 years ago and the same one I’m seeing now. A list of ways to mitigate GF not resolving this isn’t really an answer to the question.
I’ve been adapting. The Home Depots / Reno / etc… here charge for cuts to the awkward sizes. It prices everything up for less reliable material not designed for the machine.
I want to be able to get the scannable prepared material for this machine as per the ads without that arm and a leg it costs to ship it. Not an unreasonable complaint.
If there’s no answer from GF there’s no answer and they get to be called out for it. That’s fair.
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It would be if the problem was the same for other sources of wood in the US. There are plenty that have good material and none the size of U S Plastics, or another acrylic supplier that have international operations. Looking I do not see a CA shipping option for the most reliable sources I looked for but Johnson Plastics also has very stable hardwood ply.
I doubt any supplier is looking to have huge markups for shipping as it is often a deal killer even when the total price is lower, and when it is published it does not include Alaska or Hawaii much less Canada.
Unless it’s the third party gf sources from. Probably figure gf has already paid for a certain amount of surplus and people are buying it. Just making a killing on shipping charges to gf’s customers.
It’s not that hard to get discounts from shoppers directly. (As in ~1/4 cost from fedex on everything and ~ 1/2 on UPS. AMHIK)
We shipped a Christmas box for a guy this week that cost him under 10$. He says the same size and weight box cost him over 30$ last year.
Im betting gf isn’t in control of shipping charges. Their partners are. I’ll bet the partners have good savings but are charging list prices for the profits. Can’t really blame them for that. Companies exist for the purpose of generating profit. I know I’m certainly hoping to generate certain levels of profit with my company.
But I also control my own shipping and plan profits into my product. I will admit to the occasional flat fee eBay shipping costs that ended up far over the actual cost due to the buyer being close and savings programs I have(didn’t have it when I listed the product). But had the buyer been on the other side of the continent and I had to use eBay’s shipping, it may have not been enough.
Sometimes it’s a gamble.
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https://www.homedepot.ca/search?q=glowforge#!q=glowforge
I just pulled this from the Home Depot website for the Windsor Ontario store. I use these materials 90% of the time and they are as good as PG material. The prices are better and they will ship to the store or your home.
I also purchase full sheets of material at times and they cut it to size for me for free. I will even cull through what they have to find material with edge damage and get them to discount it as much as 70% off.
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I appreciate the intent but the Johnson Plastics plywood line has been discontinued. I’ve been on my 3rd source of materiel I know is laser safe. Put aside the hassle of recalibrating, sometimes per sheet. At the very least I’ve found a corner depth engrave till daylight gives me something I can trust for the rest of that sheet.
Promising, I’ll try it.
My last trips to the HD only net me MDF. Here’s hoping they start carrying more laser safe materiel. I’d mostly give up on “big box”.
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I use this design to test any new material or source of old material and save the result for future reference.
I’ll try to gather up some sku’s or barcodes for material that I use from either HD or Lowe’s and share them…
To Glowforge/Dan, if they have someone reading this, your promise was not just a machine but a reliable and affordable pipeline of material. You don’t deliver that on a machine that was years late.
You’re not the first US only service marketed as an international one but you are one. When you send a note that PG is whatever % off you just remind us all of that fact.
My thanks to rbtdanforth and ovm.steve with potential workable solutions don’t apply to you. This community doesn’t absolve you of that.
one caveat (and it may or may not matter to people). those materials are unfinished, unlike the PG which is finished. personally i prefer the unfinished (which is why i don’t use much PG), but some people like that.
the columbia forest stuff is not generally an “in stock” item, it’s a shipped (to you or to the store for free pickup) kind of item. you’ll need to plan for it, not just grab it when you’re in HD. but i agree with @ovm.steve, it’s a good product and i use a mix of that and BB then i’m working with plywood.
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