I know there was a prior thread that discussed the possibility that someone was shipped a “refurbished” glowforge by mistake. Guess it was eventually resolved, but I have a question that I don’t see any discussion on.
Has there been any discussion on what Glowforge is planning to do with the units that were returned? I know that they are concentrating on production and shipping new units right now, but it would seem that eventually they will catch up and there has to be a fairly large stack of returned units building up in the mean time. I guess they could just destroy them, but running them thru the line again and refurbishing them makes more sense to me. What do companies normally do in this situation? destroy them? use them as “loaners”, send out to retail locations as demos? It’ll be a while before this is relevant, but thought I would ask.
Only data point I can offer is that the company would not let me buy (at a reasonable discount TBD) the pre-release unit I had been using for 9 months. They made me send it back when my Pro was delivered.
Pretty sure it has zero parts that can be refurbished after 9 months of use.
BTW: I going to guess that the units folks thought were refurbished were not. At that time the company ran out of shipping materials and were stacking finished units on every flat surface in the factory. Units may have been scuffed a little during that time.
I had not even thought about PRUs. I was thinking more about the production models that have been returned for various reasons - alignment, leakage, DOA, etc.
I would think that PRUs would be considered “used” at best, but as you stated, they really wouldn’t be able to get slipped back into the production line for refurb.
My perception is that this unit was one of the last prerelease to be shipped out, and I find it quite capable. Like @rpegg i would have offered to purchase this unit at a slight discount in addition to my regular order.
I have a ridiculous sentimental attachment to this thing.
With all the FNL stuff they deal with, I doubt they would send out a refurb unit as a new unit. All the cosmetic issues were expected with how they ramped up production.
I wonder how it works with warranty repairs though. I’m awaiting my 3rd glowforge (replacement to my replacement) and I’m curious if I get another new unit. I would be disappointed if I got a refurbished unit, but I know they aren’t repairing my unit as I’m not sending it out until I get the new one in.
Don’t think you are missing anything other than the fact it may not have been power calibrated and image mapped at the factory. Mine had a Pro tube and did not have the Pro cooling. To me that just meant that I used Pro settings without the pass thru, and might have more temperature restrictions. All of the fancy new 3D settings seemed to work. I received it in late February.
Would bet you get a new unit. But who knows. Both Verizon and AT&T have sent me half a dozen refurbished $500 phones as a warranty replacement. Took that many to find one that worked.
There’s the anecdotal way - compare power/speed settings against other PRU owners results for the same job.
The non-anecdotal way is to take your laser meter (it’s basically a thermometer with a graphite block on one end and a dial calibrated for power vs degrees/temps) and stick it in front of the beam. This would not be a method that is endorsed by GF. If you need to know how you could do that with a GF then you shouldn’t do it I happen to have a meter that I use on the K40 and Redsail so I can track tube output over time so I can order a new one before the old one dies which will occur in the middle of a critical project leaving me out of luck while I wait for a new tube to arrive. (I don’t keep spares because they degrade over time even when not being used.)
I happen to have a meter that I use on the K40 and Redsail so I can track tube output over time so I can order a new one before the old one dies which will occur in the middle of a critical project leaving me out of luck while I wait for a new tube to arrive. (I don’t keep spares because they degrade over time even when not being used.)
