i have sympathy for him clearly, but i would be shocked if he’d painted an accurate view of what a laser cutter meant. given how many posts we’ve seen from people complaining about noise and the occasional back draft of cut acrylic, i am very skeptical that they were given a complete picture.
i mean they may be schmucks undeserving of pity, i wouldn’t know. i just think it’s bizarre to immediately jump the thread to “oh man time to find new roommates!”
In 1990 or so, I had a friend, 50ish in age, who mentioned to me that they could not get their VCR to work. They wanted to program it to tape their favorite shows but it always failed to do so. He and his wife asked me to help figure out what the issue was.
I took a look at their machine, set the clock, and then showed the wife how to record a program. She diligently wrote down every step. When I was done, I told her that it would record whatever program it was she had mentioned she wanted to see the following evening at 8pm. She asked me if I was sure. I took a look at the LED readout and pointed out a symbol to her to show that a programmed record was pending.
She was ecstatic and gave me a great big hug, noting that she and her husband (a TV/movie writer/producer) had tried unsuccessfully for years to get it to work. She then reached behind the cabinet and unplugged it.
“Huh? What are you doing?” I asked
“Oh, Dee does not like to keep any electrical items plugged in when we are not using them. He is afraid it will start a fire.”
amazing.
in fairness, it seems like such a silly thing to have to reprogram something when you unplug it, but non-volatile memory was expensive…
hopefully she got to keep the vcr plugged in, at least!
Ultimately, they decided that safety from fire was more important than recording programs when they were not at home. So they only used it to watch pre-recorded tapes.
Teaching the wife how to use a computer when she was about to write a book was another adventure.
unbelievable.
i can only imagine!
I’ve had to explain to more than one person that if it’s off, it is off and the automatic functions won’t work. Never because they were afraid it would start a fire. Some people just like stuff off.
I had roommates who thought it was okay to keep candles lit and then leave. Leave the house.
Regardless of why they feel the way they do, schmuck or uninformed, if they’re educated and still don’t like it, the options are to keep the machine but find other roommates or keep the roommates but get rid of the GF. The roommates and GF are mutually incompatible.
yes i acknowledge that as a potential outcome. what i find weird is the immediate jump with no in between steps.
For non-linear thinkers, there are no in between steps. It’s like quantum physics - the destination is reachable without an intervening path 
i think i just pulled a muscle from rolling my eyes so hard
Maybe you can reach a superposition state with 50% chance of both the roommates and the forge being there and not being there. But you’d probably only be able to cut through 1/8" material.
You could, of course, show for them a slideshow of stuff people have made with their units, and how none of them have started the house on fire.
Hello everyone,
Thanks for you thoughtful input! I just thought I’d post an update, since I just spoke at length to my room mates about it.
I was able to ease their fears about it being a fire safety hazard, or at least make them feel comfortable that I would take the proper precautions to keep it safe.
I wasn’t, however, able to ease their fears about off gassing. The one room mates main argument was, “we don’t know what we can’t detect”…essentially saying that even if we don’t smell anything off gassing, or even once the smell has left the room, there might still be harmful contaminants in the environment.
I said I’d get a carbon monoxide detector to have close to the machine, and the air vent should take care of most of the off gassing. But he’s concerned about what we can’t see or smell; the unknowns.
Long story short, I’ve agreed a buy a dolly, and wheel my Glowforge out onto the balcony and use it outside, when I want to use it. I s’pose that’ll be good enough for now.
My question is, how can these ‘unknowns’ be known?
If I’m using the machine, and air the room out, to the point that it no longer smells, does that mean that everything is OK and a safe environment?
If I’m using the air vent and getting as much off-gassing outside, but there is still some excess smell…how much before it poses a risk?
I think if laser cutters gave off toxic gases into the room when externally vented or with an internal air filter then they would not be allowed in industrial settings due to health and safety rules. Since they are they must be considered safe by the authorities.
In terms of CO emissions I guess it could perhaps be about as much as a candle or a joss stick burning but there is a massive fan sucking it out of the room. I.e. there is a only a tiny flame where the beam meets the material.
An open fire in a room will make a much bigger lethal amount of CO but simply having a chimney will make it safe.
so, i think it’s fair for them to be freaked out, but to be honest i think you’re being far more accommodating than you need to be, especially if you have this in your own room (i’m not sure where you live but i mean what if you want to cut something in the rain? or in winter!).
but for the most part i’d get around these objections by adding a booster fan to your vent tube right before it exits the window - it would be essentially impossible for waste gases to exit the glowforge in any other manner since it’ll constantly be under negative pressure. while that would definitely add some noise, it gets around their offgassing complaints.
They can be known by doing proper research into the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) of anything you put into your Glowforge, which should be standard practice of anything questionable. That will help provide an educated opinion of safety.
Smell is not a reliable indicator of safe concentration of noxious substances. Many things that smell, and many that don’t, are bad for you. The same can be said for good things.
This is why laboratories have pressurized hoods, and in a similar vein, why the Glowforge has a closed cover with venting. It’s to reduce concentrations of gasses and disperse it into a wide environment (ie outside).
If it makes them feel any better, promise them you’ll never open the lid until the fans have completed flushing out the hopper after a job. Unless there’s a fire, of course, you shouldn’t be doing that anyways.
Kind of like me, I got the unit but I can seldom use it due to smell and noise due to my adjacent condo units. Basically every time I think about useing it I look at the assigned parking spots. This morning I wanted to run a few dozen morenlizards… Nope can’t one of the cars is here. I also have to keep my jobs under 15 min incase someone comes home
Wow! That’s too bad. Wonder if a few laser made gifts would make any difference…
Who knows where Glowforge is going to go with the machine BUT I’m just reading through some of the patents they have filed. This excerpt stuck out to me in regards to this thread - no idea if/when/or if ever it will be implemented.
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A chemically reactive area, like a pH strip, can be placed within view of the camera so that the machine can observe color changes to detect different chemicals in the air, for example if a laser is cutting something that emits harmful fumes.
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