Ugh… I decided I will get in on the preorder anyway. But the universe decided I will not.
Their system just will NOT accept my card. And now that they want the first line of your address on file, apparently I don’t know what address is on file either. Nor does the card company after talking to them on the phone!
So… In 2 years when these go on sale, I will probably pick one up.
The review tidbit I read that tipped me back to ordering was that the system can remember the material in your shop and knows where it already cut (like, years later even, just leave the tape in place)
I suppose if you’re trying to surface (AKA “face”) a small enough area, it could do that too (it would just be a shallow pocket). But, of course, since the router sits on the stock material, removing too large of an area would be a mistake.
From what I can tell, it only cuts at one constant depth at a time. An amazing upgrade would be a variable depth cut based on something similar to the grayscale engraving feature of the Forge.
Oh, I got ya. That’s not what I would call “surfacing”, but I can see how that could be applied. “Surfacing” is also the term people use when they’re creating a plane on top of something with an unknown or non-flat surface.
Cutting at continuously variable depths usually has “3D” in it somewhere. “3D surfacing” would imply… well… 3D capabilities.
It sure would be cool if the Origin could do that, but since it hasn’t been mentioned yet in any of the marketing/demonstrations I’ve seen I’m guessing it’s not even on the drawing board. I bet they’re purposely avoiding the topic as much as possible.
Why there is a 13 month lead time on the hardware that looks to be finalized I don’t know, but if they don’t go on vacation for a year there is no telling what it will be able to do at delivery.
The difference between “looks to be finalized” and “will work reliably for years when treated the way a router is treated” is huge. They’ve got to make it all shock-resistant and dustproof, fix the dust extraction, make the calibration work even when used by an idiot, qualify some sets of bits to know any differences between nominal and actual, fix any edge cases for the optical alignment… (and those are only the obvious issues off the top of my head)
And do all that for the price they have announced.
Why is there a 12-15 month lead time on hardware that you already purchased that looked to be finalized? Either they have a realistic schedule on their production, or its just a guess.
Finally sorted things out with my card company so I can place the pre-order as well. I used @Hirudin’s link. Maybe someone else uses mine some day and makes life hell for my accounting people when I have money come IN a year from now without documentation.
I figured that might be you. Thank you! I’m not sure how the referral system works with the Glowforge (I never tried to get any) but with Shaper they are apparently sending out the refunds right away. The email says “You’ll see that money added back to your card within 5-10 business days.” Pretty cool!
By the way, for anyone curious, I now have a total of two referrals. I also have my link in the comments of the Engadget story about the Origin and two Origin-related YouTube videos. A little spammy, but I tried to be polite about it.
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