ugh this is such a hard decision, I think the pass-through is a awesome feature. Its a lot of money to upgrade just for the pass-through though. I like @dellectronics idea of being able to purchase a upgrade for the software.
being able to put a long piece of leather in the basic and unroll it to do long cuts would be great.
but I get why glowforge wouldn’t want that feature in the basic.
I upgraded for a lesser reason. The cooling in the Pro is better. Instead of just the closed loop water system with cooling fins that ambient air is blown across, the Pro also has a closed loop water system but also has what I believe to be an active Peltier Junction with heatsink. The Basic’s cooling system and control S/W are supposed to keep the tube heat under control for common use but I felt more comfortable with the more robust cooling system. Also the optics are upgraded in the Pro and has additional laser power. Is that worth the extra price? Who knows? The pass thru is a nice to have that I will likely want at some point but don’t have a definite use case for.
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