Ha! I thought the same thing after I posted. I almost edited to “got” but I figured “Eh. They get the idea.”
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I think people are getting the impression that because it’s called “Tested”, it’s solely a review show. They’re a nerd-focused news/blog/video site that “covers anything awesome”.
Personally I’m not all that interested in watching a show about someone using a tool I have/can afford to make a thing I could make myself. Food Network doesn’t cater to people who cook, and few viewers of home remodeling shows are going to actually build that deck.
The nice thing about YouTube, though, is that we can all make our own Glowforge[TM] Brand Glowable Forge video showcases.
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There is an interesting question in the youtube comments: “Would it be possible to fill the machine with an inert gas to prevent scorching?”
As a matter of interest does anybody here know the answer? I think when cutting wood you are basically burning through it, so what happens if there is no oxygen? Will it still cut?
Russ on SarbarMultimedia mentioned in passing that they blow oxygen on steel to cut it with a laser.
Pretty sure my landlord attempted most of her “renovations” after watching a home remodeling / diy show.
The contractors who have been fixing everything seem to agree.
Y’all should see the rafters in the garage with 1-2" notches taken out of em to fit the wrong-style/wrong sized garage door opener, then fitted with “shelves” made from hollow-core doors nailed upwards into said notched rafters. SMH.
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You would either need a sealed system, no air moving, which means it fills with smoke and vaporized particles, which is bad. Or you would have to pump in as much inert gas as you are pulling out, which become cost prohibitive very quickly.
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You’re crackin’ me up 
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I wasn’t asking if it was practical. Just what effect it would have on the cutting.
With a filter system I don’t see why you can’t recirculate the air, so you could recirculate an inert gas, assuming the filter doesn’t need oxygen to work.
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Ok, short answer: it will still cut.
Yeah, but will it cut well? Did you see that piece they cut? It couldn’t even make it cleanly through 1/8" birch! Obviously an inferior product. 
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I was surprised that they actually used the footage of him having to pop that cut out, and seeing the splintered wood where it didn’t cut all the way through. It just means that they need to adjust the settings a little bit… bump the power up or drop the speed…
But it is a nice way to prove the point that @dan has been making all along. Pre-determined settings for un-vetted materials should always just be a starting point, and they should have run a test cut on their wood to determine if that needed to be tweaked.
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This so much. Well said
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He did say the wood was warped, so it probably messed the focusing up at that power level.
Now, if the auto focusing capability that we’ve been promised comes to life, it will put that to shame, and it will be an awesome selling point for those who have not bought a GF
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Bentley owners are a little upset that their car isn’t as quiet as my Lexus LS600 
Seriously. And for a lot less dough.
What’s really funny is when I pull alongside one in stealth mode (there’s a button that locks the car into electric only) and they’ve got the top down. Newport has them all over the place - it’s the Volvo wagon of the elite. Nice to poke at them when they’re cruising with Muffy to the Tennis Hall of Fame.
I might be a bad person 
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I dont think what theyre referring to as ‘scorching’ is actually scorching. I think its sap+soot that is sticking to the wood. As long as there is heat and airflow it will be present regardless of the amount of oxygen in there.
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There does seem to be a little flame around the beam though, and how do you get soot without combustion? Can wood be vaporised by heat alone?
Yes but I prefer Universal’s approach of providing you those settings in their software and letting you get on with it compared to GF saying use our materials or you are on your own.
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Absolutely. You need higher temps, because otherwise you’re making really fancy charcoal, but you can do it. And there’s also oxygen in the composition of the wood that will be freed with heat and then react with things again. (pyrolysis)
And if you just pump in inert gas there will still be a bunch of air inside the wood with oxygen to react.
There’s probably an optimal mix of inert gas and oxygen that would make for the cleanest possible cuts, but it would be a long, boring and expensive job to find out.
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Haven’t gone in to look at the comments… but this puts Glowforge in a positive light… to anyone who hasn’t pre-decided and who does pay attention.
In the Glowforge case, it takes up a LOT less space, and accomplished nearly the same end feat. This laser takes up a TON more space. They cannot even run the video live for the cut because the ventilation is too loud, but that was not a problem in the Glowforge video (I did not go back to verify this, so may be wrong).
And I wouldn’t call a single container which doesn’t even block opening the lid a stack of junk 
The guy raved about being able to “print” from any graphic program. Glowforge has that. He raved about a material database… Glowforge has the Proofgrade now, but has promised to allow us to build a material database as well.
So, given that THIS is the laser that compares equitably with the Glowforge, and the price tag is THAT different… People who say this looks bad for Glowforge had made up their minds long before seeing this.
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But one is via a print driver installed on the computer and the other is via file exports imports and then a trip to the sky and back. That’s not quite the same.
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I’m thinking the main advantage of cloud based is like a software subscription - it’s always the latest version, plus updates can be pumped to the unit.
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