Tube Replacement Policy - SOLVE IT IN XX DAYS! - Vote please!

Assuming you voted the “I give GF people xx days (TBD) to ammend this policy and make it user or local serviceable. After that, I’m out!” option in THIS poll, now decide what’s the xx days that are MAXIMUM acceptable for you to wait for GF to ammend the policy.

  • 24 hours!!
  • 7 days
  • 15 days
  • 30 days
  • 60 days
  • 90 days
  • More… (reply in the post)

0 voters

Oh, I thought More meant more options. I don’t want to be part of this weird poll

9 Likes

Although I need to hear, within 24 hours, that it’s a possibility.

Im sure theye been trying everything in their power to find a solution before having to send out a notice like this. I dont think were going to see a reversal on the decision, and im sure they are hard at work trying to come up with a better scheme, but the only person that can put a deadline on them is yourself. If you want to cancel, thats up to you. Im not really sure the point of this poll.

11 Likes

It’s time for damage control…I don’t see how shipping the gf back for the rest of its usable life is really an option. Either there are already plans to stop doing that after 1 to 2 replacements, or the tube costs them much less so that they can eat the shipping cost (or in a few years the price will be significantly higher/shipping cost is not covered)

They aren’t going to fix this until after units have started shipping, if at all. The context of the announcement is that they are focused on shipping the product with front page features. Tube replacement endangers the shipping date, so it’s being dropped.

I would expect them to revisit the issue down the line, assuming they care about the health of their business long term. But i’d personally rather get my forge and let them figure it out after.

2 Likes

That’s fine. If I get word from @dan that he’ll sort this within the warranty period. I’m still in.
But I do need to hear something, even if it’s only “we’re looking into it” I’ll hang on.
“I WANT TO BELIEVE”

1 Like

Definitely not an option that I want to partake in lol

3 Likes

In your, relatively expert, opinion: would they be able to offer us a replacement gantry down the road that we could install that would make a replacement (say the cartridge system that’s been tossed around) possible? I don’t know what the cost to us would be but I know when a better extruded comes out for my 3D printer I always have the option to purchase that and install if for better/different functionality

Usable life - i.e. the time it takes the laser tube to fail :wink:

2 Likes

Even if they figure out that tube replacement isn’t an option at all? or that there is no other option than to ship the unit back no matter how costly & wait?

I’d rather know what cards i’m holding before I decide to play a hand.

3 Likes

My initial thought on how they were going to accomplish tube replacement was mailing a new gantry out with tube attached, and having you send the old one back. Seems the best way to make sure alignment is correct. I think it would be more viable than just sending a tube for a lot of people. I’d have to look at the connections though to see how easily they come off to say whether this would really work or not. They’re not really accessible without taking the machine apart though, so I can’t give you a solid answer there =. It’s not mine to take apart unfortunately

6 Likes

Is that prohibited in the pre-release agreement? I know they own it but you can’t open it up?

1 Like

No, we can’t take it apart or attempt to reverse engineer it.

7 Likes

Understood. That’s more or less what I expected to hear and I am assuming that they are planning on taking the 12 months before tubes start dying to look into a solution like this. Optimist in me says worst case we have to send it back once, and while it’s with them for the initial tube replacement we pay a little and they put a different system that DOES allow for user replacement next time. That’s what I’m hoping for and that’s why I’ll stick with the forge

1 Like

Shoot, I’m sorry, I misread your question. A lot going on around here lol.

To answer your question, I don’t know. I don’t know what the shortcomings are that made them change their minds, and I haven’t disassembled the gantry/unit to that extent.

From what I can see, there could be easier options and quick disconnects for the water supply and power cables. I can’t see how the data cables attach in the back to route to the head, but that could be made to be an easy snap in like it is on the front side of the head. That is if they haven’t done that already. Can’t see that far

2 Likes

Busy? Us on announcement day? Noooo never :wink: I assumed you guys weren’t allowed to tear it down I wasn’t sure how much you could see. This answers enough though I figure at some point when the “WE HAVE TO GET 10,000 UNITS OUT THE DOOR LAST YEAR MOVE MOVE MOVE” chaos settles down and they can focus on some more hardware engineering that something will shake loose. You and and all the other prerelease/beta people have made such pretty things it’s hard to stay worried for long

3 Likes

Worst case, years after I get my glowforge I have to try and replace the tube myself, or sell it on craigslist and move on. Oh and of course never do business with GF/Dan again. Life goes on.

I guess if you’re a business relying on GF this could be an issue for you, but there are lots of lasers out there, perhaps it’s time to look at the alternatives? For me, this is just an inexpensive way to see what laser cutting is all about.

4 Likes

Fair i guess

1 Like

The problem is that if the issue is technical they can’t fix this next year, because their hardware in the field won’t support field replacing the laser. That is, can a user snap out the old laser (and associated parts) and snap in a new one? If they ship units out that can’t be field serviced, it’ll have to be shipped back forever.

If the problem isn’t engineering but their lawyer, I’d suggest fixing the lawyer. They need to figure out how every other laser company has figured out how to sell replacement tubes to customers.

And if they really can’t support selling replacement parts for people to install, they should work out a business arrangement so that “send all units back to GF for laser replacements” is a viable for customers. For example, get fixed rate shipping pre-negotiated, and ship out replacements immediately, then have people ship the broken units back in the same container for a credit back. Then the down time is just the shipping time from GF to the customer (an businesses can pay rush shipping) and people don’t have to save huge boxes for years. Lots of equipment companies do this, and customers love it.

1 Like