Indeed.
4 Likes
Thatās the cost to replace the tube (if you ship it back, shipping included). We havenāt gotten any info on filter replacements yet - either cost or whether the user replaceability of that is being second guessed.
2 Likes
Filters will be user replace-able.
12 Likes
@jamesdhatch @dan
Er, YES. Sorry, I meant the tube in my OP, not filter. Mental slipup on my part.
2 Likes
Dan answering with the above quote to so many questions makes me concerned, and I hope it is because you donāt want to to answer here and now, but not because you donāt have an answer. If the later, that means GF wasnāt designing for manufacturability and repairabilty from the start, you donāt have sufficient staff for this and a lot of other insufficiencies. I have a lot of faith in the company and the great staff GF has, but youāve asked thousands of customers to plunk down thousands of dollars and wait around for years with so little real information on what theyāre getting and how theyāre actual experience will be. I will wait patiently, because I just will use my GF for hobby uses, but I may be different from a lot of people here that have been jerked around emotionally by GF announcements, and apologies are starting to ring a bit hollow. - Rich
2 Likes
Anyone else read this the same way I did?!
Itās all HAPPENING!!!
16 Likes
Iāve been out of likes for 4 days. I keep using them.
That will teach me to try to catch up on unread posts during the middle of announcement week.
But yes, Iām really excited that they are building the machines now.
11 Likes
Pretty much guessing here but seems as if he is just avoiding the liability issue. Saying they will sell you a replacement tube is just a logistics problem. Telling you itās OK to install it yourself and showing you how to install it is potentially a liability issue. Heās just not ready or allowed to do that yet.
There is a whole cottage industry of DIY folks that take electronics and mechanical systems apart just to post how-to videos. Heck I have zero doubt that I could do it with zero training. The system is not complex it just takes a little patience and care. And there are a lot of folks here smarter than me. Weāll post the video immediately after the first time we do it ourselves.
21 Likes
Iām okay if they canāt show us how. If they can, I expect them to though. However Iām sure thereās somebody in this forum talented enough to video the experience and walk us through it. Iām fine with that.
5 Likes
I have a CNC mill and lathe that is built in China and designed and sold by a company in the US. They donāt provide on-site support but do keep a healthy supply of parts and offer telephone support in case repairs are needed.
Here is a downloadable version of the manual for one of their mills:
https://www.tormach.com/uploads/897/UM10349_PCNC1100_Manual_0916A_WEB-pdf.html
In it they describe a wide variety of service procedures, all of which can be done by a reasonably competent owner. Aside from the HV aspect of the GF, I donāt see why the GF should be any more difficult to maintain than this mill and even the HV aspect should not be an issue once power is removed so long as the engineers had enough common sense to incorporate some sort of automatic or manual bleeder system into the design.
Somehow, Tormach also managed to deal with potential liability issues and still provide owners with basic maintenance procedures.
6 Likes
Thank you so much, that is great news!
@dan Thank you for quickly responding to everyoneās significant Tube Replacement issues. Created a lot of angst through the GForgers. Itās an issue that seems more serious than your team expected. Thanks for tackling it quickly.
5 Likes
Thanks @dan! Iāve been optimistic all along, but that news yesterday had me considering. Both options presented in the update to the update are reasonable.
Thanksā¦ and may the Forge be with you ā¦ always.
ugh!
edz
11 Likes
Thatās not Sydney!!! 
@Dan, this is great news! Any chance weāll be able to add this to our GF purchase before it ships? If so, how can this be done?
I believe he said elsewhere that that will not be possible. Something along the lines of all tubes are going into units right now and there is no current stock for replacement sales. Also mentioned elsewhere that it kind of wouldnāt matter anyway since the additional tube would be its own separate package since the current Glowforge packaging has been designed to safely ship the units they hold and they canāt simply toss an additional object in.
Hope that helps!
- Tom
5 Likes
As they have a shelf life it isnāt the best idea to get a new one with your machine as it will be aged by about two years when you get around to needing it unless your usage is very high.
11 Likes
Thatās a good point and I understand it to be true. But I recall @dan saying they pulled some from storage (unknown how long) and they worked great. So I wonder if that shelf life is 5 years? 10 years? 6 months?
Somebody said they last longer if you use them but I find that hard to believe. Logically the shelf life should be longer than the light usage life but even if a tube is working well after being stored who is to know how long it will then work for compared to how long it would have worked if used from new?
I have read that cheap tubes seem to degrade in months on the shelf but it seems odd that a good seal canāt be made in a glass tube with electrodes. Thermoelectric vacuum tubes hold a very high vacuum for decades if not longer.
2 Likes
Thank you for listening and responding.
Was worried wenn I read the update but this is good news.
1 Like