Not for you if you just ordered 2 days ago. I ordered 12h after they launched… And there’s no transparency either, that was the only issue. Nothing else. The rest was surplus fanboyesque.
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The FAQ on the site had their shipping plans from day one. And Dan has been very active on these forums answering every question he can. If that’s not transparent I don’t know what is.
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I just read through this entire thread and do not see where he responds to this! Am I missing it?!
I found his post which was auto-flagged as spam and cleared it - is that what you mean?
This whole thread can be deleted should you wish to.
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@dan is saying he hopes to have everything shipped before august 2016… I checked out one of the videos where he mentions getting some out to the Seattle area to see if there are any kinks and then fix and then production… 6:13 Glowforge Q&A #1, streamed live
I got mine at the 7M mark, so I’m being real with myself and predicting a March 2016 ship date based on Dan’s August 2016 comment.
I just my COIN card and it’s been 2 years. I can wait.
I am so glad you heard about this. When I searched glow forge, I ran into that same article. WOW!
Then, I read on Glow Forge that I can cancel any time before the item ships to me. I grabbed it at the 50% off but still hesitant with the 6 months warranty.
I have to check the credit card I used… I think it only extend the warranty to 1 year.
Jamie, when you say next year for the product, is it because you think it will take that long? Or was it stated Dec 2015 on Glow forge?
Dan has stated that their plan is to ship a limited run in December mostly to maker spaces. The majority of the pre-orders will ship within the first half of next year.
Please don’t take this as negative because I have confidence in the GF team. Maybe it’s because I’m an engineer a have a long list in my head of all the things left to do before shipping production units but… I’m guessing my GF is about #275 and would feel VERY lucky to see one by May. I don’t have any inside info for that schedule but it is fully compatible with all official statements. The good news is that the number of units produced each month after the first one will only depend on the size of the production line and availability of parts. The real delay comes from getting ready for that first production unit, not the December shipments which I would bet are going to be Beta test units. The rest could pump out real fast after that. I’m only trying to say it won’t be a linear delivery schedule between December and August.
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Thanks for the info rpegg! But I believe everything will go well (or as planned) and we all will receive our units in Dec (weeks before Christmas). I am not an engineer and have no list in my head.
OK. I am just joking… LOL!
Thanks for the heads-up!! I don’t have a place for this device in my house yet. I should have a spot for it once they start shipping. They need to work on the warranty (only 6 months)? Yikes!
At least the 6 month warranty didn’t start the day your credit card was charged. Always looking on the bright side.
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I am guessing they will be holding off on giving production until the first 50 units have been out in the wild for a couple of weeks. And then production will take some time, and once they have enough units built to fill a shipping container they will put them on a boat. That boat will take a few months to make its trip, then it has to clear customs. And hopefully the docks do not go on strike.
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Here’s why I (as someone unaffiliated with GF) am optimistic about GF’s schedule. The hardware is actually the easy part - lots of people have built laser cutters, even at home, so I suspect and hope that they are focusing 90% of their energy on that right now. Once they get that right, and sufficiently tested with enough repitition to ensure there are no unexpected wear and tear issues or other problems, they can begin large-scale manufacture.
I believe Dan has hinted that they will be at least assembled in the US. Probably the plastic case and lots of the components (servos etc) will come from elsewhere, but there shouldn’t be problems with off-the-shelf parts. So I’m optimistic that any last-minute design issues that don’t involve changing the case or board design should be able to be dealt with quite rapidly, and if they are indeed assembling in the US, we (at least the North American owners) won’t have to wait for a container ship to cross the Pacific, cross customs, etc.
I think the long poles in the tent for Glowforge will be nailing the plastic case design early, getting the board designs done, tested, and certified so they can be mass produced, and the hardest part will be design, certification and production of the custom laser tube and the cutting head with the enclosed optics and the macro camera(s) for autofocus/material detection/alignment.
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Dan has already indicated that they have their production molds for the plastic in hand if not perfectly finished, so that part must be almost done.
Yeah I remember seeing that. Based on what I’ve heard from other projects I’ve backed, injection molds are tricky to get right. I just hope that there are no changes needed as from what I’ve heard, making changes to the molds can set things back quite a bit.
Maybe give everyone a free $100 referral, up to the max 10, for every extra month that it takes before the first non-beta unit ships… this might prevent some cancelations.
The December ship date led me to believe that this thing was more rounded out then it really is… I keep seeing posts about “if we do this” or “if we can do this” “this might work” “we could program this” too many unknowns. So I am sort of split between canceling and waiting it out…
@draconious_z, really sorry you’re feeling like you got a raw deal. Last thing I want is for you to feel stuck with us holding your dough. That would suck. I’ve waited for lots of projects, but I always knew what I was in for. If you feel, or ever feel in the future, like it’s not what you signed up for… say the word, we’ll pull the ripcord and get you a full refund.
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Having delivered many generations of tech devices over the years - 3Com Video Webcam, Sears Holdings store iPad and AT&T desktop VC - I’m confident that you will figure out the issues and deliver my Glowforge when it’s ready. I’m happy to have the absolute bleeding edge guys be someone else, but also happy to be a charter supporter. You’ll learn a lot as you get early production units into the wild and my unit will benefit from that. Those who aren’t comfortable with this state probably should be somewhat later adopters. Nothing wrong with that. I bought the Mac 512, 1st gen iPhone, etc and they all had issues, but I had a jump start on a revolution.
Keep the energy and focus on excellence and we will cheer you right along as part of the launch family.
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