Before we placed our pre-order in September, we read the FAQ thoroughly and in particular the “When will my GlowForge ship?” question. The answer is the same today as it was last month…
We’ll ship the first units in December 2015 and roll out the rest of the units over the next few quarters as production ramps up. We can’t guarantee ship dates at this time or tell your spot in line, but it’s safe to say that the sooner the order is placed, the sooner it will ship.
That doesn’t seem like a dark marketing maneuver at all, in our opinion.
Yeah, I just read that whole original post, and I just don’t get it. It was a trade show, which typically has numerous machines cases around and a couple functional ones… and things go wrong at a trade show too, it’s maddening but absolutely normal to have those complications. The fact that it was sorted out later during the show is a big deal too.
It sounds like a clear case of “ok, this isn’t what that person was looking for, move along”. I paid up for a unit 2 days ago, and my napkin math says I must be something like 6000 in line. Obviously if they start producing units in December I’m not expecting it within a couple months. That’s the reality with any early adoption tech like this. If that’s not what you’re in for, wait. Wait many many months, then longer for reviews and demos from people you know, etc… IMO this all looks very up and up, and I don’t see anything even kind of deceitful in the text I’m seeing.
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.
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.
@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 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.
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.
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!
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.
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.