I received my Glowforge on time and it was well packed with some external damage to the box but everything inside was perfect. The setup was straight forward and I was able to print the good measure test key chain within about 15 minutes of removing the Glowforge from its box and putting it on its stand. So far I have made several things with my Glowforge and each project has turned out as expected and I&#;m quite pleased with the quality of the results. Laser technology gives very professional results with no saw dust! Yay!
Included with my Glowforge was a selection of materials, (Glowforge calls them proof grade) which will get you started. I have since ordered some 3mm Baltic birch plywood from Amazon and it is working well for me using the maple plywood proof grade settings. The advantages of buying proof grade materials from Glowforge is its guaranteed to work well with your laser cutter and the settings are automatically selected for you via a quick code decal read by the camera. I recommend proof grade materials when first starting, but you can use your own materials which is what I do. As long as you stay within reasonable parameters you&#;ll have a pleasant cutting experience with other materials.
The web based software has worked well for me and I have not experienced any crashes or print failures as a result of the software. You will need a reliable internet connection.
Some people, including myself have complained about the lack of a fully implemented customer support system. As of right now, support is limited to and the user forum. I have dabbled in the forum a little and for the most part have found the other users to be friendly and helpful. The user forum appears to be actively used and there is a wealth of information. I recently had an conversation with a marketing manager from Glowforge who assured me, customer service is important to their company and this is something they will have fixed soon. Fortunately, I have experienced zero problems with my Glowforge and I&#;m almost at the point where I can say, I have full confidence in the product. I&#;m sure I&#;ll get there.
As for the build of the product it feels very solid and has a premium look and feel to the construction and presentation. Nothing about it feels cheap, loose or as if it will easily break. The Glowforge plus, the model I have is sold as a consumer hobby grade laser cutter, but I see no reason why a small business couldn&#;t use it in a professional capacity as long as you weren&#;t running it all day everyday. That might be asking too much of it, but for regular one off customer jobs, I think it would be fine.
Things to consider. 1 price. I don&#;t care how much or little money you have $4,300 including tax is expensive. You could buy a top of the line, take your pick of brand, washer and dryer for considerably less money. 2 size. This laser, while not huge, is going to need its own dedicated table or stand. 3 noise. I would say it&#;s louder than I was expecting about as loud as our vacuum cleaner. 4 smell. There is going to be odors from the cutting process and of course you definitely need a way to vent the smoke and fumes created by the Glowforge. Is it excessive? No, not enough to concern me, but I have a funny story. I live in a detached home with the typical track home distance between my house and my neighbors. The first time I used my Glowforge to cut anything, I suddenly got a text message from my neighbor checking to see if everything was okay because he smelled a funny odor and saw strange smoke coming from our house. I was worried at that point if I was going to have issues with my Glowforge use bothering my neighbor. Not something I want to do and it was disheartening after laying out all this money for my Glowforge and seemed I was having issues already. But turned out okay and he assured me it was fine he was just concerned. I made him and his wife a personalized Christmas tree ornament and he&#;s been happy ever since. So yeh, there&#;s gonna be smells. Plywood smells like a campfire, leather, I find is the worst and to me smells like burnt hair. I&#;ve been told acrylic smells awful, but I don&#;t have any experience with that so far.
Overall I&#;ve been very happy with my Glowforge and knowing what I know now about it, yes, I would still buy it again. This of course all depends on how well the product holds up over time. It comes with a one year warranty for the pro and plus model. I bought the square trade 3 year extended warranty because it was only an extra $44 so why not. One last thing to note, when you get your Glowforge be sure to save all boxes and packaging materials. Glowforge will need to be repacked if you need to send it off to be repaired and the company charges $250 for a set of replacement boxes and packing materials. Yes, you read that right.
So if you do decide to buy your own Glowforge, I think you&#;ll be just thrilled with it and you&#;ll hopefully have a pleasant buying experience as I did. I&#;m glad to see the Glowforge is now available to buy on Amazon. I&#;ll update this review if there are any issues or unexpected circumstances that change my opinion of this wonderful laser cutter. Thanks for reading.
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