I was wondering if Glowforge has sent out any units yet. I thought they were supposed to release the middle of December.
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I was wondering if Glowforge has sent out any units yet. I thought they were supposed to release the middle of December.
I think there are a lot of people with issues. Seems the December ship date was only for a small number of "beta testers" who will use them in educational and maker type spaces, and then they'll take feedback from those users and make changes needed and start working on the next wave. I've seen people say they they won't be getting it until August of 2016. I'd be a wee bit upset if I paid you $4,000 for something that I wouldn't get for a year after you took my money. But that's just me. I don't think I'm alone, since I saw a post where that announcement was made and then they said after that, they had 11,000 service tickets filed on their system. I don't suspect that was 11,000 tickets saying "No worries, just send it whenever you can....".
Latest seems to be public units hitting the end of 2016
The reason I asked is I was wondering if anybody actually started using one and if their claim that the camera can follow the object.
Straight from their website"If you purchased on or before 10/24/15, your order will ship before July 2016. If you purchased after 10/24/15, your order will ship before October 2016."
Yikes Scott I'm with you, over a year with my cash and I got nothing to show for it:mad:. Then you have to hope that They can fix all the bugs:eek: I would never go in on a program like that. If it was something I wanted I'd wait till the company was actually making and selling them with good feedback. To many scams out there were people take your money and you get nothing in return or you get junk in return.
I did not think they got paid in advance? Thought it was just a reservation. Nice write up in A&E magazine this month about the changes that home owned lasers like the GlowForge will bring to the market place.
Paid in advance, hmmm... Just checked the 'rollout' page, almost $28 million.... in advance?
It that's so, what's to stop those with the money from retiring to some island somewhere?
Kickstarter pay out when the KS funding finishes its run. So in effect if the KS has finished then they will have paid out the money.
Unless it's an LLC or Ltd then they can just fold the company :(Quote:
If its a "pre-order" via a companies website then they are legally bound to abide by commerce law and fulfill there proposed outcome for the funds
Whoever claimed a December "release" date was mistaken, whether he realized it or not. It appears the company is shipping a few beta test units. I wouldn't consider a product "released" until it is for sale to the general public. People who are paying in advance are simply buying a promise.
So do you pay In Advance or not? It looks like on the Kickstarter site, your just Pledging to pay.
IF they have good attorneys in a corporation the company can be bankrupt and the principles can pay themselves salaries, bonus and expenses or hide the money. I don't know how a LLC works but I suspect its about the same.
My other thought for the day... is Sawmill Creek Engravers Forum going to a have a sub forum or a separate forum for GlowForge users? Thought #2 I see a money making opportunity for GlowForge 3D Laser service company.
PLEASE let's not add a subforum for Glowforge. Then it'll be a Trotec forum, and Epilog forum, a Shenhui forum... all that does is split up the group and perpetuate the 'chevy sucks-ford sucks' mentality. Proof of this is the fact that 90%+ of those on this board are already on the 'glowforge sucks' bandwagon, even though 0% of us have any experience with them! And when you start splitting up forums by brand, a lot of good advice can go unseen (or un-given) because nobody is going to read thru every 'owner' forum.
Simpler solution is, if you don't want to read 'Glowforge' posts, don't. :)
There will never be a forum dedicated to any laser manufacturer here, if they need one they can start their own.
We do have a groups service here, you will find various groups that have been started by our Community Members for a wide variety of companies and products. On the blue menu bar click on "Community" and then click "Groups" from the drop down list.
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When they launched their pre-order campaign, they simply said "Shipping in December." Here's a screenshot of the order page from that time as proof.
However, as of February 11, zero Glowforge laser cutters have been shipped, according to the CEO quoted in this article. However, they are still claiming that they will ship all of the units ordered during the original 30-day preorder campaign by the end of June. I'm guessing that is around 10,000 units based on their $28M raised. And yes, that is money that was fully pre-paid, not just "pledged."
It is pretty disengenuous to call what they ran a "crowdfunding campaign." It was no such thing. The company was fully funded with $9 million in venture capital. They ran a simple pre-order offer, but that doesn't sound as sexy as "crowdfunding campaign," just like "laser cutter and engraver" doesn't sound as sexy as "3D laser printer." After the original 30-day "campaign" ended, the price only went up 20 percent, still nowhere near the alleged "MSRP."
So you joined just so you could post this press release to help quell any (more) rumors?
I've been following along lurking for quite some time. I just hadn't seen anyone else post this so I thought I would share it since it's directly relevant to the conversation. I'm not sure that the semi-dodgy quotes from the CEO are likely to "quell any (more) rumors," though. Even over on the official Glowforge community pages there seems to be more questions than answers.
Just saw this posted:
geekwire.com/2016/raising-28m-record-crowdfunding-campaign-glowforge-delays-initial-shipments/
Jeff in northern Wisconsin
I'll say this, the buyers of this product are WAY more patient than I would be. I picture these guys in a fancy Silicone Valley office making Silicone Valley minimum wage (80-100k a year) and not getting much done. I find it crazy that with their resources ($28m in pre-order money + $9m in VC funding), they can't even manage to get a working prototype at this point. My guess is their price point can't deliver the quality required to sell their more innovative ideas. If I had to guess, they figured each machine would cost $1000 to manufacture and the reality is, to get everything working, they costs are $1800-2000.
Generally when a new idea comes along the software development will drain any budget in a matter of seconds. They are always over optimistic on real costs and timescales.
Would be nice to see a real one functioning on a continuous basis to see the camera returning real world useable performance.
Steve! That is an easy desire to deal with. Just don't buy one until it has some track record to go on. Stay off of the bleeding edge!
I hope you aren't considering selling off your Speedy 300 for a glowforge??? (teasing grin)
Dave
no not selling, but I might get a gf to prop that wobbly table leg :)
I spent some time corresponding with Glowforge back before the order deadline and asked a lot of questions. You cannot print directly from your own computer, nor directly from CorelDraw or any other software you own. The thing I found most concerning was the software they operate on the cloud, taking your file and therefore "sharing" it with the universe. Here is one of the responses I got, which I felt was a bit vague:
https://glowforge.zendesk.com/system...3/3557/dan.jpg Dan Shapiro (Glowforge)
Sep 29, 20:01
Jumping in for Jason, who is out at the moment - You keep your original files on your computer, then send a copy to the Glowforge server which prepares them and sends them to the machine.
The software that actually runs Glowforge runs in servers that we operate, so you don't need to install anything (other than your drawing software like Coreldraw). You access it from a web browser.
It can handle compound vector/bitmap files no problem.
It has pretty much everything we've seen in all of the leading lasers' control software, and a great deal more!
The internet is required to use the Glowforge. Most print jobs fit in the Glowforge's local print queue, so you just need the connection to start the print. If you lose connectivity while printing it will finish. However, bigger jobs may not fit and are sent down in smaller pieces. If you lose connectivity during a big print it will finish what it was doing, pause, and wait for connectivity to resume.
The "cloud" has many advantages - as long as you have access to it. The user can have a better experience and the service provider can make more money. It's a win-win. Except when your internet provider goes down, or their servers go down, or they go out of business, or change their business model, or....
OnShape is a new cloud based CAD program started by one of the founders of Solidworks. AutoCAD Fusion 360 is another. I am switching from Solidworks to Fusion 360 primarily because Solidworks is just so expensive, and they recently changed their upgrade policy after we had purchased it. Their upgrade policy was one of the selling points for us - so I am a bit ticked about that.
OnShape looks awesome but is cloud only, no internet, no work gets done. Fusion 360 is awesome as well but if you lose internet you can work in an offline mode. They are both practically free, or actually free if you meet their requirements.
I would encourage everyone to choose the service that does not cripple you if (when) you lose internet.
Yes I use Fusion 360 for doing 3D drawings and it works fine offline and can do so for a couple weeks. Sounds like with Glowforge if they go under or the server is down, you don't have the use of a $3000 machine.
Some good news Glowforge is based in Washington State and this is what happen to one company that was funded through Kickstarter and was not full filling the orders:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/9/11/9310945/kickstarter-court-victory-attorney-general-washington-asylum-playing-cards
http://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-rele...pay-shady-deal
Not a Kickstarter. It looks like those that do not want to wait are issued refunds.
If you don't have the internet don't buy a Glowforge. If you have unreliable internet don't buy a glowforge. If you prefer to spend your time troubleshooting your cheap chinese laser and/or have the budget for a 20-30 thousand dollar laser, don't buy a Glowforge. If you don't like Glowforge because of their marketing, their funding strategy, their direct to consumer market strategy, or their design, don't buy a Glowforge. If you decide to believe despite all the clear evidence to the contrary that once you print a file Glowforge owns it (even though they've stated unequivocally they don't), don't buy a Glowforge. Feel free to buy anything else, because you can. If you prefer the high maintenance chinese laser and the crappy software experience, by all means, go with that. But quit with the bashing already. I could rip apart the software and hardware experience of every chinese laser on the market in half a breath.
I don't think any of the recent comments warrant such a demand for cessation of posting and I don't understand how your ability to bash Chinese lasers relates to this thread. If you have something to say about Chinese lasers, please do so in the appropriate thread. After all, I believe that is the purpose of this forum - to talk about lasers, all makes, good stuff and bad stuff.
Rich, your gonna put the mods out of work :)
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Lets keep the forum as pleasant, useful and factual as it normally is.
jerome, I'm not making any claims. But that's exactly the point isn't it? This, and several threads like it are full of bashing of everything from the marketing to the machine itself, all without a shred of real world evidence. Most recently, a shipping delay (which isn't even actually a delay) was posted as hard evidence that the Glowforge will fail. People will burn their houses down. The world is coming to an end. You can respond reasonably and still ask questions, but I haven't seen any of that here.