Glowforge release

[Scott Shepherd]

The situation I find odd is that they literally blitzed every marketing angle they could when they were selling them. You couldn't avoid seeing articles written about them and the founder over and over. Now, they have delivered all the original campaign machines (i'm guessing. If not, they are close to done) and there's no articles being written, no interviews on how they struggled through it all but came out on top, no interviews or reviews from popular tech websites. Nothing. It's like they have gone silent.

If they have spent all this time ramping up the production process, you'd think they'd be trying to keep that pipeline full and having massive media buys going on to keep people ordering them.

Nope, nothing. If you search Google for "News", there's nothing even relatively new.

That all strikes me as very odd. What do I make of it? I have no idea, but my gut is telling me something is there, I just don't know what. They could be ramping up for a huge sales push in 2018, I have no idea, but it's odd to me that it's been deadly quiet from a company that couldn't end a day without something positive being said about them when they were selling them in those first 30 days.

[Matt McCoy]

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas everybody.

Yeah the features slow rendering, misalignment, slow cutting and engraving, can't use the full bed, can't use below or above a certain temperature and problems rotating design great features.

So, the discussion is no longer about GF and their evil ways to sell good, laserable materials at a profit?

Proof grade material may not be specifically recommended but it is implied that you'll get better results with proof grade. So the uniformed Moms and dads, oh my gosh I must get these proof grade to get got results. More BS marketing to rake in more doe.

I don't know about implied, but I would infer that all Proofgrade materials are safe for a laser and will provide good results. Could the same be said about all materials one would find at big box stores?

And what happens if the CEO changes or GF gets sold to another company? Will those "promises" still be honored? Also, what happened to the firmware release that GF was supposed to make when they started shipping units?

Is this exclusive to GF or can that be said of any company?

I would be more worried about the company going bankrupt than any promises they are now making. If the company doesn't exist then sincerely and honestly made promises are worthless. Other brands are still worth having even if the company goes away.

Any credible info to pass along or is this just wishful thinking on your part?

[John Lifer]

Scott you are definitely reading it wrong. Almost all of the original initial 30day sales have been sent emails with their ESTIMATED SHIPPING DATE. Many are now February and March. They totally have missed the year end again that was supposed to be all unit sold. They are months behind the last scheduled delivery date. They don't even bother to discuss ship date, it is so far out there and they still haven't resolved the alignment issue. They are still months behind being able to say they agave shipped all the orders. And filters haven't even started to be built. Fail....

[Scott Shepherd]

Scott you are definitely reading it wrong. Almost all of the original initial 30day sales have been sent emails with their ESTIMATED SHIPPING DATE. Many are now February and March. They totally have missed the year end again that was supposed to be all unit sold. They are months behind the last scheduled delivery date. They don't even bother to discuss ship date, it is so far out there and they still haven't resolved the alignment issue. They are still months behind being able to say they agave shipped all the orders. And filters haven't even started to be built. Fail....

To be clear, I haven’t read anything on their site recently. Last time I looked, they had shipped all the US models, or were close to it. I assume they finished that up. The overseas stuff has always been a hot mess, but I would assume they’d be trying to generate 1000’s of new sales. Otherwise, there are a lot of people in a factory with nothing to do and they’ll get moved off the GF project and onto something else.

[Jerome Stanek]

To be clear, I haven’t read anything on their site recently. Last time I looked, they had shipped all the US models, or were close to it. I assume they finished that up. The overseas stuff has always been a hot mess, but I would assume they’d be trying to generate 1000’s of new sales. Otherwise, there are a lot of people in a factory with nothing to do and they’ll get moved off the GF project and onto something else.

I see where they are still sending out emails that are weeks away from shipping units. There seems to be a lot of units that need returning also but the good news is that they ship replacements fairly fast almost as fast as it takes to as they say print a job.

[Bill George]

I see where they are still sending out emails that are weeks away from shipping units. There seems to be a lot of units that need returning also but the good news is that they ship replacements fairly fast almost as fast as it takes to as they say print a job.

And the good news is when they get all those shipped, or re-shipped. they do not need to be concerned about repeat customers clogging the system.

[Mike Henry3424]

[QUOTE=Matt McCoy;2758526]
Is this exclusive to GF or can that be said of any company?
/QUOTE]

That can probably be said about any company that offers a cloud service, but there are a lot of naive buyers that don't consider the possibility and they should be warned so they can make informed purchase opinions. The CEO has made some statements about maintaining free cloud service for user, but there are some restrictions on that and the CEO's history of making good on statements is not the best, even when hindsight makes it clear that he must of known the statements were "optimistic", and sometimes clearly not achievable, when they were made. For instance where is that firmware that was promised when shipping started?

Promise made by one CEO are usually not binding for a subsequent CEO.

[Jerome Stanek]

[QUOTE=Mike Henry3424;2758783]

Is this exclusive to GF or can that be said of any company?
/QUOTE]

That can probably be said about any company that offers a cloud service, but there are a lot of naive buyers that don't consider the possibility and they should be warned so they can make informed purchase opinions. The CEO has made some statements about maintaining free cloud service for user, but there are some restrictions on that and the CEO's history of making good on statements is not the best, even when hindsight makes it clear that he must of known the statements were "optimistic", and sometimes clearly not achievable, when they were made. For instance where is that firmware that was promised when shipping started?

Promise made by one CEO are usually not binding for a subsequent CEO.

most of the promises work almost but not as good as they said sort of like buying a Mustang and getting a Pinto they both do the same thing but not as good.

[Dave Sheldrake]

seen a few pictures of Ipods / Iphones etc that have been engraved using the GF on a facebook group I'm an admin of. The alignment is dire and pretty much commercially worthless. If I took a $1,000 phone to an engraver and they turned out that trash they would be buying me a new phone right afterwards.

It's a well known and documented problem with overhead optics , it's the same problem that affects Galvo machines or any galvanometer steered laser system, it's called Parralax Offset and has been dealt with for some 25 - 30 years in the laser industry and for much longer in the photographic industry yet they still haven't fixed it (and it's a pretty easy calculation fix)

It's a fundamental physics constant called the "scissors effect"...how the hell they don't have anybody that can sort that I have no idea....(even I could and I'm not a software bod)

[Dave Sheldrake]

iphone.jpg

This is the sort of thing that is being turned out as "Commercial work" with the gf

[Gary Hair]

iphone.jpg

This is the sort of thing that is being turned out as "Commercial work" with the gf

It’s not more than 1/4” off, what is the problem?

[Jerome Stanek]

It’s not more than 1/4” off, what is the problem?

Close is only good enough in horse shoes, hand grenades and Glowforge. They keep saying that 1/4 is acceptable for it. If I was off that much with what I cut I would end up wasting a lot of material as I use blanks that are just 1/8 oversized

[Kev Williams]

The secondary issue is, it's very easy to 'test drive' the engraving with blue tape and make the necessary adjustment. Even knowing where my machines will engrave, it's rare that I don't test drive first.

Priority list update: Livelihood threatened by new GF owners- move to bottom.

( )

[Jerome Stanek]

I never realized that the proof grade was that expensive her is a list for $150 worth of proof grade material that is shipped for waiting.
Your first shipment contains $150 worth of hand-selected Proofgrade materials, including:Four 6"x12" sheets of Medium Maple HardwoodFour 12"x20" sheets of Medium Maple PlywoodTwo 12"x20" sheets of Medium DraftboardTwo 12"x20" sheets of Medium Clear AcrylicOne 12"x20" sheet of Walnut Veneer, with 3M tapeOne 12"x20" sheet of Maple Veneer, with 3M tapeTwo 5"x10" sheets of Natural Leather

[Matt McCoy]

Scott you are definitely reading it wrong. Almost all of the original initial 30day sales have been sent emails with their ESTIMATED SHIPPING DATE. Many are now February and March. They totally have missed the year end again that was supposed to be all unit sold. They are months behind the last scheduled delivery date. They don't even bother to discuss ship date, it is so far out there and they still haven't resolved the alignment issue. They are still months behind being able to say they agave shipped all the orders. And filters haven't even started to be built. Fail....

I think Steve is spot-on here and reading it right. He stated that they have, or were close to delivering the 30-day campaign units, which is accurate according to the GF announcement (day 29 & 30). The average time to receive a big box seems to be ~2 weeks after receiving the "golden ticket" email for delivery, with some receiving their machine in 8 days.

I also agree with Steve that their international fulfilment doesn't look very good, and those have been pushed out months, along with the air filters, which I am skeptical of. I have no idea how many units that is, though.

I see where they are still sending out emails that are weeks away from shipping units. There seems to be a lot of units that need returning also but the good news is that they ship replacements fairly fast almost as fast as it takes to as they say print a job.

~2 weeks, with some received in about 8 days.

How many is "a lot" and it looks like UPS shipping damage, in what I've seen.

That can probably be said about any company that offers a cloud service, but there are a lot of naive buyers that don't consider the possibility and they should be warned so they can make informed purchase opinions.

Fair enough. It looks like we're on the same page. If you get a sec, take a looksie through their forum. I don't get the impression that GF backers, in general, are naive or make uninformed decisions.

...For instance where is that firmware that was promised when shipping started?

They've walked that one back a little, I think. There's been a formal request for the firmware, which I believe they will have to release, due to the GPL and since the GF runs Linux. Dan has posted that they are working on it.

This is the sort of thing that is being turned out as "Commercial work" with the gf

One problem, though. They GF is not a commercial machine, and they don't hawk it as one. If you look through the projects in the first page of their website, you won't see nametags, trophies, watches, or guns. They're fun, one-off, craft projects/gifts that anyone can make in about 30 minutes. Search the website for "business" or "commercial". Outside of the user-content forums, you won't find any promises to make anyone rich by stealing all the engraving business.

However, they probably won't get in anyone's way if one wants to parlay the things they make into a business. It just might not be what some here envision as an engraving business.

(I'm posting from a phone, so please pardon any above-average typos.)