I read reviews like this before I went ad purchased my GF, but my thought process was simple….im not going to be running a business and it will be for a fun occasional hobby…which it has been. I’ve overcome small hurdles and kept moving…It has been just shy of 2 yrs and I barely use it but loved having it handy when I wanted to do something. Well, a month and half ago, my auto focus stopped…I could work around the issue until I wanted to do my first passthrough cut ever…..it failed and has not worked properly since. After running several fixes with the Support team , I was told i needed a new printer head…..$500 replacement. When I asked to speak with a supervisor I was told the supervisor would tell me the same thing….so GF wants to pay supervisors to NOT deal with customer concerns. Not going to happen! It will be given away for parts. DO NOT BUY!
I hope our experiences can keep others from buying! The funny thing is that it's almost worse if you rarely use it because their warranty is relatively short and they don't care at all if the machine hasn't been used much. Sorry you had to deal with this. Thanks for sharing.
We haven't had ours long enough to see first hand, but research shows that it will yellow slightly. You can keep it out of UV light to reduce the yellowing. It will prevent scratching but the application will introduce texture from painting over the print, so I'm not sure if it helps in that aspect.
Hello , l had the same problem couple’s days before my Glowforge stop to work and the magic button turned yellow they suggested to send pictures and then suggested to send the machine to repair $1600
Great vid! I’d like to do some trim like this for my patio but I live in a condo so if I had anything up like that it had better be able to come down in a hurry. Any recommendations on how I can install something like that but not make it permanent?
The lid broke off of mine and we epoxied it back on. So far so good. However, we're much more careful when opening and closing it. I bought mine used for a really good price and really enjoy it. But I dread the day something goes wrong and I can't fix it myself. When that day comes, I'll just throw it out because I refuse to ship it from Hawaii back to glowforge.
You have put in so much work to the building. It's going to absolutely beautiful when you finish. Lattice work is a pain to paint! I love that gorgeous tree!
Glad you enjoy it! We're doing this as much to share as for ourselves. It's amazing how fast we forget how things used to look. We are already making plans to rip out the concrete in front so we can landscape and make it feel more secret society like.
I have owned HP printers for businesses for 30 years. HP is now the same with their printers, not a subscription base, but if you do not use their ink, the printer will not work, period. Do not buy anything that the company controls after your purchase. Thank you for the video, you are not the only one upset with Glowforge. There are too many good options out there to have to put up with this.
Happy to share my experience. It's sad that printers do the same. And they constantly change the ink for subsequent models. We just had to get a new printer and the newer model uses different ink, so now we have a bunch of useless very expensive ink that we have to figure out how to sell.
I'm going to have to check that. But basically, you'd look at the bit and see if it's the width you want for your carving. It's pretty easy to visually check.
Oh wow! Great question. I didn't keep track, but it was A LOT (this was for an entire room). I'm thinking 17+. I was doing small bits at a time and buying as I went to keep from having too much extra. The fluid you mix with it does have a shortish shelf life so we never bought more of that than what we could use quickly.
If anyone can solve this problem it's you guys! I've heard people using shop rakes or special gardening rakes for this also. If the intention to to help preserve the grass, I'd also recommend tilling and re-seeding the lawn with a deep root grass that has taller blades thus preventing gravel from killing the grass down the line...
Thankfully our way worked (with some time commitment). Next year we will add poles to keep the snow plow from going on the grass. It was fun to figure out how to solve our problem with the tools we already had!
@@unicornconservationco proof that strong puzzle solvers are great to have around in any circumstance...kudos to you guys and keep up the great work! :)
Very cool! I had great success, molding real objects using silicone rubber, then casting them with spray foam. The details come out very good. I made a whole series on this for making tree bark. Check out if you want!
You keep going Girl! Lovin' makin' rocks, and people who do too! LEARN, GROW, BECOME! Cheers, Mr. Dave :) www.youtube.com/@DaveHendersonFakeRockVideos/featured
Great question. I haven't tried it, but I imagine it would. If you test it out, let me know what you find! It's always nice to have options of using what you have on hand.
We got one as a grant for our school. Worked for about a year and now we get lid open error. Have tried reseating cables, lids, trays, sensors, replaced the lid hing board and black cable and all we get is lid open. We are done with this machine. Wasn't too thrilled with subscription model but we mostly used pdf's and imported imasges and skirted the monthly fee. Hated that we needed our IT guy to assign it space on our network to be able to talk to it. Enough is enough. We are boxing it up and will eventually list it on our county disposal site. Our big tech lab has an Omtech AF2440-100. Same prince as this glowforge pro, uses readily availble software to communicate. 100W CO2 Laser and a long Z axis so we can work on material thicker than .5 inches. I will be looking to get another Omtech for our classroom. Maybe the POLAR 350 50W DESKTOP LASER ENGRAVER. It's comprable to the Glowforge and half the price.
How disappointing. I used to be high school media teacher and I know how much work it takes for grants. Glowforge really nailed their marketing and perhaps put less money in creating a reliable tool. I hope you find the perfect laser. Would love to know what you eventually go with.
Funny to think, the day this video was uploaded was the exact same day I visited Canada for the first time haha. But I didn't know they were allowed to do that though, they must REALLY trust them not to wander out past the library.
Absolutely! First one died after only 1 and half years. Out of warranty so another $1500 to get refurbished replacement. 9 months in and it also is dead and they want another $1500 to repair or replace. I haven't even finished paying off the first two. If you start googling problems with GF you will see that machines lasting about a year seems to be the norm! Way too expensive to be dying like this! I am now using omtech polar and so far so good.
I'm so sorry you had problems too! It really is a huge disappointment to spend a large amount of money on a machine that is not dependable. Glad to hear you'd found a new machine!
Thank you for your honest review. You were a lot more reserved than I would've been. The internet only connection is VERY limiting. This would randomly cost me hours to days - and it wasn't my provider. Mine machine only connects to 2.5GHz routers (changed?) Yes, if you just want to trim some scrap - Create a new design, send it through the cloud, realign, focus, ... import, ... etc. Pay monthly and you can add squares, lines and circles using a wonky interface, Oh!, plus some clip art. There are tiers of clip art - some art still costs extra. Equivalently-capable decent quality enclosed cutters range in price from about the same to half or less. Feed-through is not extra. The higher costing units off deeper focus ranges, and a rotational axis. Almost all standardized file types from free, open-sourced and/or professional laser software. You can connect directly, by USB or WiFi with now cloud. Glowforge IS good quality hardware that is strategically uncrippled as you pay more up-front and monthly. The cloud-only interface is uncalled for, greedy and weird. It's been several+ years and I've seen little product improvement. A tad with the web "app." Frankly, don't have a web app att all. If you want to skip the design studio application, then build a simple interface application with good drivers and be done with it. The only way I can explain the better hardware is they probably don't want field serviceability AND don't want to repair anything - unless they can get 50% of the machine again in charges. Someone, please, How does this remain like this for so many years and still exist at a premium cost? Is it a fashionable brand? Frustrated too long...
I think Glowforge is popular for a few reasons. 1) They spend a ton of money on marketing 2.) Regular people can get a huge commission from referrals - so tons of people recommend them. 3) It's advertised as a very simple cutter - which it is - so people who don't want to diy or be technical choose this. It's all great until it isn't. I think a lot of buyers don't do much research and just pay up. I'm lucky I know Illustrator so I don't have to use their software - it's ridiculous to pay so much just to have the ability to draw a line and square.
And yours was soooo good too! Wouldn't that be a fun project?! I had no clue going in how hard it would be to make small things - and even harder to design little puzzles for big hands.
Thank you! I really got into the crafting flow and loved making such tiny clues! Totally not a game that we could ever mass manufacture - but sometimes it's just fun to play.
I am so happy I ran across this. I was thinking of buying one. But nobody but you mentioned if they had to use Glowforge software. Thank you for your honesty. You saved me $$ I couldn't afford it anyway. Just looking for a way to supplement my income.
I suggest XTool. Reliable. Software is free and no subscription. The customer service is great. I have 3 xtools( The big p2, the S1 and F1) and they are all fantastic.
Great down-and-dirty video. I love seeing these Tiki Bar DIY tutorials as they push me to become unlazy and just get started. Do you have any more tiki related videos? I would love to see other projects as I am trying to slowly do my basement bar where cost is a large factor. Did you consider torching the wood before staining to add more depth?
Glad you enjoyed it! I recently added fake macrame to a bunch of glass balls for extra texture. Need to make a video of that simple task. And torching wood is a great technique - we didn't because it will be for an escape room and the detail would get lost in the game.
Hello! Thank you! This was my first success with rocks (there have been many failures in the past.) We are located in Canada, right between Montreal and Quebec City. The Quebec area has a ton of top class escape rooms and is a wonderful destination for an escape room enthusiast.
I think everyone enters from the main entrance on American side if I remember correctly. There's a little path next to the library for Canadiens to walk across so they can get into the library.
