Can watch the latest video tour here https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/videos/101536135477696...
Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
201–210 of 216 posts
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you know if they provide direct hardware hooks, too? I've not met a precision cutting or metrology tool where we didn't need to get low-level access to the hardware to get simple things done....
Good question for somebody on the GF team. My last company was Cloudant so my biases are pretty obvious.
Hey guys! :)
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#203I am surprised it can cut paper without causing ignition. I wonder how many of the projects shown were created using the "basic" ($2K) version and how many were produced using the pro ($4K) version? I will say their early bird prices make these compelling for small business/etsy setups. However once they go to full price, I don't know if that will remain as true. It would take a LOT of wallets to break even at a $4K…
> I am surprised it can cut paper without causing ignition. As a kid, I had a lot of difficulty trying to ignite paper with lenses under the sun (white notebook paper). I then gave up and used the lenses for cutting instead. So I'm not that surprised. To this day I wonder what would be the correct set of conditions that would make it easier to combust. I remember trying black paint - that only made the cutting part e…
I had really no problem using a magnifying glass to burn printer paper as a kid, as long as it was the summer, trying to do that in the winter was for some reason impossible.
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the lousy interface Which, on one such cutter I used, involved having to pre-process DXF files through Corel Draw (!!) in order to get the cutter software to read them at all. In my case, that meant a workflow of: CAD software -- export-to-DXF pre-process in Illustrator -- laser kerf allowance -- layout parts on material pre-process in Corel Draw -- load and reexport the DXF, just 'cause load in cutter software --…
Could you elaborate on how you do laser kerf allowance in Illustrator?
First, determine the kerf of your cutter. For service bureaus like Ponoko, they may be able to tell you the kerf for the cutter and material you'll be using. Otherwise do some test cuts, e.g. a set of 1cm squares, and measure the average kerf using a good digital caliper.
From there in reasonably recent versions of Illustrator, select your path, then use Object > Path > Offset Path...
In the Offset Path dialog, enter your measured kerf value. E.g. I've been working with a 0.19mm kerf lately, so I would enter half that in the dialog (literally ".19mm/2") and confirm.
A few notes:
* Make sure your path is fully joined (select everything then Object > Path > Join) before using Offset Path. If you zoom in and see your path looks like a series of disjoint rectangles, it wasn't joined; start over.
* IMPORTANT!: Offset Path creates an additional path, instead of modifying the selected one. At this scale, this is impossible to see. You'll need to zoom waaay in to see the pair of paths, ungroup them, then select and delete the inner one. If you don't, you'll end-up double cutting the same path, which can be a good way to make fire. :-/ (Ponoko checks for and will usually flag these kind of errors.)
Cheers!
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#205Looks like a great toy until you go through comments here. Honestly would have bought this for my woman, since she's into crafts and stuff, but cloud-only cutting/engraving, comments on fumes and filters + dealing with customs (if they even shipping int) quickly changed my mind. I've seen laser engravers on kickstarter before, hope to see more machines that do not require clouds to cut/etch a damn thing.
These aren't really for home use. They are for Maker spaces and workshops and schools. Your partner should bring her design to a local workshop to cut, unless she wants to open the local workshop.
It's easy to say bring the design "to local workshop to cut", they are available in US/CA/Europe, but finding one asia or africa, or even smaller european city is hard if not impossible.
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#206So in a followup, Glowforge offered to release the firmware of this 3d printer as GPL. That is a ballsy and incredibly great move. It also helps negate the issues of their cloud service going away, I have an expensive paperweight issue. See: http://glowforge.com/gpl-licensed-open-source-firmware-for-g...
The thing is that their firmware is ultra-lightweight. One of the things they're proud of is that the firmware is extremely thin and basically shunts control signals directly from the cloud service. The cloud service does everything.
The expensive paperweight issue still stands.
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Open source to the rescue: https://github.com/kallaballa/ctrl-cut
Ctrl-cut is great. I love that it uses SVG plus some additional XML DTD attributes as its file format. Time for some reverse engineering if you can only cut via Glowforge's servers...
Yeah, the folks behind ctrl-cut are pretty darn clever. I'm sure they'll get it running for Glowforge as soon as they get one in their hands. ;)
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#208@danshapiro - Thanks for giving a fantastic resolution to the issue of the cloud software. I think that was a big hang up for many of us.
Can you expand on the benefits of the Pro model? The usefulness of the included air filter and pass through slots have been explained on your site, but the laser and cooling upgrade aren't really ever discussed.
5W more power doesn't seem like very much of an upgrade (12.5% more power for 60% more cost). What does the Pro model's upgraded laser and cooling specs mean in terms of "usefulness": cuttable material thickness, cutting times, duty cycle, etc?
Also, what's the expected life span of the charcoal filters, HEPA filters, laser tube, and any other consumables? Are replacements for these available only through Glowforge, or are they industry standard / Over The Counter parts?
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#209It looks like vaporware to me. What gives me pause is the sneaky way they present it as if it were a KickStarter project, but it's not. So all those people shelling out for the early release are not protected if they close up shop and disappear it seems to me. So many glowing promises, but will they be able to follow through on all of them? I dunno. I am skeptical. (I hope they do though, I seriously want this to be real).
Re: Glowforge launches consumer-grade laser cutter
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just disappointing, it's stupefying. Why would my drill (or my compressor or my band saw) need to be on the Internet in order to function ? Also, there's a lot of overlap between people who have the extra space/building/shop to properly run equipment like this and people that have spotty rural Internet.
It probably has to do with how people/VCs don't see selling hardware alone as a super profitable model on it's own, and want a cloud dependence to sell you more stuff or to sell your data.
The things that they show (running a web site with lots of UX, slicing, image processing, materials data, catalog of customizable designs, etc.) fit pretty well into a powerful web site/service with a small CPU in the laser cutter. Adding a powerful CPU, etc, would add to cost and complexity - it is much easier to run a web site than to support thousands,of users' local installs, etc. Though i agree that makes the device dependent on their service, that's becoming a pretty common tradeoff these days.