Glowforge Full Setup Guide From Box To First Cut

what's up I'm Jonathan and welcome to maker tales where I'm sharing my maker journey to help you go further in yours so don't forget subscribe and hit that little bell icon to never miss an opportunity to keep making in this video we're going to be unboxing setting up and do our first laser job on the glowforge keeping the unboxing brief I thought it was worth mentioning that the packaging is huge considering that this is the glowforge basic which is as small as they come you would receive two boxes a small one coming in at fifty one by seventy three by 12.5 centimetres and being five kilograms ish and the main package is 117 by 69.5 by 35 centimeters and comes in at around 20 kilograms before continuing I want to point out that things may change in the future and I would encourage that along with this video that you referred to the unboxing an instruction manual that is emailed to you prior to receiving your glowforge now let's get this beast out of the box the small box is easy just cut the tape and open you'll be presented with your cutting bed along with a hundred millimeter vent tubing underneath I found I was supplied with some material to do my first cuts on along with two power cords now on to the main event cut the straps remove the corner protection and unlock the Nifty handles now it's just a case of sliding the top off to be presented with a perfectly packaged glowforge removing the foam packaging and opening the bag you'll see the glowforge for the first time now to get the glowforge out of the box this is when you're going to need a second pair of hands slide your hands into the slots on either side of the glowforge lift it up from the bottom push the box aside for now and place the glowforge on a flat surface I'll mention it quickly now but keep all the packaging and don't damage it now the glowforge is out of the box it's time to free up the internal parts glowforge have made this super easy remove the orange parts starting with the tape which will let you open the glowforge from here remove the front foam packaging once here you'll see there are a few other orange parts under the gantry begin by unscrewing and removing these first which will free up the arm now that the arm is freed let's remove the last of the foam behind the gantry keep in mind that the laser head is in here and make sure it doesn't fall out now let's free up the head remove the tape holding the ribbon cable then gently but firmly push down on the orange clip holding the headrail in place once this is done gently push the gantry back off the rubber bumpers and remove them to everything should now be moving freely now insert your crumb tray and let's prep the head to attach the laser head to it gently push the head rail to the far right of the gantry now let's grab the laser head out of the packaging be careful not to put your fingers on one of the laser lenses on the left of the head this here is the main head of the laser this is where the magic comes to a focal point quite literally inside there is an inbuilt optical laser focusing system removing the last bit of the packaging let's place this on the gantry gently attach the ribbon cable and slowly place it on the rail there is an inbuilt magnet that will pull the head into place keep a firm grip to the head while placing it down as the magnets are quite strong from here the majority of the setup is complete gently move the head along the rail to check there are no sticking points and that the ribbon cable moves freely and untwisted now it comes to turning the glowforge on close the lid and grab the correct power cable plug it in and power it on your glowforge will now come to life from here we need to go to the address indicated above the glowforge button follow the instructions to connect the glowforge online and associating it to your glowforge account the instructions do a much better job than me at explaining this part but in short you connect to your glowforges Wi-Fi and indicate it which other Wi-Fi to connect to and then associate it to your glowforge account last but not least we need to attach the extraction tubing to the outlet of the glowforge this can be a little fiddly using the provided clip and hosing attach it and you're done before we carry on with your first print as glowforge likes to call it let's clean up place all the packaging bits into the white foam storage and store all the packaging safely away as you will need this packaging if any problems arise with your glowforge in the future if you throw this packaging away you will have to pay a hefty 249 dollars to replace the packaging as glowforge will not accept any warranty claims that are not shipped back in the correct packaging with that out the way let's get on with our first laser job if you have turned your laser off just turn it on again and it will recenter the glowforge will recenter every time you turn it off and on for the sake of simplicity I'll be using proof grade material on this first job once the laser has centered which you can tell once the laser goes back to its home position in the top left corner of glowforge open the lid and place in your material now head to your computer and go to the glowforge app I'll be using a free file from glowforge the gift of good measure for this example as we are using proof grade material the QR code has been scanned and the laser settings for the material automatically placed now click print on the top right and head over to your glowforge wait for your glowforge light to begin to flash and press the button to start the job once the laser job has finished and the glow forged light turns off you are safe to open the lid and remove your first laser job as we used proof grade material we need to weed the material and take off the masking tape to see the end results and there you have it the very basics of setting up a glowforge from the box to your first print slash job by no means is this all there is to know but one thing I will mention now at this part right here is very important so don't lose it this is a tool that will let you remove the main focal lens in the laser head to be able to clean it in the future to carry on learning about other laser cutting fundamentals or more about the glowforge check out the links down in the description this video here or some of the cards I also have a bit of merch but if you'd like to support this channel and enjoy what I'm doing here it's by laser operator shirt that I made over a year ago it's one of my favorite shirts that I own and anyway guys thanks for watching keep making and let the quest continue

Channel: Keep Making

Views: 20,167

Keywords: Glowforge, setup, assembly, first print, laser, cutting, cutter, glowforge pro, laser cutter, gettting started, how to setup a glowforge, how to, learning to laser, guide, set by step, unboxing, new glowforge, tutorial, what is glowforge, cnc laser, laser engraving machine

Id: 5pkGrXzBg9w

Length: 7min 12sec (432 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 13 2019