Glowforge Laser Review: Is It Worth It? (2020)

So you are thinking about buying a Glowforge® 3D laser printer (Glowforge laser) but aren’t totally convinced it is the right choice for you. Well, I know how you feel because I have been in your shoes. Weighing all the pros and cons prior to making a purchase can be quite a difficult task. I aim to make that task a little easier by sharing this review.

After researching for several weeks, I decided to purchase a Glowforge Pro. Now that I have spent a fair amount of time using it, I am able to discuss my thoughts about the machine.

First, we will briefly glance over the basics about the machine for those who have never heard of a Glowforge 3D laser printer. I say briefly because it can all be found on the Glowforge website located here.

Next, I will share some of the things I like and dislike about the machine. Hopefully, by the end of this review, you will have the information you need to make your decision.

What is a Glowforge 3D Laser Printer?

A Glowforge 3D laser printer is a CNC laser cutter engraver designed for all skill levels. It is capable of producing amazing results at a fraction of the cost when compared to higher-end CNC laser cutter engravers.

How Big is a Glowforge 3D Laser Printer?

A Glowforge laser measures 38″ long, 21″ wide, and 8.375″ tall.

What Type of Materials Can a Glowforge Cut?

A Glowforge laser can cut paper, fabric, leather, acrylic, acetal, mylar, acetate, vellum, rubber, Corian, foods, wood, MDF, cork, silicone, and more.

What Type of Materials Can a Glowforge Engrave?

A Glowforge laser can engrave paper, fabric, leather, acrylic, acetal, mylar, acetate, vellum, rubber, Corian, foods, wood, MDF, cork, silicone, glass, coated metal, marble, anodized aluminum, titanium, and more.

It can also engrave some phones, tablets and laptops such as the iphone 7, Pixel 2, Microsoft Surface RT, and the Macbook Pro to name a few.

What Are Proofgrade Materials?

Proofgrade™ refers to various materials designed specifically for the Glowforge 3D laser printer with the purpose of making each print almost effortless.

There are several categories of Proofgrade materials. These include leather, plywood, acrylic, veneer, hardwood, and draftboard. There are also multiple sizes, colors, species, etc. within each category.

Each piece of Proofgrade material comes with masking paper on the front and back for protection during the lasering process. Each piece also includes a QR code in which the printer scans to automatically select the best settings for that specific material.

Does the Glowforge Need to Be Vented?

The Glowforge laser needs to be vented. During laser processing, powerful fans remove the vapors that are created.

Most people, just vent the Glowforge laser out a window using the supplied air duct hose. You will likely have to do some minor fabrication to create a sealed window outlet, but I will address this in a separate post.

The other way to vent the Glowforge laser is with the Glowforge Air Filter. Although this is an option for those who cannot vent out a window, I can’t recommend it for everyone due to its overall cost, replacement filter cost, and short filter life span.

Glowforge Pros, Cons, and Pro-cons

There are several pros and cons to consider prior to purchasing a Glowforge laser. There are even a few qualities that I found to be both pro and con which I called pro-cons, for lack of a better word.

I have highlighted several that I found to be most important.

Pros

There are many benefits to owning a Glowforge laser. Here are some of the ones I found most notable.

Affordable

Glowforge, Inc. offers 3 CNC laser cutter engraver models at various price points (Basic $2495, Plus $3995, Pro $5995). Each model can be reduced further by applying a coupon code such as the one found by clicking here.

When comparing the cost between these models and some of the heavy-duty lasers, like those produced by Trotec or Epilog Laser, I think you will find a ton of value in the Glowforge laser.

Easy to Use

Prior to purchasing a Glowforge laser, I had absolutely no experience with using a CNC laser cutter engraver or any CNC device for that matter. With that in mind, I did find it very easy to operate right out of the box.

Although I did not time my initial setup to first print (laser creation), Glowforge, Inc. does report that many customers have completed their first print within 30 minutes of unboxing.

The Glowforge team does a great job of laying out the first few prints in a simple step-by-step format. These prints help lay the foundation for your CNC laser cutting and engraving journey.

Despite it being easy to use, there is still plenty of room for learning and skill growth for those who may be thinking it is too basic.

For those of you looking specifically for more advanced, do not be deceived by its ease of use as there are many occasions in which advanced techniques and skills can be applied while using the Glowforge laser.

Preprogrammed Settings

The Glowforge laser offers preprogrammed settings for cutting, scoring, and engraving their Proofgrade materials. The profiles for the Proofgrade settings can also be selected and used on similar non-Proofgrade materials.

Settings Saving Capability

Many will ultimately end up using materials other than the Proofgrade materials sold by Glowforge, Inc. Non-Proofgrade materials will require one of two choices:

1. Selecting the setting profile for the Proofgrade material that is similar to the non-Proofgrade material.
2. Selecting customized settings by entering them in manually. This requires experimenting with some test runs.

Custom laser settings really open up the creative possibilities, but keeping track of all your settings can be a bit of a mess. Luckily, once you find your favorite results, the customized settings can be saved for future use.

Excellent Community

The community is unbelievably helpful and responsive. The forums are loaded with excellent tips, free files, troubleshooting advice, and so much more. The seasoned Glowforge laser users are always willing to lend a virtual hand, so to speak.

This heavily influenced my decision to purchase a Glowforge laser over other brands around the same price point.

Affiliate Program

Glowforge, Inc. offers a great referral bonus. Some owners have reported being able to pay off their printer through referrals only.

Details on the program and current offer can be found by clicking here.

It is also nice that you must own a Glowforge in order to be a part of the affiliate program. This creates more opportunities for a Glowforge owner to benefit from the program by limiting the number of participants.

Free Laser designs

Glowforge, Inc. frequently offers free laser designs which can be downloaded for future use. Who doesn’t like free?

Software Compatibility

One of the best advantages of the Glowforge is its ability to accept multiple file-formats including JPG, PNG, SVG, PDF, and a few others.

Some popular design software used by Glowforge creators includes Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Fusion 360, CorelDraw, GIMP, Inkscape, Procreate, Silhouette, and Sketchup.

Tracing Function

This feature allows you to scan hand-drawn artwork directly into the laser for cutting and engraving.

Obviously, the final print will lack some quality that can be achieved via design software. However, this is a good option if you just want to add some hand-drawn authenticity to your creations or have some munchkins who like art but can’t use design software.

High Quality Results

As stated by Glowforge, Inc., the laser beam can be positioned to within 0.001″ granting it the capability to engrave with 1,000 DPI resolution.

In other words, the Glowforge laser can produce some very detailed results. Take a look at the Glowforge Instagram to see all the amazing things creators have made by clicking here.

Cons

As with any device, there are a few cons but none of them have made me regret my purchase. Here are the ones I felt needed to be mentioned.

Noise

Almost anyone with a Glowforge laser can tell you that they are quite noisy. Most of the noise is produced by the exhaust fans.

The good news is that the noise can be dramatically reduced by turning off the internal fan after attaching an external inline duct fan.

While I have not done this myself, many others have reported a dramatic decrease in the noise level.

Check this video out on the process by clicking here.

Warranty

Unfortunately, the warranty only lasts 6 months for the Glowforge Basic and 12 months for the Glowforge Plus and Glowforge Pro models.

Personally, I feel these warranties are not long enough compared to its overall cost and the turnaround time in the event repairs are required. It would be nice if these times were lengthened or an extended warranty option was offered.

The warranty also states that issues caused by non-Proofgrade materials will not be covered.

While I do understand this clause may be necessary to limit claims from improper use, I do not fully agree with it due to the limited availability of Proofgrade materials.

There are many times when Proofgrade materials are out of stock which forces Glowforge users to seek alternative options.

Although I have not had to use the warranty service, I do hope the company’s decision would be made on a case-by-case basis in the event of malfunction while using non-Proofgrade materials.

No Rotary Option

The Glowforge laser does not offer a rotary engraving attachment. I also do not see any way this could be offered as an attachment in the future since the bed height is only 2 inches.

Bed Size

Materials up to 12″ x 20.4″ can be used in the Basic and Plus models.

The Pro model offers a pass-through slot that can accommodate materials up to 20.4″ wide with an unlimited length.

As far as height goes, materials can be up to 1/2″ thick when the crumb tray is in place and 2″ when it is removed.

Bed size was only listed as a con because some people may be looking to engrave much larger items. For me, the bed size was not a major issue.

Shipped By FedEx

This one can certainly vary as not everyone will encounter an unsatisfactory shipping experience. However, there are numerous horror stories within the Glowforge community that can attest to this con.

I have read everything from incorrect arrival dates to receiving the Glowforge after it was rolled off the truck and up to the door as if it were a tire.

My personal experience with FedEx was related to the reported arrival date. It didn’t arrive until 3 days after the date listed by FedEx. This usually would not bother me but a direct signature is required upon delivery of the Glowforge laser.

At the end of every day, the expected arrival date would change to the following day. This prevented me from leaving my house for 3 days as I had no one else who could sign for it.

I tried placing a hold request so that I could pick it up from the local shipment center but it wasn’t an option according to FedEx customer service. After speaking with them multiple times, they were unable to provide any solution other than waiting patiently.

Luckily, it fell on a week in which I was not working so I was able to wait it out. Others may not be so fortunate.

No Customer Service Phone Line

The Glowforge, Inc. customer service can only be reached through email and the forums. If you do experience a technical issue, waiting on a response can be quite frustrating.

Thankfully, the community seems to be well versed in this area too; however, some issues still must wait for support in order to prevent voiding the warranty from damage caused by the troubleshooting process.

Lack of Service Departments

There are no regional service departments or technicians. If professional service is required, you must pack up your Glowforge and ship it out for repairs.

This also means you must save and store the original packaging which is gigantic. Otherwise, you will be forking up another $249 for new shipping supplies.

Pro-cons

These features were tricky in that I could not place them in either a good or bad category alone; therefore, they were placed in the joint category: pro-cons. As you read, I am sure you will understand my reasoning.

Web-based

Pros

The Glowforge team is continuously releasing updates to improve its software and printer capabilities. For example, so far they released updates to improve print speeds, fix bugs, increase the print size area, and much more.

They have also recently added creative tools that can be used to design within the Glowforge interface.

New updates are automatically downloaded and installed when the Glowforge is powered on. A log of all the updates can be found by clicking here.

Other great benefits include their free cloud service for storing your designs in a ready-to-print format and the catalog which is a growing database of files for print. The files within the catalog are considered premium prints which means they must be purchased.

Glowforge, Inc. has stated that they would like to eventually accept design submissions for the catalog. It would be great if the design owners received a portion of each sale but we will have to wait for specifics.

Cons

In order to use the Glowforge laser, you must have internet service.

This means you cannot operate the laser if you don’t have internet access or if your internet access is down. However, I have seen other Glowforge users report good results with using cellular hotspot devices.

Also, your internet service needs to have an access point for Wi-Fi. Hopefully, this is provided by your internet company; if not, you will need to purchase a router. Unfortunately, there is no way to connect the Glowforge to a wired ethernet cable.

In addition to requiring Wi-Fi, I think almost everyone can agree that anything web-based opens up the door for its own set of issues with connectivity, signal speeds, and software bugs.

Proofgrade Materials

Pros

Its no surprise here, that offering Proofgrade materials is a huge pro. It saves a tremendous amount of time by removing the task of testing and analyzing settings for each type of material.

Beyond saving time, I would also say that Proofgrade materials are reasonably priced which leaves plenty of room to make a return on your investment if you plan on selling your creations.

Cons

Although I consider Proofgrade materials to be a huge pro, as previously stated, they seem to be sold out much more than they are in stock. Hopefully, in the future, this will either be remedied or an alternative solution will be provided.

Is the Glowforge Worth it?

Overall, I believe the Glowforge 3D laser printer provides a lot of value at a reasonable starting price point. It is packed with features designed for all skill levels.

With a little bit of practice, you could be producing high-quality laser cut and engraved creations for fun, gifting, or even a small business. I have greatly enjoyed owning mine and I do believe it is worth it.

Although there are some important cons to consider, I personally do not feel they outweigh all of the pros that the Glowforge has to offer. With that being said, it is important you weigh each of these for yourself and determine if buying a Glowforge is the right choice for you!

Well, I hope this review can help steer you in the right direction. For more information, click this link to visit the Glowforge, Inc. FAQ page.

If you have any unanswered questions or concerns, shoot us an email at answer@jackforge.com.