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