Glowforge - Desktop Laser Engraver

[pickdropper]

Yeah, I really want to see how this works out. It certainly *looks* like a solid machine.

Regarding the cheap Chinese units, if you already know a lot about how laser engravers work and know how to adjust/tweak them, they can be quite workable. But if you're new to it, you probably don't know enough to overcome the flaws in the machine. That's my assessment after reading a lot of reviews and forum posts.

Possible, but make sure they engrave vector files.  Some of the less expensive machines only do picture files, which I wouldn't buy, regardless of price.  Some companies, like Full Spectrum Laser, have made a lot of money taking the cheap Chinese machines and putting in their own interface boards to address the significant shortcomings of the stock machines.  Unfortunately, Full Spectrum has a pretty bad rep.

One of the advantages of the cheaper Chinese machines is that the replacement laser tubes are much less expensive.  The downside is that they are significantly lower quality than say, one that comes with an Epilog.  They also don't last as long.