Should You Buy a Laser?

I just got done watching this great YouTube video from Things Katie Makes.  It is called "4 Reasons You Should Buy a Glowforge and 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t."  Here is a link to the video if you would like to watch it yourself.

The part of the video that I want to hit on is the last of the 3 reason of why you shouldn’t.  I think she brings up some very solid points of what it takes to be a laser owner in general.  I know that if you belong to our newsletter you most likely have a laser so let’s use this last reason as—  things you should be doing with your laser.

The first thing that Katie brings up is that you need to be willing to do some trial and error to understand your laser and what works for you.  

This is important especially because everyones laser is a little different.  The cut settings that we provide on our website are all based on our 5 year old Glowforge Basic.  It does a great job cutting everything but we noticed that some Glowforges don’t cut exactly the same as ours.  

We suggest using our settings as a starting point and moving up or down from there or in Katie’s words “do some trial and error to understand your laser”.  This might seem like it takes too much time or material but doing a test cut on a new type of material you are using is a great way to save time and material in the end.

The second point that Katie brings up is that you need to be willing to clean the laser properly and consistently.  She states, “A dirty laser is an inconsistent laser”.  This is so true.  It is important to keep you mirrors, fans and lens clean.  

Before I cut I always check the mirrors to make sure there isn’t any dust on them.  This to me is the most important thing because if there is even a small speck of dust on one mirror the laser won’t perform it’s best.  The reason for this is that the dust scatters the lasers beam and it can’t focus on the spot to cut properly.

I use Zeiss wipes for glasses and wipe my mirrors often.  You can get these wipes in bulk at Walmart in the eye glass section. 

We have tutorials on our YouTube channel and website that can help you learn and use your laser to the best of its capacity. If you have questions we are available to chat on our website.