Acting up

Hi Everybody,

printing out gears for a DIY dc gearbox motor project. The first one came out pretty successful but since then the machine is really acting strangely.

for one it doesn’t seem to be making as much noise its just occurring to me. It seems like it could be that the vaccuum isn’t operating at full power .

but also the laser cutter is moving all the way side to side for a cut which should only be a couple iches wide.

obviously the product isn’t good either or i probably wouldn’t post. The last three engravings have been weaker and weaker it seems.

Any thoughts?

Check the speed that you are using. It sounds like you are processing an engrave, not a cut, and the high speed engrave update that just went out might be what’s causing the differences.

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Welcome to the forum. Can you tell us what material you are using and supply a photo of your settings?

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Hi, as @dklgood noted, please share the material being used and settings.
Different materials dirty up the machine faster than others, draft board being the worst–and it’s not recommended to use the filter with draftboard as it gunks up the filter very very quickly. The dust/debris also builds up on the exhaust fan blades very quickly, and the fan may need cleaning.

And as dust/debris builds up on the mirrors and lenses, that affects the beam itself and reduces the power. This happens to all lasers in any machine/application.

But regardless of material, make sure the right side of your machine doesn’t have anything up against it, or that a piece of paper may be stuck against the holes for the air intake on the bottom right (center, between the “feet”). Restricted air intake can cause the fan to sound quieter and affect the performance of the laser, too.

As far as the head moving, be sure to follow up on what @Jules recommended.

Double check under the little gear icon that you don’t have the “use compact filter” toggle on by accident. That turns down the internal fan.

I’m sorry you ran into trouble when using your Glowforge recently. It looks like you’ve already received some great advice from our other community members. Thanks folks!

Would you please let us know if you’re still having issues with your print results?

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.