So I was trying to engrave and got the “Air Assist Fan Alert” which mentions it isn’t running at the correct speed. So I clicked the link GF provides in the pop-up and it takes you through cleaning the fan on the printer head. Mine is squeaky clean. But the error message continued. I searched through this community, trying everything recommended. It still didn’t work. A few months ago, I had given the GF a deep clean, and so tonight I remembered a fan on the actual carriage plate. So I took everything apart, and lo and behold, the fan on the carriage plate was a freaking nightmare. The fan could barely turn. Obviously that’s the issue. And on further investigation, it appears this fan is the actual air assist fan. So why then does GF direct one to the fan on the printer head? Anyway, I just wanted to mention this for others who search and search and can’t figure out why this darn alert continues to pop up well after you’ve followed their steps.
There are 3 fans on the machine! 1 (rear fan) That sucks out the smoke. 2 ( air assist fan) That one blows air onto the piece being cut or engraved and the third fan is the small one on the print head that keeps the smoke off the lens and tries to keep it somewhat cool. This is of course assuming you have either a Basic, Plus or Pro. Other brands of CO2 lasers do not se this method! In fact the only fan I have on my other laser is the exhaust fan, because it’s a completely different machine.
The fan on the carriage plate is the air assist fan. There is also an exhaust fan and a printhead fan. All must be clean. I think the Glowforge pages are fairly clear about these fans. I’m glad you got your machine running again.
I hope that Glowforge support recognizes the misdirection of referring users to the printhead fan rather than the air assist fan. It is not helpul.
Yeah, I know about the other fans. It’s just weird that when the alert pops up, the link GF embedded goes to instructions on cleaning the print head fan and not the actual air assist fan. I see a lot of threads on here with other people not seeing success after cleaning print head fan and the community answers also point to cleaning the fan on the printer head. Hopefully this response can help point others to the fix.
Thank you for mentioning the feedback about the air assist fan error. We want to make sure customers are directed to the best troubleshooting steps, so thank you for bringing it to our attention.
For users’ clarification, the air assist fan in the Glowforge Craft series (Glowforge Aura and Spark) is part of the laser head.
For the Performance models (Plus, Pro, and HD), the air assist fan is attached to the carriage plate.
Both series follow similar troubleshooting and cleaning paths, but it’s helpful to call out points of confusion or misdirection.
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