Air assist fan isn't working

I am a complete idiot :sweat:
I did a deep cleaning of the air assist fan yesterday and I used liquid instead of compressed air to clean the gunk off the fan.
Is there anyway to save my fan or am I going to have to beg glowforge for a replacement

A lot depends on what liquid, I hook up a vacuum cleaner to the exhaust of the fan and use Purell hand sanitizer, and then run the Vacuum for a half-hour after to make sure it is dry before turning on the Glowforge.

If you started up the Glowforge while it was still wet with something that conducts electricity that could be a different and more serious problem. I do think that Glowforge could sell you a new fan however if only that is damaged.

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I used rubbing alcohol just on the fan. I used it last time with good results. So I did it again and now it’s not running.
It was definitely dry when we put it back on though. I had let it sit out for at least 6 hours
Gosh I feel so stupid😞

There are some alcohols that are really bad for plastics, Putting some on a scrap piece of acrylic will tell you pretty quick. If the fan is not seized it could still be a bad connection having nothing to do with the alcohol, If the fan is seized that can be easily determined, If the Alcohol damaged the fan blades that too can be easily seen. I would take it back apart and inspect it, If you can’t see the problem then put it back together carefully so everything is correct. It is amazing how many times just taking something apart and reassembling it fixes unknown screw-ups.

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I just see a lot of gunk still… Can you see something I don’t?

OMFG! It’s working!

The nature of the gunk looks unusual, if you put the vacuum hose up to the outlet at the bottom it should spin the fan up. I do that every time I use the Purell the first Time I had the fan problem I had never cleaned it and it looked like this,


Now it looks more like…

As you can see what is there is more like dust and less like rock.

I totally ruined my main fan a couple of years ago by spraying a solvent and letting it dry, so what happened was that when the solvent left all the dissolved solids resolidified, and the bottom of the fan was encased in a kind of plastic that I broke something trying to get rid of it and had to send the machine back to the mothership.

Terrific :joy: :joy: :joy:!

It is amazing how many times just taking something apart and reassembling it fixes unknown screw-ups.

Just hit the solved button so support can ignore it.

It’s spinning now but not working… If that makes sense… It’s burning my acrylic :sweat:

I’m thinking I need to clean things better
So you use purell?

I started with the hand sanitizer I had that was Purell and found that I was using so much to clean everything I bought it in 2 liter bottles. Those work ok for most things but will destroy acrylic. I found a brand named Spectrum and tested it on Acrylic and that works also.

I also use an old cpap hose attached to the vacuum. it is rubber and will just fit over the fan shroud.

Cut a scrap of wood, If there is a flame take a photo. If the fan is working it should be blowing everything to the front. if not then the soot will tell the story by going anywhere but straight to the front.

The burn marks are what keeps happening and it keeps messing up my acrylic

I’m so sorry to hear about the snag you’ve hit with your Glowforge Air Assist Fan. I’ve extracted the log files from your Glowforge to review the trouble you’ve been experiencing, and compared it with the details you’ve provided.

I’d like to have a replacement Carriage Plate sent out (which includes a new Air Assist fan!) to see if this gets you back up and printing. I’ll email the next steps directly, and I’ll now close this thread.