Originally I thought the Laser power was changing with the updates causing the deviations in Prints but after an exhaustive research , it turns out it is the Blower Fan that is constantly changing with every update.
Our you aware of this ?
It would be nice to be able to change the Level from low to high as many small parts get blown around and destroyed .
Updates our a big head ache , My experience with the glow forge over the last 2 years has been exceptional , it the Updates that scare the BEJUSUS out of me.
Please give us some control over the FAN SPEED> Please
That is my whole point , that it does change even though there has been no updates on it.
I have been testing it and it does change . Maybe someone else that cuts out thinner material may notice it also.
Because i cut thin material I have to dial the laser down to perfection so it does not blow away after being cut.
It than dawned on me that it may not be the laser but the air assist fan and thus my testing began.
Actually you want the speed to be as high as possible, as the alternative to high speed is high flames. And that can be bad all around. Keeping small parts from being blown about is best done by fixing them to a surface such as a Selkima mat or plywood with spray adhesive.
The one thing that slows the fan aside from gunk build-up is magnetic fields which means that any magnet worth the job must be shielded.
These I have tried and they wear out very quickly. Im hoping the selkima mat is much better as these our good for about 10 runs , You can respray them but its messy . Thank you for your help.
The Seklema mat does a different kind of adhesion. It’s more like a grippy, rubbery surface rather than sticky. It works great for some things (I was able to get thin tissue to stick to it just fine) and not so well for other things (couldn’t get silk fabric to stick). On the other hand, it sticks great to masking material, so as long as you mask the backside of your object it will work fine. To renew the surface of the mat you just wash it, there’s no spraying of sticky stuff.
How were you able to perform the fan speed testing? Laser tach? I have one I use for my quadcoptor motors, but I haven’t thought to try it on my air assist. What kind of RPMs are you seeing? I’m sure Support will be able to tell you if it matches the speed reported by the motherboard and if the speeds you’re seeing are within spec.
I’m ALL for joking around. But you’re making claims that Support has to take time to validate. I don’t think it’s appropriate to waste their time when they can be working on legitimate issues.
The title states your fan power changed. You claimed you tested. It seems neither are true and this should be moved out of the official Support thread. If you agree, I’ll go ahead and do that.
Yeah that is fine. I got everything I needed thanks to some other replies.
Its a difficult thing to measure , so my magnet test was Solid . if the fan speed was constant it would blow it over every time , but the fact is , right now its the strongest its ever been.
Nothing to get yourself all choked up about , UGH.
See, the thing is, a magnet near the fan will effect the fan speed. So testing with a “sail” on a magnet base, to see if the fan will blow it over is introducing a level of uncertainty because you do not have a way to quantify how magnet placement affects motor speed. In addition, the magnet’s alignment on the honeycomb isn’t going to be the same every time you place the magnet and how well it locks on is going to vary because of that.
Far as I know, the assist fan runs at the same speed all the time. I’m not sure I can think of a reason why it’d want to run at different speeds. It’s purpose is to extinguish flames and blow away particulate. Faster is always better.
When the stuff I’m cutting is getting blown out by the fan, the solution I use is to add small fingers (I call 'em “sprues” but that’s probably not the right word) to keep the cut part attached, and then I slice the part completely free with an Xacto knife afterwards. I only need two or four depending on how big the thing is, so it’s not a major hassle to cut them free afterwards.
@coalakida Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll make sure the team gets them.
I’m going to close this thread. If you have any other questions or run into any trouble please either open a new thread or email us at support@glowforge.com and we’ll be happy to help!