Broken Belt, need help

Hi, I have a Glowforge Pro and, while I have not been able to use it as much as I would like, I have begun working on some projects for a client. Unfortunately two weeks ago something went wrong and the belt broke.

I have tried contacting the support e-mail a few times but no response so far. What can I do to get a replacement belt? or get it checked out to see what went wrong?

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First time I’ve heard of that problem. I see belts are not yet offered in the store, but I suspect @Rita or support will see to it soon as evidenced by your need.
I would be really interested to learn of the procedure you will need to accomplish for replacement and tensioning the replacement. A “How To” would be a great addition here in the community.

I see @jaz is on top of it now…

Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear about the belt and that you weren’t able to get in touch with us.

Unfortunately, for some reason we did not receive your emails.

Please provide the following information so I can look into this and get you back up and printing as soon as possible:

  1. What happened/what you were working on just before the belt broke
  2. Photos that show
    • Closeups of the broken portion of the belt
    • Any other parts that may be connected to the belt
    • Where the belt was originally located in the unit
    • Any other damage your unit sustained

Thank you in advance!

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I am not sure about the e-mails, I have sent a few over the last two weeks, all from the e-mail address associated with this account. Maybe it was caught by a spam filter?

Hi Jazz,

Thank you for getting back to me. I have uploaded the pictures to the thread on the forum and adding them here also.

  1. I was working on a test cut on foam-board (which I had cut several times before without issue) when I heard a weird sound from the glowforge (cranking sound?) and got an overheating error on the app. Before I could get to the machine I heard the belt snap and the laser kept running in the same spot. There was a small fire from overheating, but it was smothered pretty quickly and I don’t see any damage from that (other than the project material).
    My guess is that something happened with the Nema? After everything cooled down, I checked and didn’t feel anything stick on the Nema or on the bearing on the other side of the carriage. …so I am not sure why the belt broke. But it looks like a pressure tear vs anything else.

  2. I am attaching the pictures to this message. You can see the damage on the belt where it broke. I also noticed the belt was very brittle (the material around belt itself). Maybe that was from the heat? I am not sure. The belt was located on the carriage, there does not appear to be anything more than some smoke marks otherwise, but I should be able to take some isopropyl alcohol and carefully clean that up.

Thanks for providing the photos.

Just to confirm, is this the belt that is attached to the carriage plate that the printer head sits on?

We’ll continue looking into the email issue. Can you confirm the email address you sent your messages to?

Hi Jazz,

That is correct, this is the belt that attaches to the horizontal carriage controlling the laser head itself.

(I sent the e-mails to support@glowforge.com)

Thanks for confirming that.

You’ll need a new carriage plate, which includes the black rubber belt that was damaged in the incident. We can send you a replacement part so your Glowforge will be good as new in no time. I’ll reach out to you via email so we can continue sorting out the details for the replacement part and the email issues.

If you do not receive the email or if it seems we did not receive your reply, please post a new topic.

Thank you!

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