We thought we needed to replace our black lid cable when our print head was stuck, (did not move at all when GF was powered on). While replacing the cable we noticed that one one of the circuit boards was burnt.
That’s almost certainly a trip to the mothership if it’s under warranty.
Unfortunately it’s not!
We’ve had it 2 years and first started using “heavily” the last few months… i’m thinking the only trip it might be making is to the dumpster.
IMO, the cable fails because it gets abraded (insulation scrapes off) and it eventually shorts out against the sharp lip it runs around, at the back hinge of the lid. In shorting out, it appears to have fried the board it was connected to.
I gotta think Glowforge would sell a replacement board if they are willing to sell a replacement cable. The board is collateral damage from the cable failure.
On my GF, I noticed this during initial inspection of the machine (I received mine >2 years ago). I limit how far I open the lid so that the cable never gets pulled tight. I never open the lid until it hits the limit of its travel. I’d argue the design could have been a little better here.
They fixed that design as soon as they realized it. Nothing after the first year or so has the shorter cable, and if you get a replacement it’s the longer one as well.
They have sent boards to people (not me) - but it’s a major engineering feat to replace them. They also do repairs out of warranty, or sometimes offer replacement units.
Seems like whatever you decide you should take some time to find a back-up laser or two in your area (JoAnns rents time on them if they’ve got one at your closest one), or another crafter who’s willing to make your designs for a portion of the profit…
Thanks for the insight. We have purchased another higher wattage laser. We did this before our GF died. Ken, (hubby), has been out of country for business for past 3 weeks so we have not yet got it setup. He returned yesterday. Hopefully we can get that one running, while we figure out what to with the GF. I hadn’t thought about JoAnne’s. Good to know. Thanks! I am thinking it might make more sense to buy a new GF vs fixing this one. 
If you can’t or don’t want to get it fixed there might be someone in your area who would purchase that machine just for the spare parts. If I were you I would advertise it as that just in case you may be able to recoup a few bucks on it anyway.
It’s always worth contacting customer support before deciding what to do with a broken Glowforge.
In my experience, they’re very generous with their repair or replacement quotes.
Even if you don’t need the Glowforge any more, getting it fixed or replaced leaves you with a backup, or a working laser you can sell to someone else for (likely) more than it cost to fix.
Thank you! We do have a message into Glowforge. In the meantime, we purchased another Glowforge and also have the another 100watt laser we purchased up and running. That was NOT an easy task! 
I am relieved, less frustrated and not as stressed as I have been for the past two weeks!
Merry Christmas! 
Thank you. We just may do that or maybe keep it ourselves for spare parts as we did just buy another Glowforge.
Hi, My name is Mercedes and I’m part of the Technical team here at Glowforge.
It looks like we have found a solution for you over in the email ticket you have started.
I’m going to go ahead and close this forum post now. If you have any other questions or need help with anything else feel free to send a message our way by either creating an email ticket or a new forum post!
