Carriage plate 'click'

Community Support
1

I’ve had my forge for about five years, and finally had my first fire :frowning: It fried the air assist fan, carriage plate wheels, and belt. I’ve replaced most of those things over time so I bought stuff again but this time got an entirely new carriage plate with fan and wheels. I adjusted the tension back to the way it was. I might end up needing a new print head because my autofocus won’t work now but I have been able to print and cut by manually entering it. The issue I’m having is that circles are coming out as horizontal ovals, as if my tension isn’t right. I’ve been rolling the plate back and forth and noticed it’s making a rhythmic click every few inches, and now I’m in my head about whether it ever did that before or if it’s not normal- I honestly can’t remember! Could one of you let me know if several slight hesitations/clicking sensations are normal when gently moving the carriage plate from side to side?
I examined the belt- no obvious imperfections. Examined the wheels closely- no obvious imperfections. Cleaned the rim/edges of the entire arm, left to right, both front rim and back rim, thinking there were hiccups there maybe. I’m confuzzled. Any wisdom would be appreciated. I’d like to squeeze a few more years out of it if possible.

2

Double check you didn’t twist the belt when putting it back on. I had the same problem. You can check with a mirror to see if it has a twist.

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3

No, if you are feeling hesitations/clicking the machine will lose where it thinks zero is. If every few inches that is the circumfrence of a bad wheel.

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4

Sigh. That makes sense. I didn’t think to check the right pulley wheel. I’ll go look at all of them again. Thanks.

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Thanks for the tip- I went and checked, all straight.

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6

Is it the print head wheels?

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7

Looks like it’s the LEFT side pulley wheel, which I don’t believe is removeable. :frowning:

8

is it an irregular shape? I thought I removed that wheel once.

9

oops, machine’s left, my right, my bad.

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The one on the left is directly attached to the motor, so it’s different to the one on the right. It is removable, but glowforge doesn’t sell the replacement part.

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