We moved my glowforge to a new house in the box. It was completely secure and the move was only 5 mins. When I got it all set up I made a few cuts and it worked perfectly. Then all of a sudden it was stuck on centering. I went through every single step to fix it and nothing worked so I went with the advice of buying the new camera cable. We just installed the new part and it didn’t change anything, it’s still stuck on centering.
Our friends just went through this and nothing would work and support couldn’t help them and said their machine was dead and they needed a new one. I’m just wondering if this is also my issue? It’s only have the glowforge basic, and I’ve had it for 4 years and have used it a ton for my Etsy shop and also for Christmas fairs. I have a big order for a shop downtown to do their ornaments. I’m wondering if I just stop wasting anymore time and order another machine?
How’s the wifi signal in the new house? My old service provider had an app that I could walk around my house and see where the signals were weakest. My glowforge would connect but then suddenly drop signal in the middle of warming up. I ended up moving my machine to a spot with better signal.
I moved my refurbished glowforge pro overseas, during the process, it was manhandled and stood improperly by movers and packed in a shipping crate for two months on a boat, then carried up a weirdly narrow staircase to the third floor of a house where I had to get a wifi extender to get a proper signal (because it was getting stuck on centering).
Then reverse that process but moved 2 hours away when we bought our house where it still functions as properly as the first day i bought it, which I think for this one, was 4 or 5 years ago. I still use a wifi extender and that’s what it is connected to, so my only issue is if my computer switches itself to the 5g signal without me realizing.
So, all that to say that if it’s properly packed, a 5 minute move shouldn’t have done any major damage. Hope you can get it figured out. I packed my glowforge myself following the packing instructions online because I didn’t want it to break…but I was also highly aware that it was a possibility because my old shipping box was damage from my first machine delivery AND I packed my crumb tray on top of the lid…wrapped in a barrier of towels and foam, but it was still nerve wracking.
There are two physical thngs that can happen. One is that there is a lot of places that a tiny drop of water will short out and damage the machine. That cable is vulnerable when folks clean the lid. Sometimes replacing the cable works but even then making the connection could be off. So checking that may solve the issue.
Then before turning the machine on, put the head directly under the camera and turn it on. If that works than the cable works.
You might want a recalibration before doing something expensive.
I second the wifi theory. The water idea is far less likely.
I really wish Glowforge had a way to ask your machine for its perceived wifi strength. It would solve SO many mysteries — poor wifi signal is the root cause of a wide variety of common problems and is all but impossible to troubleshoot properly. Your phone might be saying “the signal is great”, but its using a wholly different antenna without the bulk of a laser cutter surrounding it.
Here’s the official wifi troubleshooting page. It’ll help you narrow this down.
BTW, it is about a shiort circuit, not water. A rag damp with alcahol will do as there is water in almost all alcohol, and short circuits are a very common cause of death by cleaning.
Yes what you’re describing is possible and it’s good advice for when you’re out of ideas but it’s far less likely than wifi issues in this case where there’s no mention of aggressive cleaning.
Thanks everyone. I have always been super careful when cleaning my machine. I usually don’t even touch the camera attachments because I didn’t want to mess with anything that intricate. Our machine is only maybe 20 feet from our router so we really don’t think it’s a WiFi issue. I always clean the camera lens and the lasers with the glasses cleaner wipes that are recommended. We have done all of the things everyone mentioned and that glowforge support mentioned except take pictures and send them to them. I can’t buy a new glowforge because they are too expensive, but I’m not real excited about buying another companies machine either. I’ve done a lot of cutting over the last 4 years, not sure how long the machines are supposed to last? Our friends ran a sign business with theirs and they went through 3 and just but another one.
Someone will pipe up soon saying they’ve only got a 2 year design lifespan. While it’s true that Dan once mentioned expecting the tube to last 2 years, he never mentioned the machine as a whole was only expected to last that short a time.
The tube lifespan was important in the early days when they suggested replacing the tube was possible. Now they’ve given up that and require customers to buy a new machine (now that they don’t offer repairs or refurbished machines). It’s one of the major reasons not to buy a GF - a $500 tube replacement, a relatively easy process on most other lasers will cost you the price of a new machine.
Fortunately there’s a big difference between the manufacturer’s expected life of the laser tube and reality. GF’s “expected” life was as much a way to reduce/prevent warranty claims and customer satisfaction issues as it was a real measure of tube life. Kind of like the 50,000 mile warranty on a car - they don’t expect it to die and be replaced, they just don’t want to be on the hook for repairing it.
At the time GF made the statement they didn’t have real world experience with the machines so were likely erring on the side of caution. But consumer grade glass CO2 tubes generally last 5-10 years. This is true of GF as well based on the anecdotal evidence we can see here.
Typically it’s the electronics in GFs that fail and seem to do so at what would typically be an unacceptable level. This could be an illusion because what might be easily repaired on virtually any other machine requires a replacement machine for a GF so it creates a lot of noise in the forum & marketplace. Other manufacturers might have similar issues easily (& cheaply) repaired and life goes on without public fuss. They might also simply be more reliable but no one publishes stats so we can’t be sure.
You’re probably better off with another manufacturer for a replacement laser if you can design in Inkscape or another 3rd party application and your GF is pronounced unfixable by Support. If you can’t design using other tools and you’re tied to the GF Premium experience then you’re stuck. If you can, lasers made by XTool, OMTech and Gweike all provide reliable lasers with more capabilities at a lower price and the ability to easily repair. You shouldn’t be worried about switching lasers. Designs in 3rd party apps can easily be used in other laser control apps like Lightburn and you’ll have a massive online support community.
That’s what I was afraid of. It has been a good machine for the amount of time I had it, and I paid it off within a couple months of having it just with 2 craft shows, which was insane.
Thanks so much for your honest post to help me make my decision a lot easier.
You might want to have a conversation with Wireglasx as they do repairs and have referb machines, so as they did indirectly for Glowforge tbey now do directl.y