Circles are cutting as Ovals...whats wrong?

My glowforge is less then a month old. Recently when I put proofgrade material in it, the machine doesn’t recognize it or scan it. It just says “unknown material”. I also am having trouble with it cutting circles. They are turning out like ovals now. I had a “bumping” error come up, but cleaned it and re-started it and ran a re-calibration test on it. I re-cut the gift of good measure and the circles are cutting as ovals. Any suggestions as to what could be wrong? I cut out these Minnesota shaped buttons for a customer. The top is when my glowforge was working fine. The bottom is where my circles in the middle are cutting in an oval shape. I also included the picture of the Gift of Good Measure.

Not sure if this applies, but you might want to read through…

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In which direction are the circles being squished? Are they horizontally longer or vertically longer? I suspect you have a loose belt that is slipping

Uploading a picture of the GoGM you cut would be helpful

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Post pictures of that result, and if you remember, the day/time you ran it - that’ll help staff look at your logs.

It sounds like it didn’t make it all the way back when it re-calibrated. (I believe this instruction is on the link @Tom_A posted) but while it’s off, push the laser bar all the way back (gently but firmly). As you’re doing it feel for any hitches. There might be something in there, or a loose tooth, but once you’re very sure it’s fully back on both sides run that calibration again.

Fingers crossed!

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I finally figured out how to attach a photo. Thank you so much for your help!

That’s definitely not supposed to happen :astonished:

Have you tried doing this? I’d try sliding the gantry forward and backward in search of any hitches. But make sure the machine is off, and don’t push it too far forward or backward as it can cause the machine to become askew. It looks to me like there is a problem with the gantry moving front to back, and the laserhead jumped.

What part of the bed was that GoGM cut in?
You might try cutting the Gift of Good Measure in a different section of the bed and see if it has the same problem. Heck, maybe try a couple different spots around the bed, like the top left and middle right.

Hope we can get this figured out quickly so you can get back to the fun stuff :wink:

While there have been indications of a major problem that requires a replacement unit, much of the time the forum has documented skewed results that have been fixed locally by tightening pulleys, belts, bearings, or clearing obstructions on rails or other locations along the axes, such as ensuring that the gantry ribbon is free to move without hanging up. I hope that is the case with yours.

Keep us posted as to the results, if this topic doesn’t go to support email and get closed.

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Thanks for all the helpful troubleshooting suggestions folks. We have moved this to email, so I’m going to close this topic.

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