I gave my glowy it’s first cleaning and noticed the main? Lens has a small cloudy spot on it.
Is this normal? I do have some slight issues with full cuts on pg materials. I have always had to slow my speeds down from the suggested speed in order to get items to cut all the way through.
I just figured maybe that was normal - but now that I see the smudge(and no it won’t come off with a zeiss) I’m thinking maybe it’s not.
Any ideas?
Cloudy spots are definitely not expected, but they sometimes don’t have any effect - I’m going to guess your best bet will be wait until a staffer sees the image and gives feedback
As far as having to slow speeds down for solid cuts, if you’re in an area with different humidity from where the wood was made it can change quite a bit (and if you’re in an area where the humidity changes even more so) so that might not have anything to do with the lens.
I see the spot in the center but the whole lens looks foggy in that picture to me. Might just be the lighting or glare. But if not you really need to clean more often. A hazy lens could cause a burn spot. Makes the lens throw away. Wish I was near my GF to show what it should look like.
My machine has been in use less than a month.
I feel it finally got to a point that it needs cleaning? I’d say less than ~30 hours on it total.
I don’t think the whole lens is cloudy? I just wiped it down with a z wipe
Your machine may need cleaning much more frequently than 30 hours depending on the materials you are using. It’s always better to clean frequently than risk issues due to working with dirty lens & mirrors!
Did this cloudy area clean off the lens when you used a Zeiss wipe? It’s not clear if it did or not…
No it’s still there
I’ve cut some PG materials for 30 hours with no fog on the lens and 4 hours of another that severely deposited a fine splash of gunk across the lens. The lens was so coated that the Zeiss wipes wouldn’t clean it. Ordered a new lens. Since I considered the first lens trash at that point, tried to clean it with my fingernail. Eventually the nail and wipes cleaned it. Probably would have burned the lens if waited any longer.
There was basically nothing on the lens when I cleaned it.
I just happened to notice that spot
I have seen the lens fail even in cases when the spot was barely visible, and there has been at least one case where the heat buildup on the spot destroyed the lens.
The light wavelength of this laser is infrared. That is nothing but light - until it touches something, then it’s heat. The filth on the lens gives the beam something to deposit its energy on.
#1 rule of lasers - keep your optics clean.
I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve hit this snag!
Based on the image of the focusing lens you supplied, and all of the great cleaning you have already accomplished, I’d like to issue you a gift card to purchase a new focusing lens from our store, and see if the same trouble occurs after replacing.
I’ll follow up directly via email, and will close this thread.
