I’m kind of lost as I’ve been troubleshooting this issue for months and finding workarounds that suck just to get by.
99.9% of what I do is cutting so I don’t know if it will have the same issue when engraving.
These items are the size of business cards so it shouldn’t be taxing to the laser.
Settings are about 230 speed and 65 power with 1 pass.
#1 cuts just fine and the pieces can fall right out no problem. #2-4 all cut, but it ends up being like a perforated type of cut (Yes, I can and have done multiple passes but shouldn’t need that with thin poster board) even with higher intensity power and slowing down the speed, it does the same thing where the first one cuts well (or on more complicated cuts, it starts to cut just fine, and then it seems like the power drops by about 30%.
I’ve confirmed the liquid is flowing over the laser tube and if I do another cut right away, it cuts exactly the same. My solution has been to do only one piece at a time and it works just fine, but it’s a pain to sit there for as many pieces as I cut.
If you cut the one on the right side first it will cut cleanly? Do you also notice a difference in cuts at the bottom of the boards as opposed to the top of the board?
If you have been struggling with this for a month and it isn’t getting any worse, that seems like a good sign. You are more patient than many users who would be troubleshooting as soon as this happened. Are you certain the honeycomb tray has no debris in the indentations for the feet? Have you checked to see if the machine is level? How often do you clean the optics? How is the material being held flat to the honeycomb tray.
Last, but not least, have you contacted Glowforge support so that they can access you machine log for evaluation?
If you can see even bubbles flowing over the laser tube, you might have found the problem. If you see little candle flames while cutting, Where the candle flames are will not be properly cut. This is caused by bad airflow where it is being cut, either because the fan has issues, of there is an obstruction interfering with the smooth flow of air.
I figured I’d run through the basics first and weed anything out incase I was missing something before reaching out to their support.
It basically does a clean cut for about 1 minuet, then after that, it has a sudden loss in power by about 30% for the remainder of the cutting file.
I noticed it started happening after using full power for a long durration detailed cut (cutting at full power with lots of detailed sections for about 20 min multiple times)
Lenses and machine are clean (I clean it after every completed project), Honeycomb tray gets cleared out regularly and the rest of the machine are cleaned well regularly. Tested the leveling, however the cutting does this no matter where on the bed the item is being cut, not just close to the left side. The material is being held flat by magnets that sit on top of the paper to hold it down at the 4 corners.
I do see very small bubbles flowing over the laser tube and have since I received the laser.
On this kind of material, I don’t see any candle flames, it’s relatively low power and pretty quick cutting.
I have tried with both a fan assist and the OEM fan running with the same outcome.
It is really confusing that if only one item is cut, it is fine every time whereas cutting multiples does not cut well. There really is no reason for the power to change just because the machine is starting a print versus continuing a print. I suggest opening a support ticket or calling Glowforge support.
The use of strong magnets can affect the air assist fan, but if you aren’t getting an error message regarding this you needn’t worry. Do you regularly remove the carriage plate and thoroughly clean the air assist fan and hood area?
Tested the leveling, however the cutting does this no matter where on the bed the item is being cut, not just close to the left side.
There can be some subtle struggle or unexpected print results as the head tries to move and print toward the outer edges of the printer bed. The results and behaviors you’ve shared don’t clearly identify the cause, so I agree with @dklgood and @jamesdhatch about reaching out to the support team if you haven’t already created a support request.
I would also link this Community post when reaching out to the team for additional reference. Hopefully, you can get this sorted out soon with the added help.
