Good looks @cynd11
Thank you!
We did check and it’s was clear of any obstruction
That is a very smart test to try @Jules
We will give that our top priority as it makes most sense.
Thank you so much for your support and time @Jules
You are saintly 
After watching Poppy’s video, and seeing the mention of 10 hours of draftboard, I wonder if Poppy read page 5 of the manual?
IIRC, draftboard and MDF has been shown to fill up the filter about 10x faster than hardwoods, etc.
Sounds like the filter is full.
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Also good looks @jbmanning5:facepunch:t4:
He did read his training manual.
He said probably 6 maybe 7 hours max he ran the machine.
He used only the mixed batch of sample pack PG materials that were provided to him and he has several sheets that have gone untouched. Mostly cutting experiments, some etching, nothing that crazy to warrant a clean already…
presumably speaking of course 
We will be cross checking all of thsee deets again tomorrow morning.
We truly send our deepest thanks for extending your brain to our hiccup here 
And to all the GF Fam that jumped in with friendly counsel. 
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@jules Great risings my friend =)
Your suggestion with the paper test proved to us that the Filter in the Compact filter is causing our situation. We have FULL suck on the filter without the filter installed.
Once filter is in…we have nothing at all.
What is the next best course of action?
Thanks a billion
Great news! You can buy a replacement filter cartridge at the Shop. They’re in the Spare Parts section. 
Poppy says, “Oh yeah OK sure no problem, lemme just run to the $250 money tree in the backyard.”
You called it.
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Ok GF Squad…situation hopefully is with the Compact Filter’s filter.
@jbmanning5 and @Jules thank you for your clever thinking is assisting us in getting Poppy back on track with his creations.
We gave Poppy the week off to handle things so he can come back fresh.
In all seriousness, we think we need an autopsy on the Filter by GF…unless ya’ll just agree that it only takes so much to render it full and unuseable and needs replacing.
How many times do you replace your filter per year? per month? per week?
How much time does it take to completely soil your filter?
How much more print time does the pre-filter give you?
Is there anything we can do (within safe/warranty limits of course) that can extend the life of this relatively brand new filter?
Love, thx and laser light peeps
They don’t generally do autopsies on the filters, I was a volunteer tester for the first ones out the gate so that was a unique situation. It’s full, no doubt about it, it’s time for a replacement. 
It’s difficult to estimate how long a filter will last, because it varies tremendously based on what material you are cutting and what you are doing with it. More on the things to avoid below, but anything that throws up a lot of particles will clog it faster. So deep 3D engraving and cutting large living hinges is a lot worse than surface engraving and simple cuts.
Okay, so…things to avoid…
Draftboard or MDF - it throws a lot of glue and particles that can clog the filter. It will reduce the life of the filter cartridge by a factor of ten according to the GF testing.
Avoid padauk. It has a clingy resinous smoke that shrinks the size of the pores in the filter. Avoid softwoods - pine, cedar, anything with a lot of resin in it.
Good is acrylic, most of the hardwoods (wenge is excellent), leather, stone, tile, bamboo, cork, glass, anodized aluminum and marking on metals.
Medium is proofgrade plywoods, other plywoods, etc.
Folks haven’t had a lot of success with pre-filters so far, but we don’t usually get a lot of information on what they are trying to cut with them, so it’s impossible to quantify whether they are worth it yet. To extend the life of the filter, run it after the job is over for the same amount of time that the job ran. You can remove your prints, just let the fan keep running on the filter.
General usage so far seems to run between ten and thirty actual cutting/engraving hours on the filters themselves, and that is actual time the machine is operating and depends on how heavy the cuts/engraves are, so there’s a pretty wide variance. That can also last from a couple of weeks to six months, depending on how spaced out the jobs are, so per month and per week are useless measurements in this context.
And you now know as much as I do about the filters. 
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1000 cheers for @Jules
Thank you so kindly…
We will refer to this often.
So I guess we are shipping the $100 of Medium Draftboard we just received back to GF.
And also purchasing a new filter.
Maybe Poppy should have purchased a boat instead. 
Big thanks again friend
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Do you have the option of venting out of a window some of the time? I’ve got mine set up with a quick-connect which lets me switch to venting outside for the draftboard…well worth the additional cost for the QC and ports. (Under a hundred bucks including a greatly improved tube that will never develop pinhole leaks.)
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Awesome idea…but currently we are not set-up to head out of a window.
We would need much too much length on hose and would be stepping up in elevation from GF exhaust port…not ideal.
Well, one last thing…check out the Beyond the Manual section. You can actually add an inline fan that works the same way as the Compact Filter to pull the smoke out, and now that the Glowforge interface allows the option to switch to Compact Filter mode, it should work.
Just something to think about. i haven’t set one up but there are people here who have.
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Awesome @Jules thank you
We will be looking into all of these add-ons and more with our collective ingenuity while we await a new filter.
We are gonna have to check some things out and rework our numbers bc the metrics just legit changed overnight with now needing a new filter for 250 beans
All of us are majorly bummed…but tremendous HUGE THANK YOU again for all of your helpful support…you have provided the most outstanding support i have ever received on anything ever.
Bless your soul.
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Lots of folks go long & high. You’ll just need an appropriate exhaust fan - those range from $30+ depending on how long you’re going. There are a few folks here who actually vent through roof stacks a couple of stories up.
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WHoa that would change things around here! We will research and consider this possibility. Thank you @jamesdhatch
Hey @Jules we can not locate the link in this thread for the pre-filter you suggested. Would you be able share that again please!?
Thank you!!
Lots of forum posts people did with their setups (search for exhaust or exhaust extension or auxiliary vent, etc). Most also have links to the parts (mostly Amazon 
) they used. Someone also used parts from a radon vent system so it looked like a radon mitigation stack so their homeowners association didn’t have a cow 
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