I feel like I’ve thrown so much money away on this machine- more often than not I will get hours into a design and then it will suddenly shift as if its been shoved and finish the design inches away from where it should be ruining it entirely and when it does behave it doesn’t cut all the way through. I am using proof grade materials, I have cleaned it as recommended etc. I swear I have only gotten maybe three smooth projects out of this thing and I just want to chuck it in the bin. Has anyone else had a machine that just didn’t really work?
I’m sorry you’re having issues with your 
!
Likely “hours in” your rails have gotten dirty. This machine wasn’t really designed for that - that’s what the 
does better.
That being said, you can split your design into pieces, do one section - then clean the rails, then do section two, etc. As long as you don’t move the head or the piece, it will laser in the exact same spots.
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Honestly, it can’t even cut through proofgrade acrylic on a 28 min cut. The glowforge store has projects rated for aura that mine simply cannot get through, even when having cleaned the rails just prior to starting. If it can’t handle projects from the manufacturer rated for the machine with manufacturer materials I m having a hard time accepting that’s user error.
Are you using the eco thin acrylic which has Proofgrade settings or different Proofgrade acrylic?
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I m using the settings that come up from the qr code on the proof grade eco thin acrylic.
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That should absolutely work, and Glowforge guarantees that using Proofgrade settings with Proofgrade material will work. They will credit you for wasted material if it doesn’t, but you have to contact them and supply photos of what is failing.
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Just a thought, but if you have been cutting anything containing MDF even if the filter is not full the Air movement might be minimal so the smoke has more time to leave crud about.I have a pro so the problems are different but even adding an assist blower not powerful enough to do the job itself has cut way down on the crud build-up.
Pushing above your weight will cause issues. For the pro that is 7/16 walnut, but I have done so with less than perfect success, the standard 1/8 is the sweetspot, and the sweetspot for the Aura has lots of difficulties of over powering for the pro.
For the Aura, as best I can understand, that sweetspot is paper thin and 1/8" material is possible but a challange taking several passes.
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With the machine off, gently slide the head side to side, feeling for any spots that drag.
I keep the rails clean with a rag dampened with alcohol.
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as a follow on to what RT said.
MDF is horribly dirty to laser. kind of like opening the top of the unit and just throwing IN dirt.
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