I emailed support but did not get the autoreply. Checked spam and junk folders, nothing there. I did get an email asking me to rate support, which is odd, since I have not heard from them yet.
So I am posting here since I am not sure I will get their reply. And yes, I know, I just created a duplicate ticket.
I had a fire in my GF. I did not leave it. I was right next to it. I noticed the sound was different indicating the laser was not cutting. I looked over to see flames…BIG FLAMES! The masking had come loose and was on fire. I put it out easily with a spritz of water from a spray bottle, like you’d use to spray your clothes when you iron them. Plain water.
After everything cooled down, I cleaned all the soot, making special care to clean the optics. Nothing looks melted or burned. But I am afraid to turn it on until I hear back from support.
Support, this was between 3 and 4 PM CDT on Sunday, 25 July 2021. It is the only cut I made today.
If you have fully inspected the machine and there is NO indication of damage, yes, you should be safe to turn it on and test it. If you see ANY indication of fire damage, photograph it, post the photos to this topic, and wait for support.
If there were no indications of heat damage to anything on the head, the ribbon cable, the carriage drive belt, or air assist fan, I would just see what happens. If there is any issue detected during calibration I would expect an orange light on the button and maybe an associated error message in the UI. That’s just me.
Without any visible damage, I doubt you will have any problem. Hopefully you got to it soon enough! I would expect the drive belt to be the most vulnerable and first to show damage.
When support gets around to you I would try to get to the bottom of why you didn’t get the auto response email.
Personally, I’d pull off the x-axis belt and carriage and very closely inspect that. If it was anywhere close to a y-belt, I’d inspect that as well very carefully.
A frayed x-axis belt that turns to a busted x-axis belt could easily lead to a fire as the head would cease horizontal movement and deposit energy in a small area front to back.
Yes, to all of the above…check everything over carefully, including underneath the laser arm with a mirror, then proceed while watching closely if everything passes inspection.
(Also going to add…check the exhaust fan if the flaming masking got blown off by the air assist. AMHIK.)
I am very happy you were watching! I am always leery of loose masking for just that reason, and watch with total attention where such flames can take place, and would rather remove the masking from what will be scrap anyway, than take the chance.
There have been several photos posted from folk who were “just in the next room” when they heard the lid explode, The photos are not pretty.
That would indicate a problem with the x- belt and it might be an ex-belt but among the easier things to replace, I would not run the machine unless that undercarriage checked out.
My nightmare! I keep a fire blanket next to mine because I know I would over react and probably throw the whole machine out the window (I am extremely jumpy). Truly hats off to you got just using water and doing just what is needed.
Part of me recommends waiting for support but the other part of me says, if you can get it to the point where it works, then go for it. The machine does have a lot of sensors and is true impressive on the safety monitoring. But waiting for support is still a great idea.
Might think about using a small spray bottle with water. I have found that effective in all the small fires I have had. Unless your fire blanket is sized exactly for the door opening it might be harder to get it in place for it to be effective than something you can aim like a spray bottle. Also consider that the head and arm might be in the way of the blanket.
If the flames are getting too high, open the lid, then close it again.
It kills the print and causes the head to move safely back out of the flames to the home position. Then if you need to spritz the bed with a small bottle of water, you can hit the flames without hitting the head.
(It’s designed to do that. Had to use it a few times.)
You can test it on a scrap print to see what it does, just lift quickly about an inch to break the magnetic seal, then close it back down.
