There is a safety interlock that disables the laser immediately, via hardware, if the lid is opened. For all other safety matters, I’ll defer to the manual that will come with your Glowforge, which will give you detailed (very detailed!) safety information.
That’s good to know. Since I’ve 0 experience, I figure I want to make test samples of every material I work with. A power/speed chart. I figure some materials will catch fire at a certain combination and I should probably know where that is.
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I was told that the exhaust systems of the laser cutters installed at our university are required to have spark arrestors, just in case some burning or glowing pieces of material (typically lightweight paper caught in the air assist) get sucked into the exhaust.
I’m curious if the exhaust system in the Forge would allow burning material to exit the machine. Of course, if there is an air filter attached, it would be caught there. (Hopefully the filter material doesn’t support a flame!) But if the exhaust is routed directly to a window vent, is there a possibility that burning material could emerge?
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Ditto. I don’t do much cardboard or paper. I do mock-ups with the paperish-chipboard that’s used for backing on pads of paper or book cover stock. Air assist seems to keep the flame from propagating.
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Sounds like it needs a crumb tray.
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Not so far fetched 
You’d be amazed at the number of people who lean over lasers to get stuff out (or in) with a cookie or cigarette in their hands.
I have small vacuum cleaner for the laser - once a month or so I vacuum out the stuff that’s fallen down. Some of it is materials residue from cuts and some is cookie crumbs (I don’t smoke so no ashes).
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That would be a good tip for the maintenance section, whenever we get one of those established.
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Great idea to treat any fabric or drapes near the Forge–I didn’t realize non-toxic fire retardants were available, and I tend to make my own curtains Also, I’m TOTALLY going to make a set of wooden blinds (with patterns on them, front and back, of course). That would be stupidly easy, and so cool.
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Aluminum trihydrate, ATH, and zinc borate are fairly safe powdered fire retardants that are not water soluble. I incorporated them into composite decking at a 0.5-2.0% level whenever I wanted to add fire retardancy. Be careful when using more soluble borates, as they are toxic to aquatic life, bugs, possibly pets, etc. When I get my GF, I intend to see if incorporating these materials in the protective sheet might prevent flare ups in more flame sensitive materials and allow them to be used on occasion. Oh, zinc borate is also a mold inhibitor and extrusion lubricant. I once used these basic concepts to make a safe mosquito repellant that could function as both an extrusion lubricant while giving my decking long term, odor free mosquito repellancy, which I thought might be a nice feature in an outdoor deck.
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@Jules, a damp rag will work quite well.
To second @dwardio, rag, squirt bottle, extinguisher.
Pay attention, and you will never have to worry about carpet and curtains.
That said, most deaths from fire are not from burning to death, but from smoke inhalation. Curtains, carpet and furniture foam/fabrics release arsenic and cyanide - and they tend to burn like gasoline.
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hmm… people that love to make their own stuff, share ideas freely, think lasers are cool, and are uber safety conscious.
THESE ARE MY PEOPLE!
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I heartily second that! The people here are awe inspiring!
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Third! I’m learning so much my head hurts.
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This might be something the manual covers: after you open the lid and trigger the interlock, what state does the GF enter? And what happens when you close the lid again? I can think of a bunch of possibilities ranging from clearing the current job and rebooting to automatically restarting the current job where it left off, and not-entirely-implausible arguments for and against any of them.
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My personal vote would be pause job. start again if the lid is closed and I push the button otherwise, let me take more complex actions from the web interface.
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Most pro lasers have that in the maintenance section. Small parts on the crumb tray can catch on fire. Too much build up can also restrict airflow.
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Right now, it cancels the print. We have some other behaviors in the hopper as future work items we’ll consider.
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Thats what the Universal lasers do too when you open the lid. It also rehomes the laser head to 0,0.
One trick to that is if you hit pause first, then you can resume where you left off. Is that the same for the GF?
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Not yet…
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Has anyone with laser cutter experience ever had burning or glowing lightweight material, like paper, get picked up by the air assist and fly around the inside of the machine while still burning?