Getting shocks from Glowforge while lazing

[jim.kathy.alexander]

Have you ever experienced shocks, while touching the silver trim of the side panels or the lid handle, when the laser tube is firing? I have been reading a number of report of people getting, what they assume were static shocks while their Glowforge laser was firing. Yesterday, I was working on a late generation Glowforge Basic when I noticed an extra bonding strap on the bottom of the Glowforge. It bonded the power supply to the Glowforge chassis. I had never seen this strap before and I have been repairing Glowforge’s for over a year.

A friend of ours had been having issue with shocks since they purchased their Glowforge. On examination, I found their machine did not have the bonding strap, so I installed one, and lo and behold, there was not more shocks. These photos show where, on the bottom the bonding strap is missing and what it looks like when installed.

[GrooveStranger]

It is great that you were able to fix that, but boy did that sound like a warranty claim to me!

[jim.kathy.alexander]

Agreed…. Or a safety recall.

[tim1724]

I’ve had the occasional very minor shock from my very early model Pro. Mostly on very dry days (the sorts of days where touching a doorknob after walking on carpet can give you a shock), so I assumed it was just static electricity. But I might try the same modification on mine, to see if that helps.

[ptodd]

I’ve occasionally had shocks as well. Interesting! Thank you for your post.

[rbtdanforth]

@tim1724

I’ve had the occasional very minor shock from my very early model Pro. Mostly on very dry days (the sorts of days where touching a doorknob after walking on carpet can give you a shock)

I had exactly that also, and also put it down to similar conditions as it was not all the time. But that was a previous machine, since replaced and I had not even thought about it since.