I have had my brand new GF Pro and brand new air filter set up 10 days. The first 5 days were amazing. The past 5 days have been plagued with issues which include not completely cutting through med draft board, excessively long print/cut jobs due to the several pauses during the job for “Cooling Down” and now excessive smoke leaking from the machine despite the air filter now being set on full power. I have cleaned the machine many times including the dimples, print head, lenses, and even the air assist fan. I have checked for blockage in the air vent tube. To date, I have cut about 100 ornaments and engraved about 5 cutting boards. Is is possble the air filter is alreay full or needs to be replaced? Does it need to be cleaned? Thoughts, suggestions, advices? What am I missing?
Yes, it is likely that your filter is full.
Really so the filter needs to be replaced about once a week?
I vent outside, so I have no personal experience. From lots of previous posts in the forum it is my understanding that the filter can fill quite quickly depending on what material is being cut/engraved. Draftboard is one that quickly fills the filter, for example. If you search the forum you will find that many people use pre filters that can be washed and reused.
A replacement cartridge is $249. Certainly, it has to last longer than a week! Right!?!
Thanks I will search the forum for pre filters.
Yeah do a search on here about how long it takes to fill the filter. You’ll be wishing you had run a hose outside.
MDF (e.g. draft board) in particular fills them up fast.
And for the OP, PG Med plywood is the same as MDF because that’s what it has as its core.
if at all possible you are going to want to vent outside.
It’s not possible. Any other suggestions or alternative filters?
Only things that really make filters last longer are larger volume and size of particle filtered. The GF filters are relatively small compared to most filters designed for laser/shop work and it is designed to filter really tiny particles of smoke so…yeah. MDF has been reported to fill a filter in 10 hours of cutting.
Stop using draftboard with the filter. (It’s notes as not recommended in the manual) With other materials the filter can last months. Acrylic, leather, true Baltic birch plywood, etc.
well have you ever seen a “rainbow machine” it fancy vacuum that catches everything in water.
it might be possible to use one of those.
they are pretty amazing. but not cheap. but you could use it to filter your GF and vacuum your house.
Hi there @kim6 - I’m sorry to hear you’ve run into this trouble.
I’ve just come across this forum topic after responding to the email you’d sent in. It’s possible this is related to your filter as others have suggested, so I’ve sent some steps to look into that further.
Since I’ve already sent along some info via email I’m going to hold onto this ticket until I’m sure the email has made its way to you, then I’ll follow up and close this topic. Thanks!
I have moved the machine to vent outside. That seems to be helping with the excessive snake and need to cool down but still not cutting alway through GF proof med draft board w one pass. I have cleaned ALL the lenses and even the fan assist on the carriage that the laser head attaches to. Thoughts
Kim
Increase power/slow down speed. You should run some tests by making small adjustments like that.
Hi @kim6 - Thank you for that update, I’m glad venting outside is helping.
Since we’ve since been in touch via email I’m going to go ahead and close down this topic and we can finish up getting you taken care of in that email thread. Thanks!