I recently got upgraded to a Glowforge Plus with my last warranty claim. It cut fine for a while. Cutting through 1/8 baltic birch with transfer paper on settings of 170/100. I don’t know if something changed, but more recently, it struggles to cut through the same material on settings of 125/100.
I have wasted so much material cutting my items only to find they didn’t cut through…again. Trying to keep my small business going is becoming a chore.
I know the recommendation is to use proofgrade material. I need unfinished material for staining and painting my items. Proofgrade material has that hard coating, so it is useless to me.
This may be a dumb question but did you clean your optics?
There’s a basic troubleshooting guide, take a look, see if this contains anything you haven’t tried. If that’s no help, let us know specifically what you tried and maybe someone can chime in with more ideas. Also, what did support say, if you called them already?
Check out #5 on the FAQ for the cut troubleshooting guide:
I clean the machine regularly: Optics, rails, and basic surfaces.
I only cut 1/8 Baltic birch, and I’ve been getting it from the same vendor for quite a while. So no weird buildup of acrylic or any glue gunk.
The super weird part is: if I don’t use transfer paper, it “mostly” works. I still have to slow it down. Instead of the 170/100 I was at, I can get a 80% success rate at 155-160/100. The problem is that the smoke burn shows through the stain and watercolors, so I need to use transfer paper.
My process hasn’t changed since starting my business: the material is the same, the same wood, same transfer paper, all of it. The GF has just decided to dump off on its ability to cut.
Hmm. There is definitely variability in Baltic sheets. I’d get some calipers and make sure it’s not a thick batch. I’ve had mine range from 0.117” to 0.130” and it matters if you’re going for minimum reliable power.
Even if you’ve had your machine for a long time, it’s pretty easy to forget one or two cleaning surfaces. If you’re not 100% confident that you got it all (and this evidence seems to suggest that maybe you didn’t) it’s probably worth looking at the cleaning instructions just to be sure that you’re getting all of the essential optics.
I review it every now and then to be sure that I’m not getting lax. The one that always gets me is the mirror inside the laserhead, I forget to do that one occasionally.
Beyond that I think you’re back to testing basic power with draft board and a gift of good measure to be sure that you’re within spec. If that doesn’t go well, I would contact support.
Nothing has changed regarding the Glowforge interface and operation.
In order to test the machine, I believe you will need to use Proofgrade material and see if the normal Proofgrade settings work well. I believe your problem may be the material you are using. Even material from the same vendor is subject to variability and the conditions under which it is stored is also a factor.
Also, why wouldn’t you use full power rather than 100? I believe all of the Proofgrade plywood settings are full power.
I’ve been using the same vendor for a long time now but this last batch I purchased is having issues with cutting as well. I do believe it’s the material as proofgrade still works as expected.
I am dealing with the same issue, but I have had it happen on several machines over time. I have had 6 Glowforge machines used for production in my shop and over several years, 5 of them have stopped cutting through my normal materials randomly. The strange thing is that they will cut through the same material just fine for a few days, then not cut through at all on the SAME material later that day, and then a few days later, back to cutting normally… back and forth. I have called into support, and after all tests were inconclusive, they could only adjust the machine to stronger settings so that my current settings would work better, but this did not work either. The only solution they gave me then was to buy another refurbished machine to replace it.
It seems like a fluctuating power issue since some days it works and then some days not. I have had Glowforges since the first ones came into production, and I have had them swapped out for refurbished or new ones, and still deal with the same issue, even today with 2 of my 3 machines I still have. Due to business growth, I have had to start upgrading to Aeon Mira 9s, in which I have 2 of those machines, but I am still hanging on to my last 3 working Glowforges and keeping them in production, even though 2 of them are too inconsistent for cutting so I just use them for engraving and then transfer them to the Miras to cut.