I recent got my hands out a glowforge laser cutter that I bought before Covid but didn’t have access to it until last week. After setting it up, I did the gift of good measures test print and it worked perfectly. I then made a quick drawling on Solidworks of my name and when I went to print it, it started cutting but halfway through, the laser turned off but it still continued the motions as if it was on. I tried resizing the image but when I went to print, it the laser wasn’t even turning on but still went through the motions. I read many different articles ranging from making sure the mirror is in the right way, making sure the power isn’t set to one (I’ve tried using the proof grade cut and custom settings to make sure), making sure it was set up correctly by watching different videos, making sure the heads and the mirrors are clean, and many more but I still can’t get it to work. This was last week and when I cam back into the office, I tried doing the gift of good measures again and it worked fine like nothing happened. So then I tried making a simple drawing of a smiley face and when it went to print, it cut out the circle and stopped cutting like before. It feels like the laser only has so much juice and it stops once it is done. I made sure the power cord is plugged into the wall and that it wasn’t the cable either by swapping it out. I made sure that it wasn’t my drawings because after it stopped working, it would no longer cut the gift of good measures or any other drawings on their website. It also stops in different places each time. Any help would be kindly apricated.
Make sure you don’t have lines or shapes that are on top of each other? In the GF processing they cancel each other out and would behave just as you describe
The problem is that once I print the gift of good measures, nothing will print afterwards and when I try to print the gift of good measures again, it will no longer print and just to the tracing with the laser off. I am going to try tomorrow and see when I got back in to see if I can print something that is not the gift first and let you know what happens. I am still hesitant on the problem though since it will print my designs initially but stop halfway through.
Did you look to see if any pins might be bent where you plug the white cable in? Also check the contacts where the head sits on the carriage plate. There are four little contact pads on the plate, and four “springy” contacts on the head. Make sure they all spring back out when you press them in.
I just checked the pins that connect to the head and they seem to be fine and come up once pressed down. I again tried doing a custom print of a smiley face and it only got to cut the outside circle before the laser turned off and hasn’t come on since. I’ve tried making the file on different softwares (solidworks and autodesk) and export them both is inkscape and adobe but they all come up with the laser not working.
I don’t think my drawings are the issue since once the laser stops working, it wont work for any other drawings such as the gift or any of the drawings on their website so I am honestly lost at what to do. Below is what the face looks like before I export it into inkscape.
Hello! @ccassidy.386 I am very sorry about the no laser problem you are running into with your Glowforge printer. I will do my best to get this issue resolved for you. I have a few steps I would like for you to try to help investigate the issue.
If your Printer Head is moving but you aren’t seeing the laser marking your material, One likely cause is
The mirror in the Printer Head is not installed correctly and may have been damaged.
First, please inspect the mirror in the Printer Head
If you see damage to the mirror or the plastic handle (for example, if the plastic handle has been melted), please check the interior of the Printer Head for any additional damage. If you don’t see any signs of physical damage inside the Printer Head you can purchase a replacement Printer Head Mirror through the shop. Note: If there is damage to the plastic handle on the mirror, the mirror may be difficult to remove. You can follow the instructions here for removing a mirror that is stuck.
Once you receive your replacement mirror, please clean both the lens and Printer Head window, by following these cleaning instructions.
If you find any damage in the Printer Head, please take a photo of the damage and send it to us and we’ll follow up with next steps.
Let me know how it goes and I will be happy to assist
sorry for not getting back, I have been out of town. In terms of the mirror for the laser head, it has no cracks or flaws in it and has only been used to cut a couple prints. The laser seems to work as a battery in which the first cut it can do is fine but after it cuts for more than two minutes, it just turns off and I need to wait a couple hours for even one simple line or the next day.
Hi @ccassidy.386 - I’m sorry it took us so long to get back to you, thank you for your patience.
After reviewing everything about your printer, it looks like this may be due to an issue with the laser tube itself. In this case, the best next step would be to talk through replacing the printer.
I’m going to go ahead and close this topic, and I’ll be reaching out to you via email to get some details for you so we can get this all taken care of.
