I recently have run into a snag where my forge isn’t cutting all the way through boards it previously would have.
For context, I’m cutting .25" cherry plywood boards with the settings of
Material thickness: .25"
Speed: 145
Power: Full.
Normally, like up until yesterday, it had no problem cutting through these boards, but as of today it’s suddenly not. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong or what has changed.
.25" is right at the limit of what the GF can handle, so any slight variations in material density could cause problems.
Change your settings, slow it down a little, see if that helps. That’s pretty much all you can do, as (again) 1/4" is really pushing the limits of this machine.
It looks like my everything needed cleaning. I’ve been cutting a lot of plywood recently so I’m not super surprised but I guess I underestimated the amount of dust buildup it was causing.
It’s very important to keep the optics clean. Infrared is just another wavelength of light - until it touches something, then it’s heat. Accumulation on the optics gives the light something to deposit its energy on and will eventually burn them. I check mine every time I start it.
The window under the left side gets dirty first, then the window on the side of the head. I probably clean those two 10-15 times before the mirror and lens might need it, of course, it depends on what material you are using, some are dirtier than others.
I clean off the laser tube itself (with a baby wipe/moist towelette) - not because it needs it, but it getting dusty is a reliable indicator that the rest of the machine needs an optic cleaning with a Zeiss wipe
You didn’t mention whether you were using PG ply or other brand. Most plywood that is not PG will give you lots of problems because of excess glue and/or voids.
That’s the problem with 3rd party material, you never know if you are going to hit glue or voids because it is rarely engineered specifically for laser cutting.
Okay all, all the optics are clean, I bought and installed a brand new lens, the mirror is clean, and its now not cutting PG materials at normal settings. What gives?
Given your join date of 2019, it’s possible your tube has run its course and is failing/failed. Or the power supply.
If a “Gift of Good Measure” won’t cut properly in the top left(shortest possible laser beam distance - and least effected by beam alignment) , on Proofgrade, either something has gone horrifically wrong with the alignment or you aren’t getting the power you’re supposed to.
They’ve rated the tubes to two years. Anything after that is bonus.
Have you talked to the support team at Glowforge via the support page yet?
They’re about the only ones who could deep dive more.
" .25" is right at the limit of what the GF can handle, so any slight variations in material density could cause problems."
thats such a bummer that this is the case as I spent the first 8 months of owning my GF cutting CLEANLY through 1/2" maple, then there was an update and now 1/4" is sometimes tough.