Glowforge Pro Fire Flame when cutting

First off, my GF was going into “Cooling Down” mode more than usual… Next thing I see is a 2 to 3 inches flames when cutting acrylic or Plywood. I can engrave with no problem, but when it comes to cutting I had to put out Flame from the GF two times. So now I have a lot of work and Im scared of even turning on my GF.

I already cleaned every lense, cleaned the fan assist, the Printer head… Everything!
I have emailed GF but haven’t recieved a response and I’m just desperate since I have so many orders to get to ! Any help on how to fix the flame?

Welcome to the community!

Are you absolutely sure you got it back on the belt correctly because that is exactly what happens when the air assist isn’t working correctly.

You would have received an instantaneous auto-response. If you didn’t either your email didn’t make it to them, or theirs didn’t make it to you. Check your spam folder and add @glowforge.com to your whitelist. If yours didn’t make it to them, then posting here will let them know there is an issue with email. They generally respond with something beyond the auto-response within one business day.

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There have been some nasty fires caused by acrylic, so you are right to be concerned about the excess flame. As @deirdrebeth said, the air assist fan is a source of suspicion. It could be on backward, or it could be it isn’t completely clean.

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Yes … it is back in the belt correctly. It was a lot of work though getting it right. But I went through every step, watched several videos on youtube.
I can engrave with no problem, so I would say basically the problem is when I’m cutting any material.

It has catch a small fire two times …
So I’m definitely not turning it on until I can fix the flame issue !

How fast you are having can make a huge difference. So does the density of the cuts. Every time you get a flame the actual depth of the cut is much less. If you slow down to cut deeper you just get more flames, To make a faster cut that does not make it through, then going for a second or even third pass will do a better cutting job (with acrylic, wood is a different kettle of fish).

From what I am aware of the most machines destroyed by fire we cutting acryic.

I’m using the same setting I’ve always used!
I even tried more speed, less power and still, no luck!

One thing that can cause this is the lens not being put properly back into the head. If it’s put in upside down, it will cause the beam to be out of focus.

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Acrylic is a beggar for flaming. It catches fire easily. You need to watch it always.

Some acrylics flame more than others.

Two fast passes are better than 1 slow one.

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More speed with more power can make the same cut. Higher speed and less power will make a lesser cut though 2 passes may do the job.

Hi @rmedina. I saw that you have an open email thread for this same issue, and just sent off a response with next steps. To avoid any potential confusion or miscommunication, I’m going to close this Community thread so we can continue to work through the email to resolve this. Thank you!