I have a Glowforge Pro that was cutting normally, but after sitting unused for about a year, it started behaving strangely. I purchased it in 2018.
At the start of a job, it takes about half a second before the laser begins marking the material. It then cuts faintly for the next 3 - 4 seconds before the output drops off dramatically.
After that, the beam becomes extremely weak and barely marks the material for the rest of the job. Occasionally it will make a few faint marks near the end of a continuous cut before moving on to the next path.
For example, if I cut a circle, after a delay the beginning of the circle cuts as expected, but the cut quickly fades until it’s barely leaving a mark. If I stop the job and start a new one, the same thing happens again, it cuts for the first few seconds, then fades.
I’ve tried the same test at maximum power and slowest speed just to see if it made a difference, but it did not.
I’ve cleaned the lenses with 99% isopropyl alcohol and lens paper with no improvement. I’ve also tried both manual and automatic focus. The optics appear clean, and the machine has seen very little use overall, probably only around 30 jobs over the eight years I’ve owned it.
Has anyone seen this specific symptom before? Does it sound like a failing laser tube, power supply, or something else? I do seem to remember more of a gurgling sound when I started the machine in the past, but I am seeing the tube glow when its running. I haven’t tried printing anything very substantial since firing it back up again, but maybe that would cause it to overheat.
Before I start replacing parts or shopping for a new machine, I’d love to hear if anyone has run into this exact behavior and what the eventual fix was.
Thanks!
I found these threads, which seems like a similar issue, but they don’t say how it was resolved.