Hey Everyone. Looking for some insight.
My laser wasn’t cutting great so yesterday I cleaned it really well, mirrors, lenses, fans, etc.
Worked like a champ! problem solved.
Today I was cutting a file I have cut a million times before and it suddenly seemed like it lost power mid file, started back up again on its own and I thought everything was fine as it kept going. Except it was no longer cutting. Once I went to look when it was finished I realize it hadn’t cut half the items-there was nothing-it was just going through the motions.
I turned the machine off and on a couple times and realized the tube no longer lights-there was a small light in a very small part of it and then that extinguished as well.
Any insight? Im not sending this entire machine back to glowforge unless they pay for it. This machine was just transferred to me and is about a year old-if that, got from a friend that took very good care of it.
Welcome to the forum.
Hopefully you won’t have to send in your machine, but curious why you think Glowforge should pay to ship a used machine that may or may not be out of warranty that you didn’t buy from them.
Machine was transferred to me in the proper way through Glowforge-was in perfect working condition. Was well kept with zero issues. Had I known it was a 6 month warranty I probably would not have bought it. Tube going out was mid cut-completely out of my control. Looking for insight on why this might happen and how I can fix it. Not looking for criticism on sending or not sending my machine back. Thank you.
These issues are the types of issues that really only Glowforge can help with - but this particular category where your post appears (“Problems and Support”) automatically opens a ticket for the Glowforge support team to assist you. They will come along and help you and tell you the next steps.
The Support team will be able to check logs and gather information, but if this was my particular machine, I would be expecting to send the machine to Glowforge for repairs, and to pay for shipping.
This confuses me. Can you clarify? So are you low key trying to say the machine is not worth sending back or is it that you are not looking for that for a solution? I have had similar issues but I have always resolved it with information in the user manual. Every time, it resolves it.
Not looking for answers on shipping the machine back. Looking for any info someone can give me on the tube issue. Have they had the same issue, what caused it, was it fixable without replacement, can I replace myself, etc. I’m handy, I can generally figure things out but before I got taking it apart I wanted to know if anyone else experienced this same problem and if they were able to fix it, how?
I know you said you just cleaned it but try re seating your print head (making sure to disconnect and reconnect the white cable). Also, make sure in the app that you have the correct settings selected. Do you have a screenshot of the app?
I’m afraid to say that there are very few user-serviceable parts in a Glowforge. I and the other folks who are telling you that are not trying to be argumentative – they’ve been on this forum for years and have some good insight from seeing hundreds of problems go by and how they’ve gotten resolved (or not). This machine has a few bits and pieces they can send you, like belts or a new head assembly, but if there’s something wrong with the electronics or tube, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to fix it yourself. There’s no documentation or service manual, they’re not off-the-shelf parts, and there are basically no examples of anyone else having done it before to follow. I think the closest I’ve ever seen is when @MyDogsThinkImCrazy bought a fire-damaged machine and got it working again with a deep cleaning and repairing some burnt wires.
Glowforge support can do some diagnosis but I would bet my last donut that they’re going to say “We’re sorry, your Glowforge is having a problem we can’t fix remotely”. At that point, you could become the first person to fix your own tube or power supply or take whatever deal they offer.
It was certainly a fun project. It was also HCl damaged. I am helping a friend repair her fire damage one because glowforge said they could not fix it remotely. The print head looks good so it was worth trying to save. That will be a fun write up
Hi @dorgancr it looks like I’m already helping you troubleshoot over email.
I’m going to go ahead and close this forum post now. If you have any other questions or need help with anything else feel free to send a message our way by either creating an email ticket or a new forum post!
