Random question really. Has anyone tried fitting a small foam filter to the fan that sits on the carriage and blows the smoke away from the cutting point?
Reason I ask is my first fan failed as it got blocked and burnt out (obviously didn’t know it was blocked or I’d have cleaned it)
On my second unit I’ve had to remove the carriage and manually clean the fan a couple of times now as I’ve noticed it starting to decrease in performance.
Just wondered if anyone had tried a small bit of foam or something to act as a filter on the fan that could be easily removed and cleaned?
Nor sure if that would help. The build-up on the air-assist fan (and the lens) is probably due to dirty air circulating inside - it doesn’t use replacement fresh air.
Although you’ve already cleaned it, there have been other posts about this:
Also the following topic about the exhaust fan is always good to bring up often:
As noted I have played with that quite a lot, and I think you would just go from bad to worse, as any filter would significantly lower the effectiveness of the fan and then would clog quickly reducing the effectiveness still more.
I did get a new fan but since it was available as a backup i used the system I describe to exercise the fan while the Glowforge is off, and then pump hand cleaner through it dissolving all the gunk. The result has been good enough that I am still holding that extra fan in reserve.
The main exhaust is far more problematic as there is no good way of reaching it, but I got a 200-CFM inline fan that runs all the time when I am working if there is a cut in progress or not, and lt does exercise that fan, I still get a lot of smoke for the giant outside blue filter feeder (my blue whale) to finish up on.