Has anyone popped a filter on the blower fan that clears smoke from the cutting point?

[davvyk]

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?

Just a thought?!

[AhnoldZ]

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:

Effective Print Head Fan Cleaning

Hi, I have just cleaned the lens etc in the print head and noticed that the little ‘purge fan’ in there was quite gunked up. Can anyone recommend the most effective way of cleaning this? I thought about compression air but I don’t want to blow bits further in to the workings inside. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

More cleaning - after getting flames on cuts

I have cleaned mine many times with alcohol hand cleaner. It has managed to get so full of gunk as to stop spinning entirely and yes lots of flare and burning at the cut happens. By putting one end of a C-Pap hose in a shop vac the rubbery end is small and flexible enough to jam into the chute that the air comes out of and pull lots of air through even with the Glowforge shut down. Under these conditions the fan will only spin when it is freed up and I dump quite a bit of the cleaner into the…

Also the following topic about the exhaust fan is always good to bring up often:

Caution: Dirty Pictures....or...How I Cleaned the Exhaust Fan

Before going any further…standard disclaimer…this is not a procedure sanctioned by Glowforge, and if you duplicate the instructions shown below, you’re doing it at your own risk. I’m mentioning this up front, because although I’ve done it now a couple of times, you do have to be extremely careful and patient while doing it, and follow the instructions and warnings carefully - it is possible to create problems with the machine if you don’t. (I’m not joking.) I’ve had my permanen…

[rbtdanforth]

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?

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.