Help, broken heart and GF... How can we get this fixed?

Community Support
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I lost my GF. I was working on a project and cutting a piece of 1/4 acrylic. I looked up setting from other users on the community pages and decided on 115 and full (pro). As it cut I watched the shape cut out and the numbers rise slightly as it passed the cut point so everything appeared to be fine. I continued to checking on it and then stepped to a sink in room to wash up. As I was washing up I heard a pop and turned to see the glass on my beloved GF shatter as the result of a the piece of acrylic that must have caught fire… This happened in a short span of time… I am utterly saddened and disspaointed at the loss of this lovely machine. What can I do to repair it? Why isn’t there some kind of built in alarm/ (automatic) shutoff for fire or other emergency situations? Can I get this fixed ?? Please? What do we do? HELP…

Best,

Shaun and Berklee

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Ouch, sorry for your loss!

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I am so sorry!

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Oh no! I’m sure Glowforge will be in contact soon to tell you what your options are.

Sorry to see that. :neutral_face:

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Wow, sorry to see that!

It looks like you had a very hot fire in there, what type of Acrylic was that?

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What an awful feeling to lose a Glowforge. But I am glad to see that you and your house is okay. It could have been much worse.

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I would replace those drapes with metal blinds. I don’t like seeing anything flammable near a laser!

I also have one of these nearby: Amerex A384T, 1.4lb Halotron I Class B C Fire Extinguisher

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That’s very sad and reminder for the rest of us how quickly things can go bad.

Hopefully, you got the fire out quickly enough to limit the damage.

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thank you… When I cut or run it, the curtains are pulled away as well as the window opened…

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Oh man. So sorry for you.
Looks like the tube may still be there. Best case I can think of is a new lid, and If your universe unfolds differently than mine, you will be good.
Hopefully, you are in the US. Then I would send it back to wherever the company recommends for evaluation.

If you could please elaborate on the acrylic you were using so that we might benefit from your unfortunate experience and give it a wide berth.

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Maybe not the right area for this… but a couple of things. Acrylic is extremely prone to catching on fire. If you are searching around for laser fires, acrylic is one of the very biggest offenders.

Second point, this brings up a great reason for using Proofgrade materials/acrylic. Any damage caused from using Proofgrade (presumably using PG settings) that ends up causing damage to the machine basically creates a warranty condition. It’s basically an additional level of warranty that you’re not going to get with any other machine/material combo.

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This is terrible.

I’ve never seen it even flare up. Granted I don’t do a ton of acrylic work. I wonder what the file looked like? Did it have a lot of tight curves? Highly detailed lines are far more fire prone.

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What do you mean “the numbers rise slightly”?

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Yes, I agree with Evan, besides the material, the specifics of the design would be helpful in understanding the circumstance.
I agree with David. Granted my experience is limited, but with the multiple sheets of acrylic I have molested with my machine, I never saw anything that alarmed me. Perhaps a sign that the air assist fan needed cleaning. :thinking:

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I know Epilog has some pretty specific warnings on their page about acrylic and fire prevention.

As far as rise slightly, looks like the cut sections falling down slightly.

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Me neither…and I use LOTS of acrylic.

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Front door was blow torched a bit.
Was the fire that hot or is the plastic case that easy to slag?

Looking at a previous one that was a hot fire, I would say hot.

Curious what blend of acrylic you had in there.

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So sorry! Glad you’re all safe and sound, but the GF is sad. :frowning:

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Hmm, if the cut sections dropped and the rest rose up, would that give you a place for vapors to build up?

@brokendrum I think that’s a pro with the smoke/fire coming out the slot.

So sad. Might be repairable, but I’d hate to vouch for accuracy and longevity afterwards.

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Looking at those pictures, I only have two questions. Was that proofgrade and it was used with the stock settings?

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