Hi everyone,
I’m one of the founders, meaning I bought my Glowforge and had to wait 2 years to get it, but I do love it. I’m having trouble with the exhaust fan. It’s way past the warranty. I submitted a ticket because I also had an issue with even proofgrade cutting all the way through on certain things as well as the fan making an incredibly loud vibrating noise when it starts to cut. My unit is always clean. I clean the fans, the tube, the crumb tray, I’ve been using the Novus cleaner when you had to do it by email with the company. I’ve done all of those things, taken a video and sent it in, and when I asked how much it would cost to send it in, replace the fan and the tube,( this will be the second tube replacement), as well las to do a general maintenance, I was told that they don’t replace the fans. So what do I do if the fan completely stops working, throw it away and spend another 6k-8k for a new unit? I don’t have that kind of money. As you all know, one of the biggest flaws is that you can’t get into the back to do a thorough fan cleaning!
I’d sure like to get Dan Shapiros take on this.
Use an external fan. Take the on board fan out and throw it away or just turn it off. Those who have done so say it is much quieter. If you search here you will find lots of recommendations for external fans.
You don’t need the fan at all. Get an inline fan (lots and lots of discussion about this over the years here in the forum) and turn off the internal fan. You will wonder why you didn’t do it years ago.
How do I go about taking the fan out?
Search: Exhaust fan removal.
Glowforge staff doesn’t read the forum, officially speaking. Dan might see this but it’s not terribly likely.
That being said, if you want to replace the fan as is, the instructions for removing it are the same as the instructions for replacing it – just follow the steps to remove, then reverse them with a replacement fan. The fans themselves are very inexpensive, the model names are well known.
… which leads you to a $7 replacement part:
External all the way
I just wanted to let all of you know that I took the advice from some of you and got the Infinity 6 external fan. All I can say is WOW!!! I have it on high and I keep checking to make sure the Glowforge is actually running because its so quiet! I bought it on Amazon along with the reducers for $13.99 each. Amazing difference, I can actually be in my workshop while its going without getting a blistering headache!
Isn’t it amazing!
My machine is old enough now that it’s got some creaks in its bones. I figure if I took everything apart and cleaned and oiled it would be quiet again…but 95% of the horror stories on here start with “so I deep cleaned my machine”, so I’m going to wait until something fails!