I am a recent Glowforge owner, about a month. This afternoon I needed to cut a 8“ square of acrylic. Simple, right. I noticed however that the horizontal cuts were not true. They would jog/bump at approximately 2.25” interval. Vertical cuts were fine. Turned off the machine and moved the print head by hand and it binds and then jumps at that same interval. Tried but could not find or feel any obvious causes.
Looks and sounds like debris in the drive gears or something similar. Does it always bind at the same place in its travel or is it periodic? As in does it bind every two inches or something like that?
That points to a problem with one of the head carrier wheels or an obstruction in the drive gear. There are instructions to remove and replace the head carrier here on the forum, but you may want to wait until support gets back to you just in case there is something I have missed.
If you choose to move forward, you will want to remove the head carrier and check that all four wheels move freely, that the drive sprockets on both sides of the gantry where the X belt is driven are free of any debris in their teeth, and that they move smoothly.
Just FYI, opening a ticket here also opens a support ticket, so now you have duplicate tickets and it may delay a response. There is a sticky topic that explains this at the top of the Problems and Support forum section. It may be worth a read to be more familiar with the process.
If you want to remove the carrier plate to inspect the wheels the steps are covered here in the “cleaning air assist fan section” it shows you how to remove and reinstall the carrier plate that holds the laser head. I agree with @ben1 that your problem will most likely end up being there probably a broken guide wheel imo but hard to tell from a distance hehe.
It healed itself…sort of. I came in this morning assuming I was in for a day of trying to isolate the problem and maybe some disassembly etc. When I first moved the head back and forth this morning it was still binding and jumping. But then when I continued it got better and ultimately cleared up entirely. No doubt there was some debris that had gotten lodged in the drive wheels that eventually worked their way out. Thanks to all for the help and responses.
