Curious about how often do you clean your machine? Lens, tube, mirrors, etc.
Just kinda wondering how much of a variety we have of styles people do. Never clean? Always? After every so many sheets?
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When I feel a disturbance in the force more or less.
I cut mostly hardwoods and bb, and almost never do mdf.
I also don’t engrave much.
All of that leads to “not super often” because I really don’t see a difference in performance for quite some time.
I will however often do a quick wipe if I have any job over 30 mins or so. I figure spending 2 minutes to clean the optics is a good investment versus blowing that much time on a failed job.
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I wipe the 2 easy to access windows that get the lught into the head fairly regulary (every few sessions). Also do the mirror and top camera at the same time. That uses up one wipe.
I do the focus lense about once a month. I moatly cut baltic birch and acrylic.
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Pretty much when I can’t see it material is on the bed or not. I do wipe my optics occasionally just because.
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Whenever a special “clean spot” on the tube looks a bit dirty, it’s time to wipe the lenses and make the spot clean once again.
As for a full cleaning, once in a long while, usually as a distraction when trying to solve a particularly hard design problem.
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Oh that clean spot idea is interesting.
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Not on a schedule, but the optics and front rail pretty much every time before I commit to a big job. Takes a few seconds.
Edited to add - in all the years I owned my first machine, I never cleaned the air assist fan. And the first time I tried to clean my exhaust fan, it broke, so I removed it, cut away the grid blocking the airflow, and never looked back…
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Depends. I’ll go forever if just cutting stuff that doesn’t smoke. Often if I engrave smokey wood.
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Not enough. Today was the first day that I got a air assist error and needed to clean that fan. I just don’t use the machine that often anymore, so I don’t do it like I used to on a schedule. But I cleaned everything including the lenses and mirrors and got the gunk out of the air assist fan, and it did take a couple reboots to get it to start up properly. Properly but everything cut great.
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Similarly, I wipe off the top of my tube and when I can no longer see into it I’ll pull the crumb tray & wipe out the bottom, clean the inside glass, and pull the lens and clean it.
In between I’ll wipe the left side mirror and the window that faces it with a folded up Zeiss just reaching in (not removing anything) when something on the right side doesn’t cut through cleanly.
I’ve cleaned the air assist once in 7+ years… About year 5 if I remember correctly.
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If I notice a difference between the cut on the left and right side of the machine I know rhat the window under the left side of the gantry needs cleaning. On the left side of the head any mark near the center is easily seen and will reduce the power that gets to the material so that get cleaned most. It is rare that all the lenses need cleaned. If it is hard for the first setup to work through, the lid camera likely needs cleaning, and if you cannot see through the llid, it likely needs cleaning too. I occasionly wipe the tube also.
Sometimes (often) I clean more bits than I need, but never more than that list.
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I’ve never cleaned the air assist fan in 8 years 
. Really ought to do that. I only clean the exhaust fan when it starts clacking. The lens windows I clean pretty often, like every other job (unless I’m using mdf, then every time). Can’t remember if I’ve ever cleaned the mirror. I guess I’m a bit of a slob.
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I usually clean all the lenses and mirrors before I start a job, especially if I haven’t used it in a while (in case I forgot to clean it when I finished; I just like to start with a clean machine). I clean the tube when I can no longer see into it, and clean the inside of the lid when it starts looking dirty, mainly because I have a camera pointing in and want to keep an eye on it while I’m at my desk. I have had to clean my air assist fan about once a year since I’ve had my machine, but probably because I usually cut draftboard and acrylic more than anything. I think I’ve cleaned the crumb tray twice, because it was causing flareups it was so dirty.
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I’ve always cleaned the lenses every few uses and the rest ONLY if I think there’s a chance something could cause a problem… While I’m usually more careful with my tools, I’ve seen MANY messages on here saying “…I just cleaned it and now it won’t…” yet can’t remember the last time I saw a “…too much dirt made it stop working…” report.
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If your flames are still being blown forward without ever cleaning the air assist, and your laser still cuts just fine on the right without cleaning the mirror - you’re the opposite of a slob, you’re supernaturally clean! 
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I just cleaned my air assist fan for the first time ever. Not because it wasn’t functioning properly but just because I had time and said why not. I did it as a basic clean with some thin brushes and no solvents, I didn’t disassemble anything. I got a decent amount of debris off of the blades.
Unscientific opinion, I think it comes down to what you’re doing with your machine. I primarily cut hardwoods and Baltic Birch. I don’t do a lot of long engraves and I don’t use a lot of materials that leave heavy residue like MDF and some resinous hardwoods.
I’m not sure if I’m an outlier because of those things or not but in general I find that my assist fan functions just fine if I leave it alone.
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I cut similarly, plus acrylic and leather, and my fan was still functioning when I cleaned it…but pushing a stick through the blades into the chute knocked out a bunch of burnt material. I’m going to guess it works fine right up until it doesn’t say all, which can be a long long time.
It’s not like you need an inch wide chute of air, that’s just the width of the fan 
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By kicking up the exhaust from 250 CFM to 800 CFM the dirt does not hang around enough to fall anywhere, and the GF stays cleaner a lot longer.
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I’d be astonished if you got anywhere near 800cfm. You’d need to pull air at about 46 mph to achieve that and achieve static pressure that is far higher than a typical duct fan can match. The cloudline s6 for example can only pull about a sixth of the static pressure that you’d need to get 800cfm, and that’s in the ideal situation not even accounting for the inherent losses due to the design of the glowforges.
I have a wind speed tester, I should see what you really get with the cloudline s6 in the real world. Add it to my list of things.
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We obviously don’t get anywhere near the rated CFM for the larger fans, but I found a 6" did indeed keep my machine cleaner. That’s probably why I didn’t ever need to clean my air assist.
Edited to add - my 6" duct fan was only rated for 390CFM, but that seemed to be plenty. It not only kept my machine clean, but I rarely got any odor from material in the room where my machine was located - that pretty much confirms the machine was being evacuated sufficiently. I also noted that the tube itself really did not get as dirty as before I switched from a 4" duct fan to that 6".
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