I broke my glow forge - Updated

So here’s the situation:

I was having issues with smoke leaking from the lid. So I cleaned my Glowforge (The fan and much of the interior) on Friday… Problem solved, I was running it a bunch on Saturday without any issues.

Today I go to cut something and I notice there’s no laser cutting. a quick glance at the laser tube and there is a spark below the laser tube where some residue from cleaning that must have dripped under the tube seems to have ignited - My damp sponge wasn’t as damp as I thought. I think what happened is that some of the sawdust trapped in fluid must have run under the tube and that ignited once it was fully dry.

At first I thought there might be damage to the glass tube - a little hole or something. I have checked and that is not the case. It looks like there’s damage to the wire below the tube. It’s tough to tell the extend because I’m not sure how to remove the laser tube - it’s more than just the 4 screws on the clamps.

I’m in Ontario Canada. I’m not going to send my whole Glowforge back for maintenance - especially since I should be able to fix it myself - or in worst case - just send back the broken part - in this case the arm.

Has anybody removed the laser tube to clean it fully before? If I can remove it, I can at least get a better look at the issue below.

On the left you can see the burnt spot. This spot is not on the laser tube, but on what looks to be a red wire that runs in a channel below. When running, your and see that it creates a little flame on that spot (That goes out immediately when the power is cut) Obviously I haven’t continued to try and run it.

FYI each post in Problems and Support opens a new support ticket (as does sending email to support), so in the future you’d be better off updating your existing ticket rather than opening a new one. Duplicate tickets slow down the support process.

Oops, never mind. I remember now – your first post was moved here, so it didn’t open a ticket (probably). You did the right thing. Carry on! :slight_smile:

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That’s a high voltage cable. Unplug the machine. Wait to hear from support. (@vee, @pip)

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Unfortunately, it looks like your unit is experiencing an issue that we can’t resolve remotely. I want you to have a reliable unit, so I’m recommending we replace this one. I’ll be in touch via email to sort out the details. I’m so sorry about the bad news.

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