I did my yearly teardown/cleaning of the GF Pro today. This being my 3rd time, I’m getting pretty efficient with it. I basically open up the left hand side of the unit, remove the heatsink and fan and thoroughly clean them. Then I clean the laser tube (what I can reach of it). I completely disassemble the crumb tray and clean it under water. Then dry toothbrush and vacuum whatever else I can inside the unit. When it goes back together it gets new thermal paste under the heatsink, and a thorough printhead cleaning. It makes a world of difference. The machine runs quieter and removes smoke better with a clean fan.
However, after I re-assembled everything and ran some Christmas ornaments, my whole upstairs was filled with smoke. While watching it run, I realized it was blowing the smoke out around all the edges of the machine. I had installed the fan backwards, and it was sucking air into the back instead of blowing out. All fixed now, and lesson learned!
is there a specific reason you break it down that far to clean it? IMNSVHO, you’re more likely to mess something up than you are to make the machine run better. cleaning the tube really has no effect on function.
Occupational hazard I guess. I fix computer equipment and all that soot everywhere drives me crazy. While a lot of it may be overkill, cleaning the fan is imperative IMHO. Evenutally the buildup gets bad enough that the fan blades start touching the housing. While I have never let it get worse than that, the next stage of that will be a fan failure. If I can prevent that, it is worth it.
fan i totally get. but be very careful with the rest. a non-insignificant set of “omg my GF doesn’t work any more!” issues were preceded by “i just deep cleaned my GF.”
You clearly have the skills and knowledge to avoid releasing all the magic smoke, but so many complaint posts start out “I washed my Glowforge yesterday and now I can’t do a thing with it”
We ended up breaking off the plastic tabs. Mostly on accident.
Whoever decided to put all of the delicate electronics and cooling fins in the path of the smoke ventilation made this thing a lot more annoying to clean than it needed to be.
