We turned it on, it lit up like Christmas, and stayed in a mode that said it would alert us when the cool down was complete. Well, it never cooled down.
It was on an additional 45 min, the AC is on, and a fan is directly on the GF, but it is still in cooldown.
We have not been able to print anything, so we have turned off the machine and are just beside ourselves.
Please help.
So, you’re probably half way there. If the ambient temperature is 75 F or less then I’d turn it back on again. That often clears the error in my experience.
This is not an “official answer” obviously, they wouldn’t use this graphic! 
Turn off the machine
Open both lids
Blow the fan towards the back to cool off the exhaust tube
Wait about 10-20 minutes
Restart
Thanks so much, used your idea, the AC running the whole time, the place was not even warm, we had it all ready, built the table, set it up and when time came to use it, it never came. It said something about notifying us when the cool down was done, and we were never notified, it never cooled down.
I want a WORKING forge. This is a PRO, I am not supposed to have these issues.
I have to E mail support too, Hopefully, I will get the great attn everyone else gets when their forges fail.
I believe the ambient temperature sensor might be inside the Glowforge.
Check to see outside to make sure the exhaust port is pushing out all the air out .
Hot air might still be trapped in the exhaust tubes and coming back into the Glowforge.
If your exhaust tube is lower than the Glowforge the hot air maybe rising back to the Glowforge causing the heat sensors to register a hot ambient temp
I wouldn’t give up yet. It’s possible of course that there’s something wrong with your machine, maybe a faulty temperature sensor or part of the cooling system. But I have seen other people post that turning it off and on helps, so even though it’s supposed to detect that it has cooled down enough and just start working, it may take a couple of strategic hard reboots.
So… what’s the actual ambient air temp? Then and now?
I dunno, right from the start, the light went from green, then after I registered it, it went to yellow and never changed. The temp in here was mebbe 75 if even that, like I said, we had the AC on.
The exhaust hose was level and draped across the back of the forge on the table to the window directly behind. It was a hot day in San Diego, but not in the domicile.
I mean, it isn’t like it started and stopped, it just never started. The We’ll let you know when your forge is ready to use light and message never changed.
Not giving up, just bummed after all the hard work and crap went through in the last two days, to have a forge that is essentially a paperweight, it happens, I understand this.
Maybe I will try in the AM when it is cold, see if after it starts up, it allows me to print at 9AM, I do go sooner but I do not want to pollute the absolute quiet with noise.
I’m researching…
Yeah, originally it was on for like an hour, then we turned it off to go to the store, changed our mind, turned it back on, mebbe 15 min passed when we turned it back on again, and it still had the same thing. I appreciate ALL the help. I was pinging between the forums and the machine yesterday, and web site.
Depressing, but not the be all end all.
I am 99.9% sure they did not say She see’s carrots, lets send her the carrots lol
Even I understand the glowing-pains
-Sorry, my life is either camp, pun, or a comedy of errors.
It has been a less than interesting ( memorable ) year.
Kinda like the maelstrom of sound at the middle of A Day In The Life by The Beatles.
I JUST WANT TO LASER STUFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Tonight, we are going to try this one more time.
We have not touched it since last night when we turned it off.
I am guessing I will leave it on for 1 hour, should it take an hour to cool down? I think I am being generous, probably overly so, but I will do it.
I wish I had a working forge 
This is just as bad as not having one, it sits here and mocks me.
It turns on, it lights up, and that is all it does. Nothing more, nothing less.
Yesterday, No movement of the gears, nothing calibrates, nothing happens.
NOTHING, it just lit up and softly hummed.
I decided to turn it on again, while the room again, is air conditioned ( sorry for caps ):
This time, I turned it on and it started ticking, then as the arm started to come down, it was grinding, the light turned off and on, it was…bluish white, then off, then bluish white again, off for a time, then it went to amberish glow and started grinding again, it made it’s way to the center of the board grinding along, and started to tick kinda loud, like something was stuck somewhere.
I got scared and turned it right off, it did not sound healthy.
We will probably record it and upload it later.
Here is a pic of it as I turned it off and left it alone:
With the power off, just slowly move the head (without touching the lens) under where the lid camera sits. Sometimes it gets lost during the calibration stage and needs an assist - placing the head under the camera is that assist.
Okies, when hubby gets home, will pass it on to him. I am not a technical person, he is the engineer.
I am just the impetuous silly. 
I really REALLY am trying to maintain a good attitude and stay positive, here.
Things could be a lot worse, I have faith this will be resolved one way or another.
Here are a couple pics of the arrival, one side had handles and the other did not. Those handles work good on locking the boxes, why two from one side failed is beyond me.
Solid, very happy with table purchase and recommend.
Not wobbly at all. Ikea Wood Tabletop $90.00, telescoping legs $120.00
if you get this, do not use the screws that come with the legs, they screw in almost a quarter inch from the top if not less, use screws for the flanges that are self tapping half the length size. This works great
Probably didn’t fail. UPS handlers use the handholds, press the release tab and they’re gone.
And here I was, carefully removing them so as not to rip the box, lol
We did that, got it up and printing the ruler now, WOOHOO!
I had a feeling that your GF would eventually work.
As long as there is nothing wrong with the hardware - the firmware updates can fix most of the GF issues.
We just need to describe our issues so that the GF staff can fix it remotely via software.
I see our GF similar to the “mars rover” and the staff are like the engineers in NASA trying to trouble shoot the robot remotely.
Just got to be patient with glowforge because it is an evolving beast of a machine and it will only get better with time.
Does anybody have an idea of how long a firmware update takes? With no indication it is happening it might be causing some confusion with a new machine.
Hubby said the same thing after I told him that when I turned it on this time, and there was actual animation, not just lights and humming.
I read JBManning5’s post to him, he moved the piece proper and the GF THEN sounded smoother, no more grinding!!!, Just humming and moving along.
We made my ruler, I love the smell of Draft board, smells like the memory of a summer camp fire.
Then we made his ruler, because he needs to take it in and show his other engineer co workers that the forge is REAL and it is actually here in our home! They were feeling sorry for him, thinking we invested in a pipe dream.
His sister is expecting hers in November, so she was happy to see we got it up and running.
