Laser arm skewed

I am trying to get my Brand new Glowforge Pro up and running. I cannot get the laser arm calibrated to operate correctly. The right side is not horizontal with the left. I have spent several days trying to fix this problem. I have gone through many community posts and have attempted fixes. I see nothing blocking the tracks. it does not appear to be off the track. As of now, I don’t even categorize myself as being a new user because I have not even had the opportunity to use it. I am becoming very frustrated.

This was a big monetary lay-out and after a week of one problem after another on setup, I am questioning whether I should have spent the money or not.

Can you share a photo? Does the carriage move freely when the machine is off?

IMG_0762

The carriage moves. I don’t know how free “normal” movement is, though. If I move it with my hand it doesn’t seem to be hanging up anywhere.

The photo shown is a great improvement over the first time I started the thing up.

Have you followed the steps on squaring the gantry in the support section?

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Have you tried this?

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I’ll give it another go and see what happens.

@eflyguy and @geek2nurse have pointed you in the right direction. I’ll just add, don’t panic. This anomaly is relatively common with new machines and doing as above cures 90% of them.
Also be assured that if you are so unlucky that the procedure doesn’t fix it, Glowforge is great about getting another one out to you.

I’m so sorry for the frustrating start with your new unit. It looks like you’ve already received some excellent advice from our other community members. Thanks folks!

Please let us know if the steps they suggested get you up and printing. If not, we’ll look into this further with you.

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The arm in the picture definitely looks misaligned from the photo. are all the wheels on the rails? I think you may need to check that. If you have the machine off, are you able to align the arm or does it not want to be square?

Edit: on my machine the black strip for the lid camera wiring is very square. Can you get kind of close to parallel with the black strip on the lid?

Three attempts, problem still is not fixed.image0

If all the wheels are on the rails I would say that there is some other mechanical problem that will require attention.

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It’s likely a belt tension issue on one side. Either that, or a bad stepper motor.

The belt on the X-axis is designed to be removed and tensioned by the owner, but I don’t recall seeing support provide instructions for adjusting tension for the Y-axis belts. Hopefully they can.

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I’m sorry for the ongoing trouble. @eflyguy is correct that a good next step would be to check the belt tension on the belts located on the left and right side of your unit. Could you check the tension of your belts for me?

When pressing lightly on one side of the belt, the other side should not move.

Like this:
e8hgI9PJcGEiDaKW5jAbjrNdi
(You should see an animated image above)

Let me know if the belt is loose and I will follow up with your next steps.

My belt is loose. What can I do to tighten it? Thank you for any help.

You need to start your own thread in Problems and Support for the team to respond. While waiting, here is something that may help: https://support.glowforge.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044425134-How-To-Instructions

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.

@oceanwoodcreation We try to keep to one topic per post in the Problems and Support section.

If you’re still having trouble after checking out the guide @dklgood shared, can you create a new post with this question?