Laser not firing problem

Printhead moves like it is cutting the job but no cutting is actually being done.
Have cleaned the mirrors and made sure they didn’t have damage
Quick clean of the fans
pic of pins is included.
Problem happened approx 9:30 central where a job started cutting and then stopped, yet the print head was moving.
Tried cutting a square on proofgrade material approx 10:00 central same thing.

I have a movie of the cut but not sure where to put that. Dropbox maybe?

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open to anyone with a link and include the link in a post.

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First thing I’d check is your power setting. It can easily be inadvertently set to 1.

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Hopefully this helps. Just ran gift of Good Measure on proof draft with same results but now the fan is just running and running saying “cooling down”

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Checked that, but thanks! Tried to do the recommended things from other posts before I posted.

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After gift of good measure, no score/engrave/cut fan just runs and runs, says “cooling down”
Checked settings and power is not set low.

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:frowning: I’d do a look around to make sure none of the other cables are broken/disconnected, but I think this is going to be one where you need to wait for a staff member to respond :frowning:

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Good idea. I’ll check. I really wish GF had physical locations for service. I’m dreading having to package this thing up…

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I too hope to be around for a :glowforge: on every corner! The Jo-Anns partnership is a step in that direction, but that’s only material and function so far, not repair. If only Radio Shack were still around, that would be a perfect repair partnership!

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it would!Radio shack was awesome.Maybe the Jo-annes will add repair someday. That would be so helpful. Or maybe we’ll get the GF repairman like the old style appliance repair! That would be even better!

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i think i’d almost prefer to risk shipping via UPS/Fedex than have someone at joanne’s fix it. :wink:

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I figure if they were trained and it was an official GF repairshop, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Way easier than packing it up.

Indeed! I have an amazing number of useless gadgets that a few seconds with parts and skills could fix things from a broken wire, or replace a battery with a better one, to making one thing out of the parts of many.

If an hour or two of time can eliminate spending $8k on a replacement it would be well worth it.

As to your "overheating " issue, the possibilities are limited. Either it is overheating, or the sensor to report path is not working. The machines are very sensitive and do not work under pretty mild conditions, The sensor connections are also broken in several places and connected by pins. The pins are connected by wires that can crack and give you an intermittent response or none at all.

If immediately after stopping it says overheating, and you can feel that the printer head is warm to the touch, then that is a different problem.

As they have access to more dataSurrort should be able to give you a more specific answer.

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Thank you! Hopefully they have an idea, just looking over the connections I don’t readily see anything that looks out of the ordinary besides no light in the laser tube.Nothing was warm, and no error or yellow light so I’m stumped. Hopefully support will know…

any repair that one of us users can’t do ourselves is going to be way beyond almost any JoAnne’s employee’s capability. and there aren’t enough GFs out there to have a whole bunch of trained technicians at joanne’s (they don’t keep that kind of skilled labor on staff).

that’s why i said i’d rather ship it (or beg to do it myself). wouldn’t trust em.

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I do think that someone trained in Glowforge, 3dprinters, and other Laser machinery, as well as the basic computer/phone/tablet mechanics, could keep themselves very busy.

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Hello @jennysmi, I am very sorry about the problem you are running into with your Glowforge printer. I will do my best to get this issue resolved for you.


If your Printer Head is moving but you aren’t seeing the laser marking your material, one likely causes

  • The mirror in the Printer Head is not installed correctly and may have been damaged.


First, please inspect the mirror in the Printer Head

  • Follow these instructions to access the Printer Head mirror.

  • If you see damage to the mirror or the plastic handle (for example, if the plastic handle has been melted), please check the interior of the Printer Head for any additional damage. If you don’t see any signs of physical damage inside the Printer Head you can purchase a replacement Printer Head Mirror through the shop. Note: If there is damage to the plastic handle on the mirror, the mirror may be difficult to remove. You can follow the instructions here for removing a mirror that is stuck.


  • Once you receive your replacement mirror, please clean both the lens and Printer Head window, by following these cleaning instructions.

  • If you find any damage in the Printer Head, please take a photo of the damage and send it to us and we’ll follow up with next steps.

It doesn’t look to be damaged or installed incorrectly, unless I’m not sure what I’m looking at?


Yeah, that looks fine. Take the mirror out of the printer head and look down into it from the top. Maybe use the flash to take a picture inside if you can. (You need to check inside the head too. You might be able to see melting or char marks or something.)

You might not, but it’s something else to check. :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks!No sure what it’s supposed to look like in there…




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