Received a “new” pro to replace another. Used it a dozen times and now the laser tube is down. No bubbles and coolant just swimming in the tube. Laser head is fine and makes all the motions, but no laser. All clean. Ran it for an hour today. Took off an hour and turned it back on to this. It’s under warranty, but who knows how long this will take to get the unit running again. Very frustrated.
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Until you hear from another user or from support…bubbles typically appear only when you’ve first set up your Glowforge, not during normal operation. The system purges the air out at the very beginning, which is probably stuff you already know. If the head is making the motions but not giving any results, double check the power setting. Sometimes it defaults to ‘1’ which isn’t powerful enough to do anything. Best of luck.
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Thank you for the advice. Where is the power setting? I don’t see any activity in the tube what’s so ever. And I usually have a line of bubbles when I turn it on. I see foaming on the left tube input when the unit powers on.
That’s very odd, as @Xabbess said there shouldn’t be any bubbles after the first time you use it.
The settings are accessed by clicking on one of the thumbnails steps on the left. Then open up “manual” and make power isn’t at 1.
(If you haven’t already done so, you might wanna at least look through the official first three projects tutorials, they will walk you through settings in more detail)
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Ok, I wasn’t sure if there was another power setting somewhere. I’m using manual presets so the power is at a higher level. Just odd. It was literally working perfectly an hour before. The coolant level fills half the tube. Just no activity in the tube when the head is in motion.
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I don’t think you should see a fluid level inside the tube at all, since it should be completely filled with no air bubbles.
Do you see any fluid under the crumb tray or anywhere inside the machine, or any indication of a leak? The reservoir is on the left side near the front, I believe. I am not in front of mine at the moment to verify that.
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No, I don’t see any leak oddly.
It was never really full when I received it two weeks ago.
I didn’t know as it worked all right.
I feel that the pump is struggling. Maybe the rest of the coolant is in the reservoir?
Either way the laser tube is just translucent reddish purple and inactive.
I suspect this was a refurbished model as the camera lens appears chipped too, but the lens still works.
Anyway, I’m dead in the water with this machine.
Holiday orders are coming in and I cannot fulfill them.
just a guess here, but if the fluid was low when you got it, maybe it was working at 1st but overheating and it finally burned up?
Regardless, it sucks, I know.
I have no idea. Barely two weeks old and it is toast.
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Seriously doubt that the tube or anything burned up with lack of fluid. There are sensors to prevent that. We can’t see what you see in the tube but generally a person can not see any fluid in the tube at all. Only the bubbles the very first time the unit is powered up which show up in the very center of the tube. After that the fluid and glass look the same. If your tube was not getting sufficient fluid it would normally throw a yellow error light. If the liquid leaked during shipping the inside would normally be covered in fluid.
You said the fluid was swimming in the tube. If you can see that then maybe the tube itself cracked inside. The fluid doesn’t normally show up in the outer part of the tube.
Not saying your unit is, or isn’t broken. Just don’t panic quite yet.
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@jl1 I am so sorry your Glowforge printer laser is not appearing. Thank you so much for reaching out to us in chat today. I’m going to go ahead and close this forum post and follow up with you there.