Lid has separated from the hinge

I’ve babied the machine since day one…

So I have no idea how this happened but the lid has separated somehow from the hinge. To me it looks like the glass is glued onto the hinge which seems ridiculously cheap and a horrible way to connect a heavy glass lid to a hinge.

I’m attaching pics and a video for example of the issue.

Does anyone know anything about the attachment or how this could be repaired or replaced?

this is the separation. you can see what looks like glue between the red arrows.

Using the forum search function This is one of several instances like yours.

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I’ve had to glue my lid back together twice, the first time the glue wasn’t the best, but this time I used a lot more and a different epoxy and it’s been holding great.

If you’re still in warranty, I’d suggest going through the support procedures to get this taken care of, if not, then here is what I did.

The first time this happened I did an alright job, it eventually ended up not holding on one edge and I had to redo the job. The easiest way I’ve found to fix it is removing the lid from the machine. You’ll want to undo the black ribbon cable from the board it connects to, theres a double sided adhesive holding it place, so warming it up helps get it away from the casing:

After that’s undone, pop off the guards to the hinges by pulling to the side and down:

Get an 11mm socket and undo the top two nuts on both sides. The lid is a bit heavier than you might expect, but not so heavy that you can’t pick it up. The bolt studs will slide right out of the hinges and you’re good to put the lid somewhere where you can work on it.

This second go around, since only half my glue gave out, I mixed up some new epoxy and slid it into the gap. I would suggest stress testing the remaining glue to see if you can get them to separate. If you can, then clean the old glue off with a razor blade and rough up the two sides for the new glue to get a good trip, if not, you’ll just have to do what I did and drop the new glue into the gaps. I used this stuff:

It had the strongest psi hold that I could find at the hardware store, but there may be others that are better. I clamped the two parts together, and cleaned any excess that squeezed out, for a few days and put everything back together.

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I just had the same thing happen to me. The right hinge when looking at the glowforge from the front.

I’m out of warranty. I wonder if this is becoming common. The lid is heavy and to have all of the load from the glass lid transferred through the adhesive and into the hinge may be too much.

I’m not going to use this product to repair mine, but 3M makes a product called 3M VHB (Very High Bond) tape that can hold glazing (glass) into curtainwalls on skyscrapers, so it might be a viable non-epoxy repair product.

Hint Hint Glowforge team, if this is a common failure the VHB tape is a good repair product.

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There have been a handful reported here. They have sold over 30,000 machines.

It’s unfortunate, but not common.

It’s rather interesting in a way…when I got my PRU Glowforge, this happened to the lid after a few months. When I sent it back, they went ahead and sent my forever machine which I’ve now had for 3 years and 2 months with no issues whatsover.

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I’m sorry that you’ve run into trouble with your Glowforge. Unfortunately this is a problem which we aren’t able to resolve remotely. Have you already started to try the steps which other community members suggested? If you’d like, our support team would be happy to reach out to you directly via email with details and next steps on working with you to get you back up and printing reliably. Please let us know how you’d like to proceed.

@ivan1 yes, I contacted the community support team and they are sending me a replacement machine.

@Xabbess, that’s great news that this has not repeated itself. Working with adhesives can be unforgiving with non-porous materials like the glass lid and the metal hinge. I can see why multiple people have had this issue. I hope my replacement is as long lasting as yours.

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@dpmarkman

since you were out of warranty… how much did they charge you for the replacement and shipping?

I’m so sorry about the trouble you ran into with your Glowforge’s lid. As my colleague @ivan1 pointed out, this particular behavior cannot be repaired remotely, but I see that the community has provided some good information regarding the next steps.

If you’d like to work on having your Glowforge repaired, please let us know, and we’ll reach out directly via email with the next best steps.

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I’m glad to see that our team has been in touch with you via email. Since we’re communicating with you about this there, I’m going to close this thread and we’ll continue to assist you via email.