Light in tube, but during cut, no cutting/burning

Community Support
1

I have been having trouble with cutting through objects for quite some time. But I always resolved with going over a second pass.

Now I’m afraid my first pass isn’t even burning.

Starting at 3:00, it isn’t burning for the first half. And that second pass didn’t cut through.

I’ve cleaned the lense on the left side under the cover, I’ve cleaned the lense on the side of the laser plate, I’ve cleaned the 2 sensors on the bottom of the laser head. I’ve cleaned the mirror and the movable lense in the middle with the lense removal tool.

Also I noticed the gradient in the engrave, using a doubled amount of power for the engrave:

image

And did a double pass at a slower speed for cutting
image

I’ve got an external fan with filter, it is working well, haven’t used it since I tested it for about 20 minutes last year. I haven’t used this machine in over 6 months.

I’ve cleaned the trays, I’ve even checked and cleaned the laser plate by removing it using this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDUxMk-WUeo

The lack of cutting only happens after an engrave, and it happens anywhere on the board. I’ve done this test 5 times from top left to bottom left. If I start with a cut, it will cut, every time.

Ideas? I don’t know what else to clean.

2

I think Support might ask you to print the Gift of Good Measure on Proofgrade material using the Proofgrade settings. If it doesn’t engrave/score/cut properly, note the time and date of the print and post the pictures in this thread. Your problem could be the material you are using. Did you use the set focus tool? Did you measure the height with calipers or allow auto focus?

1 Like
3

I’ll go and do that, on any proof grade material, right? I’ll get on it.

I’ll record it as well I assume.

4

At 14:25 CST

Anything else needed? It’s not a leveling issue that I can tell because the start and end cut aren’t the same. The cut starts without any burn, and at the end at the same spot it’s burning.

It feels like something in the focusing is wrong, and I’ve cleaned it.

5

Thank you for taking the time to send over these amazing details, and for providing recordings of the prints you noticed the behavior with.

Unfortunately, it looks like your unit is experiencing an issue that we can’t resolve remotely. I want you to have a reliable unit. I’ll be in touch via email to sort out the details. I’m so sorry about the bad news.

6

Thank you very much, I will await your communications.

7

When should I expect communication from the GF team?

8

How long should I wait for communication from glowforge in regards to this?

9

You might send a new email to support@glowforge.com - it looks like their communication either went to your spam box or got rejected by the server before that.

When you email, you should get an almost immediately auto-response. If you don’t, check spam.

10

I finally got a response from support, it didn’t go to spam originally.

But it seems my tube has failed or is failing. Why do I feel that’s wrong? But I’ll take a refurbished unit. I can keep working with the system I have as long as I break down the steps into multiple passes. Like one pass will just be engrave, and then I change ot using the cut parts on another pass. I’ll just have to start them manually and it works. I also have to increase power and go a little slower to cut through all the material. Wish I could replace the tube myself and align it as needed, or even better, off the shelf tube.

I’ll wait for their invoice and pay for the work. Sucks that my tube failed after a couple hours of burning. Wish my run hours were listed.

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