My glowforge is in a garage. In Chicago. And it’s now freezing outside.
My garage is warm because of the house. Unless the big door is up, then it gets cold
So. I know these are shipping in the freezing cold.
I also have not seen mention of a lowest temperature to subject your glowforge to!!
What is the official word?
I imagine that nothing can be damaged by cold except the parts touching the coolant (unless this coolant doesn’t expand??) which would be the glass laser tube.
I also imagine that moving parts may have an operating temperature to ensure proper lubricant
I also imagine that warming the tube fast from low enough temperature, could cause it to crack.
I vaguely recall 50 F being the minimum operating temperature.
My 'forge is in the basement, so gets pretty chilly but not outside levels of cold.
I imagine that nothing can be damaged by cold except the parts touching the coolant (unless this coolant doesn’t expand??) which would be the glass laser tube.
If there’s damage to be done by cold conditions my bet is on it being from condensation forming while the unit is running or thermal shock on the glass tube, both of which can be mitigated by slowly restoring the unit to safe operating temperature (50?) before starting to run.
They also recommend removing the Glowforge from the external venting to prevent inflow of exterior conditions directly to the machine – though the way mine is set up, this is a bit of a pain.
I tend to leave my lid a bit open instead, to allow interior air to circulate in. My vent is louvered, so there isn’t going to be much backflow, but it’s been below freezing lately, so better safe than sorry.
Temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 Celsius) or over 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48 Celsius) Extreme humidity conditions (below 10% or more than 75%) If venting outdoors, ensure that changing conditions do not cause extreme temperatures or humidity to enter the Glowforge unit through the exhaust hose. Disconnect the hose from the outside air when the Glowforge is not in use.
I used the provided GF hose clips on both the GF exhaust outlet and the inlet of the blast gate . The blast gate is Gorilla-glued to a plywood insert that goes in my basement window while I’m running, and the “male” Louver unit is Gorilla-glued to the “female” socket of the blast gate. No leaks to speak of.
There should be a Material Safety Data Sheet for the coolant, and being as we already had one person’s tube crack and the coolant escape, it would be reasonable to request GF have the MSDS available to the end user.
The minimum stated temp of 40deg F is problematic. Aren’t they shipping during the winter? So… it’s going to be less than 40… I’d like to know what that is.
If it really is 40, then that implies water. If that’s true, there will be problems shipping in the freezing weather. Unless they’re shipping with both laser & coolant tubes completely empty, with room to expand in the tank…
Water as a coolant just seems like an engineering mistake given the diverse locales around the globe, and unknowable shipping temperatures