Machine quit cutting and lens not seating properly

We were rolling along cutting ornaments last night and suddenly the machine quit cutting out shapes. It still engraves fine, but just acts like it doesn’t have the power to actually cut. We followed the diag instructions on the website and everything is in good shape and clean. The only thing I have found is when I seat the lens in the head unit, it will not stay seated. After a couple of uses, I check it and I can physically push it back into the head again with the tool because it has dropped down. I noticed this before but never had any issues so assumed it was normal. I have messaged support and am waiting to hear back. Any advise on anything I check between now and then would be great because we have orders to get out!!!

The lens will change position depending on focus. Although there might be something else going on with that. If it is dropping down because its lost its magnet up there, it seems to me that it would fall all the way down.

Are your engraves crisp? That will tell if your lens is not focusing correctly.

Did you accidentally change the power to 1 in the cut operation?

Also check that the lens is installed the correct way–after a cleaning found my cutting was horrid & etchings really shallow–and I had inserted the lens back in upside down… Though doesn’t explain it if it cutting issues started between cleaning/lens checks… And if lens or mirrors get dirty, the cutting is where you’re first notice it–be sure to verify all are OK–different materials require cleaning a lot more often than others!

Update on this issue, just talked to another plus model owner who is now experiencing the exact same thing. Both our machines did this approximately the same time post the last “speed” update, so that might be related as well.

You seem to be making an association here, but are you saying you just got the recent update within the past day and that’s when things changed for you?

Yes, no issues engraving or scoring at all. It’s just seems to have no power difference between scoring and cutting.

Technically there is no difference between cutting and scoring. In theory you could use the score to cut or the cut to score. You would have to look to see what the difference is that Proofgrade uses but they are not as different as either is from engraving. for example.

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Please give a few more details that will help us narrow it down.

  1. Are you using Proofgrade Materials?

  2. Are you using default settings on the Glowforge that just give you the option of Cut or Score for vector lines?

  3. If you are not using default Cut settings, what are your manual settings?

  4. If you are using manual settings, what happens when you put in 120 speed and Full Power, assuming that this is wood that is 3-4mm thick and not Proofgrade or is Proofgrade?

Give us a screen capture of your bed along with settings and that will assist in identifying things that are off.

I am also having cut issues since the speed update. I can engrave and score just fine but can not cut.

Yep, proofgrade material, with appropriate settings. Have tried to cut draft board, maple, and even some really thin non PG material, all with the same results.

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That seems so weird. Your engrave looks fine. No cuts. I hope Support chimes in soon for you and can fix it from their end.

Did you use manual settings then for that non PG material?

Yes, we tried to cut some 1/8 birch, went down to full power, 3 passes, and 150 speed and it still wouldn’t cut, just burnt it. Yeah, I can engrave and score all day long with no issues, donuts kinda odd.

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Is your lens upside down?

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No, everything is good. It literally quit cutting over night and no one touched it.

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If you find out what happened, the community here would really appreciate knowing what the solution was (just post it in Everything Else). If the thread gets closed we will never know, and can’t help other users with the same issue.

You mentioned checking that things were clean, and trying to reseat the lens (incidentally, it’s supposed to move up and down in the head; that part is not an issue).

It’s definitely worth double checking, because @timjedwards is right, those “cut” lines look for all the world like what happens when your lens is upside-down.

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I’m so sorry to hear that you’re running into trouble.

I see you already emailed us about this and we’re working on it there, so I’m going to close this topic.