So recently my GF has not been clearing the smoke as well as it used to, but also I was getting bursts of flame, sometimes for quite a few seconds, while cutting MDF/draftboard.
I had cleaned the exhaust port a couple of times with no change so decided to give it a really good scrub out with a pipe cleaner. Loads more junk cleared out.
But also, while cleaning the lens, I noticed the little micro fan was also full of gunk & debris. So I cleaned that out too. (NOTE: keep the unit pointing downwards while cleaning the micro fan, you don’t want crap falling onto the internal mirror.
End result is better throughput of air and also it looks like better smoke clearance around the laser itself.
I’m still getting a little flaring, but not as much as before. After all this I’m not sure what’s started this, material change? firmware change? air flow change? Any suggestions?