Okay I’ll try to explain as best as I can.
I am cutting acrylic blanks for customer of mine and yesterday I was able to get clear fine details while printing a 2-inch piece. There is a snafu and I had to redo it again and this time I’m getting bulky lines and it’s not getting the fine details that I need it to.
I’m pretty sure there was flame damage during one of the cuts because when I was cleaning the machine today the lens didn’t look clear. this is probably a stupid question but would that affect the fine details being printed? I just ordered a new one just in case…
Yeah, that would DEFINITELY affect your print. Will it clean off? It’s probably just residue – you might need to let some isopropyl alcohol sit on it for a few minutes to loosen the gunk so you can wipe it off.
I don’t know that the gunk you’re seeing if flame damage and it kinda just looks really dirty. When was the last time you cleaned all the lenses? If cleaning the lense didn’t fix things for you, I’d look at the material height because it looks like it wasn’t focused correctly. When that happens you get fatter lines because a wider part of the laser beam is hitting the material. If you used set focus it’s possible it accidentally measured the wrong spot. It can happen if you measure near the edge of material or near a hole and the beam set focus misses your material.
And could you do me a favor? We have kids in the forum and we keep it kid friendly, so could you blur your photos and put a little adult content warning on them? You do that by selecting the link for the pic you uploaded and then click the little gear icon at the top and select “blur spoiler”.
It’s cool artwork, is it yours? I can see the woman and flowers and it looks like moon/stars etc at the bottom, but it’s a bit hard to tell in the pic so I wasn’t 100% sure.
I can verify that it makes a huge difference when the lense is dirty. The same issue you’re describing happened to me not looking ago. Alcohol wipes did the trick for me. Also remember that if your lens is affected your mirror probably is too.
Here is a good reference on how to clean it. Time from 3:25 to 8:51 is the most essential.
If you need to buy a new lens and/ or mirror head head over to store.glowforge.com and buy them.
Laser Head Lens - $75
Laser Head Mirror - $45
Laser Head Window - $35
I’m sorry that you ran into trouble with your unit and it wasn’t printing as expected. The advice from other folks here in the community is correct. If the residue doesn’t come off, the next best step would be to replace the lens. I want you to have a reliable unit, so I’m going to close this thread and follow up via email to sort out the details of getting a new lens to you if needed.
at the top and select “blur spoiler”.