My Glowforge was working great, cutting smooth. Now, even with Glowforge materials, proof grade, using the automatic settings for Proof grade materials, nothing cuts completely through. Trying to cut birch is a nightmare. Example: medium proof grade MDF I have too change settings to thick MDF to attempt to get it to cut.
Clean optics is the most important maintenance for you to keep on top of. You can damage them by letting them get dirty because the beam will deposit its energy on them instead of transmitting it.
I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve hit this snag, but I appreciate you working through the steps that @ca_worth provided. I’m glad everything appears to be working correctly. I’ll close this thread for now, but please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly at support@glowforge.com in the future if you run into any more trouble. We’re here to help!