New Glowforge - weak / unable to cut on right side

Got the Pro yesterday and up and running late last night - have never had a successful print beyond the middle of the chamber and noticeably weaker laser performance starting about a 1/3 of
the way across. Tray & material were laying flat. Lenses have been cleaned. I have e-mailed support, but does anyone have any ideas on other things to check?

Photos below were post lens cleaning.

Succesful print on left side:

Failed print, right side:


That is really strange… is your bottom tray in the grooves and flat? If your bed is not level the focus can be off.

Yes - validated multiple times that the tray is installed correctly and I am printing on un-warped PG draft board.

My gut feeling is that somehow the laser signal that’s passed from the left side through to the print head is ‘weakening’ as the print head moves further away from the left side, I’m hoping it isn’t some manufacturing defect that is resulting in some misalignment or defective optics in this part of the machine…

Looks like this has happened before, but I hope your’s is not the same issue…

Sounds exactly like what was happening with mine. They ended up needing to replace the whole unit. It’s worth it though. If it’s the same issue as mine was, the right side not cutting through is just the most noticeable effect. After I got the replacement unit I noticed a huge difference in the quality of all of the functions. If it’s the same issue and you already love the glowforge your going to like it even more after you get it fixed. Definetly run through all the crumb tray, cleaning the lenses, etc. First though.

Yeah - I already went through all that first. The photos above were after a thorough cleaning.

I’m hoping to get it resolved quickly.

Pretty clear that the focus is OK on the 2nd GoGM as the lines are nice and sharp, but a lot lighter than the one that cut from the other side.

The honeycomb pins are odd, though - that is what it would look like if focus is off.

Not looking good.

Fyi… I went over the honeycomb pins on the right side like 4 times trying to get them to burn through. Still didn’t. Originally, lines were crisp, but not enough power to break through.

Got it.

Unfortunately nothing to offer that helps. My opinion is the beam is no longer aligned with the head as a result of shipping. They’re all calibrated and tested during assembly.

That’s what I was thinking as well. We’ll see what glowforge comes back with.

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I would highly recommend that you send it back immediately. I have had issues with my glowforge since I first got it. I thought it was my wifi connection, but I recently improved it and I still had problems with my unit. I tried everything to fix it. Finally I realized it wasn’t anything I was doing and it was the unit itself. I contacted support to tell them about my issues and after sending them what they requested they said there is nothing they can do about it since the warranty was expired. They told me to send it in an pay upwards of $1200 to fix it!

The machine I received never worked properly. Being new to lasers I thought it was me, but it turns out it was the machine. After reading everything I could online about other users experience, it looks like Glowforge just makes and sends out bad lasers. You might get lucky and get a good one, but if you experience any problems at all send it back immediately.

Since you are still covered under warranty, do not try and fix the issue yourself. Send it back for another unit and if that one has issues send that one back as well.

I’m sorry you ran into trouble with your new Glowforge. I see you emailed us about this, and I’ve sent you a response with next steps there, so I’m going to close this thread.