well new black ribbon cable in and works. made 3 things. went back today to practice and when the head needs to move forward or back it makes like a bad gear noise and no movement. all cables nice and tight and i saw no visible damage to the belts or gears and moves just fine by hand and quiete too. suggestions or possable problem
Just a shot in the dark here but try turning off the power, moving the head until it is under the camera and then power on.
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Maybe I’m mistaken but with the machine powered off don’t you want to move the laser to the furthest back left before turning it back on?
The way @beerfaced described is the best way to let the lid camera see its focal point, which is the GF logo on top of the head.
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Ah. Gotcha.
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done that at the beginning
yes and i had done that. noise comes when the machine tries to move the head forward and no movement. if i place it in the middle it does the same thing wonder if the shaft from the motor to the gear is bad or something along those lines. always get a notice on the screne “head hit a bump!”
It is more likely an issue where things happen in the main chamber. First with the power off I would push the gantry all the way back, pushing on both ends so it is parallel to the back wall and then gently move it forward listening and feeling for any resistance. If there is any the problem will be found there.
Next I would remove the crumb tray and make sure that there is nothing under or along side of it. I have had larger crumbs or bed pins fall down and cause such issues, and of course the part of the crumb tray not metal on the sides needs to be open as well.
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Hello there,
I’m so sorry to hear that you’re having this trouble with your Printer, especially after replacing the black lid cable. I’ll be happy to help you get this sorted out so you can get back to printing without any troubles.
Per you comment,
went back today to practice and when the head needs to move forward or back it makes like a bad gear noise and no movement.
I’d like to take a look at your belt tension Could you check the tension of your belts for me?
When pressing lightly on one side of the belt, the other side should not move.
Like this:
​
(You should see an animated image above)
If a belt is loose, you can follow this link for instructions to adjust the tension of the carriage plate belt or here to adjust the tension of the side belt.
Please reply with a photo of the belt if you are unsure about the tension. Also, please feel free to provide a video of the grinding noise you’ve described in your comment as well.
Warm regards,
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belts are of equal tention. the carriage plate is 13 7/16" on the left side and the right side is 13 6/16" . grinding noise seems to come from the motor , i assume is a motor, on the right side. carriage plate will not move from front to rear with the motor, motors? will roll freely by hand. rollers on the back of the belts work well .as the front geared rollers there are no visible signs of damage to either
my measurements came from the inside lip of the lower door to the carriage plate.
There are motors on both sides else it would not travel evenly. I would think that if they do not push evenly the gantry would not stay parallel to the back. I have had mine go catawampus when it hit a pin that was too high and then act strangely but kept the non parallel the same until I trued it up against the back (1/16 is very little but truing it against the back is not a bad thing even so)
Using a cell phone to take photos (especially places you cannot stick your head to) and posting here will help support see something you might miss, or you see from a new angle yourself to catch the source of the issue 
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I am purchasing a new machine from FSL. In my opinion you sold me a bad machine knowingly and expected me to repair it with no questions asked. you have no service department, no one to call and refuse to except your responsability for a bad product. anyone else got a bad machine off the bat, email redbown02@comcast.net and let us discuss a class action suite against glowforge!
You’re replying to a forum member, not GF staff. You’ll see some posts with a yellow background in the forum - those are from staff. They also have “Staff” under their name (where you have “owner”).
Do a search on class action and see if you can join efforts, maybe you’ll get the satisfaction you’re looking for. Best of luck with the FSL. You might want to look into Universal, Trotec or Epilog if traditional service & support models are critical to you. FSL has not historically had the best reputation in the quality, service and support areas.
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I did not sell you anything, I am happy with mine, but have no other connection to Glowforge. Was only trying to help.
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I see you already emailed us about this and we’re working on it there, so I’m going to close this topic.