Noisy motors

My current Glowforge is much noisier than the past 3 when moving in certain directions.

Is there anything I can adjust to reduce the movement noise?

I’m worried the motors are taking on more wear-and-tear than necessary.

You can most clearly hear what I mean in the last few seconds of this video:

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That sounds like resonance to me. The vibration from the motors is making something else vibrate to create the noise you are hearing. I would look for anything that might not be seated properly.
Since it doesn’t happen all the time, only at certain speeds, it is probably not a motor issue. I wouldn’t worry about premature wear on the motors based on that video, but I would look for anything that isn’t tied down that should be.

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Seconded. Is there anything sitting atop or beside that may be vibrating sympathetically? It sounds metallic to me.

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Sounds like only when y-is engaged. Disappears entirely when it’s just x-movement. I’d start there.

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My machine is noisy across one axis, and virtually silent in the other. It’s been that way since I got it years ago - to the point where I don’t even think about it, and hence can’t say which one is noisy and which one isn’t.

I even tried to program the imperial death march by having different angled movement to create the tones. I got bored and gave up.

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Sounds like mine. Hmm I need to make something new today.

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My Basic is all but silent when moving along the x-axis, but the y-axis makes some noise. It’s been that way for four years and I’ve never been concerned.

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I removed everything from on top of the Glowforge and the table it’s on to rule out any of that vibrating. All 3 belts were over-tensioned and the pulleys over-tightened. I loosened them all just a tiny bit. But something is still noisier than it should be. Haven’t figured out what’s vibrating yet.

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I am so late to this but omg someone finally found similarly to the noise my glowforge (brand new basic 3 years ago) started to make recently. Most don’t seem concerned by this but this noise coincides with my glowforge no longer cutting through materials it used to have no issue with (I have to slow down cut speeds now, and yes I have cleaned all lenses too.). So I am not sure if my noise (sounds similar) is the same exact reason or what, but I was happy to find this post with a great video of it.

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Same as a number of folks above, my side to side is silent, front to back makes noise. Angles make music. It started in about year 2-3 for me, but made no difference to cutting or being square so I left it alone. I’m now in year 6 with no further changes.

Sadly it’s likely a coincidence. I believe you already opened a post elsewhere with your cutting issues. Have you posted pictures of all the lenses, windows, and mirror? Possibly one of us can see something you missed?

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FWIW, I never did anything about this noise and it’s gotten a bit quieter over the years. The machine still runs perfectly.

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