Not cutting thru PF grade material

[ninomaini]

Like others I’m having an issue not being able to cut thru medium draftboard. I have made sure I was cutting not in another process.

I cleaned all lenses and mirror twice with no performance change

I have ensured the material is flat

I started having the issue when I finished up cutting acrylic, the last cut did not go all the way thru. I assumed it was dirty, since machine is new and had about 25 hrs of use.

I have not tested yet if I have an issue to the right or left of the machine, at work, on break, will test more when I get home

Any other suggestions?

[geek2nurse]

Check your air assist fan – it’s pretty early for it to have gotten clogged, but if it’s dirty that could be the problem.

You’ve opened a support ticket by posting in this section, so when you do get home, print a Gift of Good Measure on PG draftboard (or another PG material if you don’t have any of that) using the default PG settings, and post front and back photos for Support to take a look at when they get here. That will save some time in the troubleshooting process.

[MarcM]

I’m so sorry to hear that you’re running into trouble. I appreciate you providing the details regarding the snag you are experiencing.

Like others I’m having an issue not being able to cut thru medium draftboard.

I’d like to have you perform a specific test print (as @geek2nurse outlined) of the Gift of Good Measure. When you have a moment, could you please perform a test print of the Gift of Good Measure on Proofgrade Medium Draftboard, and send over images of the front and back of the print once it has been completed?

Once we can review the log files from the test print, and compare it with the images of the front and back of the print, we’ll send over the next best steps.

[ninomaini]

I cleaned the air assist fan, was dirty, but not bad.

recleaned all lens and mirrors

I did both left and right side, same issue, see pictures below

[Brandon.B]

Thank you for getting back to us with your photos of the Gift of Good Measure. After reviewing the prints that failed to cut through, I would like to check over just a few more things. Could you do the following for me?

Please send photos of all your cleaned optical components, with special attention to any damage you might find:

• Both windows
  • The printer head window, on the left hand side of the printer head
    
  • The laser window on the inside left of the Glowforge
    
• The printer head lens
  • Both sides of the lens, top and bottom
    
• The mirror inside the printer head
  
• The bottom of the printer head
  
  

Once we have those pictures, we’ll follow up with next steps.

Thank you!

[ninomaini]

Attached are the pictures you requested

[ninomaini]

I tried slowing down the speed. After that I cut the piece to see the laser penetration, not sure if this helps

I went from 168–>150–>125 (you can see the top side burn.

Does a laser “weaken” over time? I assumed it just stopped working

Please let me know the next steps

[geek2nurse]

Those cut lines are really wide…could your lens be in upside-down?

[Brandon.B]

Thank you for responding with the requested photos. The optical components look good and helps us rule that out for the cause any cut through trouble.

For a next step, we have a new tool that remotely adjusts the factory tuning of your unit. This change may affect your Glowforge unit’s custom print settings. Because of this, I wanted to check in with you before I made this change.

Here’s how it would work:

I’ll make a change to your configuration to test a new setting, and let you know when it’s been applied.

You’ll print a Gift of Good Measure to test, along with anything else you’d like to test

You’ll send me photos of the front and back of the prints.

We’ll determine our next steps from there.

We can try a couple of different settings to see if we can improve your Glowforge unit’s performance.

Please let me know when you are ready for me to apply the change and if you have any questions.

[ninomaini]

I’m ready, should I keep the unit on?

Outlook for iOS

[MorganW]

Hello @ninomaini, I see you have also emailed us about this issue and we’ve been actively working with you there. To avoid duplicate communications I’m going to close this thread and we’ll continue working with you over email.