I’m so sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve been experiencing, and I sincerely apologize for the delay in response. I’ve extracted the log files from your Glowforge to review your most recent prints.
Regarding the Cut through trouble
Based on the behavior you are seeing, its likely that the Air Assist Fan is experiencing trouble properly removing debris out of the way of the laser path, which can contribute to the cut through trouble you’ve been experiencing. I’d like to take a look at your Carriage Plate Assembly. When you have a moment, could you work through the instructions here and send over a photo similar to the one below?:
Based on the pauses you are experiencing, I’d like to take a look at your exhaust configuration. Could you send me a few photos of your exhaust system? Specifically, please include pictures of the following:
The exhaust fan from the inside of the unit. To capture this photo:
Turn your Glowforge off
Open the lid
Using both hands, gently pull the printer arm towards you as shown below:
Move your phone or camera inside the Glowforge on the left-hand side, past the metal rail, pointed away from you towards the exhaust hose, to capture a photo like the one below:
A photo of where your exhaust hose attaches to the Glowforge, where your exhaust hose exits the room, and the path your exhaust hose takes from your Glowforge to the exterior vent or Compact Filter
Thank you for posting the photos for us. Looking at the photo of your exhaust fan, there is a lot of thick debris on there which after a while does affect the performance of your exhaust fan. Doing a thorough cleaning of your exhaust fan will help. Below is the recommended method for cleaning your fan:
First, you’ll need to obtain a can of 3M Novec Electronic Degreaser, which you can purchase from Amazon or Digikey.
That page will walk you through the cleaning process. Brief summary:
Turn off and unplug your unit and move it outside. Make sure it’s in a location where it has power and Wi-Fi
Using the fan maintenance page, you’ll be able to turn the fan on
Following all manufacturer’s safety instructions from 3M, spray the degreaser into the fan while it’s running for approximately 5 - 10 seconds, or until the fan is clean.
When you’re done cleaning, turn off your unit to stop the fan, and return it to its usual home. You should now see considerably better performance from your exhaust fan!
I would also like to have you do another cleaning of your Air Assist Fan following the instructions below:
Turn off your Glowforge
Open the front door and carefully remove the crumb tray
Remove the printer head
Holding only the finished black surfaces, grasp the printer head as shown. Pull gently up and back to disengage the magnets and remove the head.
Push down fully on the wire ribbon tab to unplug the wire ribbon from the printer head. Pull the wire ribbon gently away and tuck it into the laser arm.
Unhook the belt
Push the carriage plate to the center of the laser arm so it’s out of the way
Reach under the laser arm on the right side and feel for a black belt and pulley
Placing your thumb between the belt and the laser arm near the pulley, push down on the belt while sliding the belt to the right towards the pulley. The belt will slide off of the pulley. Don’t be afraid to use pressure.
Unhook the belt from the motor on the left side
Remove the carriage plate
Place both index fingers on the rear corners of the plate and both thumbs on top of the front wheels. Use your other fingers to support the plate. While keeping the laser arm stable with your thumbs, use your index fingers to pull the plate towards you as far as it will go. Then push down with your thumbs to angle the plate down and towards the back of the Glowforge until the plate pops off of the laser arm.
You really should tell people that they are going to need to be an engineer when owning this machine. I have done so much maintenance on this unit since I got it less than two months ago.
That cleaner you want me to get is $45 a can and how am I to move it outside by myself and then get WIFI. Plus it is only 20 degrees outside.
I think you should be telling people about all the things they are going to have to do in your videos where you show how easy it is to own and operate. NOT.
Hey there Morgan maybe you could get someone to respond to my emails/comments/post as well…ive been waiting for support. my machines been down since tuesday.
We all understand and can appreciate your frustrations but there are reasons that responses have been delayed more than normal. First the support staff are all working from home due to shutdowns. Communication between staff isn’t as simple as popping your head down the hall anymore. Also when multiple posts for the same issue are made it opens more support tickets and requires another staff person to verify and monitor the problem. Then when someone such as you just did posts a comment about having the same problem or looking for resolution to another it slows the whole process down. If you already have a support request opened (in this section or email) it would be better to post your questions in the Everthing Else section. I hope this helps clear things up a bit and I also hope you get things up and running soon. I’m just a owner like you but all of us on the forum will do whatever we can to assist you and maybe even get you working. The GF really is an amazing tool and I think you will come to really enjoy it.
Well it worked for me. I got a response and replacement parts as well as refurbished machine ordered and on their way to me.
I understand everything you said but maybe if glowforge had a better way of communicating with their customers this kind of thing wouldn’t be happening. Clearly there are a lot of us having issues. I tried all their suggested fixes. I tried opening my own ticket, I tried making my own post. It wasn’t until I made some noise on multiple channels that my request was resolved. A better suggestion would be for them to have a better support department in place to deal with issues than suggesting people with problems not attempt to get the company to respond.
I never suggested for you not to attempt to get a response. I was pointing out some things that slow down the process. Every new post in the P&S section creates a support ticket. Every support ticket requires a support staff member. Every staff member has multiple support request. Therefore multiple requests for the same problem ties up multiple staff members tracking down the same issue. If you and I were the only users that wouldn’t be an issue, but there are as of today 32,000+ members of the forum and we all want our issue resolved first. It just isn’t possible.
So if you need assistance with a new problem use the P&S or email, but doing both or posting multiple times is going to hamper their efforts to help you in a timely manner.
All @ovm.steve is saying is that you (and everyone else who was waiting for support at the same time) might have gotten a response even sooner without the duplicates. If you’ll take the time to read the pinned post at the top of this section, you’ll see that we’re not just making this up.
I apologize for the delay in response, and for the trouble you’ve been continuing to experience. I’ll make sure the feedback you provided gets back to my team!
Could you let me know if working through the instructions we provided previously were helpful, or if you are running into the same behavior?
It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies from the original poster on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.
