I rejoiced greatly when my GF started cutting properly, but now it’s cutting a bit too well… it over heats constantly. I can cut 1/8” acrylic okay, but wood or draft board overheats. 1/4” ANYTHING is totally out, overheats to the point it never recovers and starts cutting again; just sits running and running for hours. I’ve cleaned and cleaned, checked everything suggested at least 3 times. Don’t know what to do except I did buy a new plate (?) with auxiliary fan, and have been considering installing it- mostly because of the overheating, but also because the poor thing keeps losing its head. (My husband’s advice was to tell it to look between its legs 
). Are there any more sensible options?
What’s the temperature of the environment you’re using it in? When you say it overheats, I assume you’re getting a cooling down message in the software… but you’re not seeing an unusual amount of flames or charring. Is that correct?
You did say you’ve checked and cleaned everything suggested, but folks reading this don’t know what was suggested, so it’s hard to make further suggestions. Maybe you could be more specific. The way I have my machine set up, I learned it’s easy to accidentally block the air intake on the right side… I used to have a tendency to put papers there and it sucks them right up against the vent.
I’m not sure what your references to a plate and “losing its head” are.
Ultimately, it comes down to having a sufficient amount of sufficiently cool air entering the machine, and that air passing over the parts that need to be cooled, and those parts not being covered in a dust blanket, and the coolant system functioning correctly, and the temperature sensors functioning correctly. The sensible options for troubleshooting are to systematically go through each of those possibilities and find the fault.
Have you contacted Glowforge support? They have access to diagnostic logs from the machine and can see what numbers the sensors are reporting. Unfortunately, we can’t (easily) do that on our own, nor do we have the information necessary to interpret them.
5 Likes
+++ everything @chris1 said!
only addition, make sure the sides of the glowforge are free of things, air intakes is esp important at the right front and side of your glowforge!
jonathan
As has been mentioned, cooling is provided by airflow through the machine, primarily driven by the exhaust fan at the back during the job. The metal grate behind that fan can become completely caked over with debris from cutting until not enough air can get out of the case. Some people run their exhaust hose out to a screened window, where the screen can become caked over with the same debris until air can’t move through that either. Either of those things will prevent enough air from moving through the Glowforge to keep the tube cool. If the room temperature is near or above the maximum operating temperature for the machine (75F for a Basic/Plus or 81F for a Pro), then it’ll never cool down in that situation either.
2 Likes
He mentioned that
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.