Please Help! Fire Damage

So last night my GF caught fire, looks like i will need a replacement top camera as well as the actual laser lens, the head itself looks pretty intact . Ribbon cable seems fine, led strips on lid are toast hinges on lid seem to have come un-glued? one side is actually melted

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one side is actually melted

Dude, you’re the second person in a short amount of time that I’ve seen this happen to and mine nearly caught fire yesterday also! What is going on? I’ve never had these kinds of problems! Do you know what caused it?

Oh and I havent done anything different since I started using it. What gives?

Almost all glowforge fires I’ve seen are from people cutting or engraving acrylic and not paying attention.

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When our machines are cutting they are making a small fire. It is our job to monitor this small fire and stop it from turning into a big fire. /end of self righteous reply/ Do I watch my machine 100 percent of all the time it is cutting? no, but I should. This is a good reminder for me.

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I use a camera to watch mine always. Losing my machine would be bad, but losing my house would be really bad. Cameras are cheap too.

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I am sorry for your loss.

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Can you tell us what material you were cutting at the time? We know cardboard, acrylic and stacked materials are things to be extra vigilant with but maybe this was something else?

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That stinks. Hope they are able to replace/repair(?) it quickly.

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You mentioned in another thread that you’ve been putting a piece of acrylic underneath the material you’re cutting. Stacking materials is a definite fire risk and that might well be related.

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Yeah, that’s because it requires me to do so. I have my settings adjusted, my material is the same. Everything has remained the same. The only thing that has changed is the autofocus update they did.

Also, I just did a cut, my machine is running well as long as o have that piece of acrylic underneath it. :man_shrugging:

if you are using layers of material, you are upping the risk for starting a fire. whether you believe it’s necessary to make it work or not, it’s still a higher fire risk.

one other thing i’ve mentioned to people that they should be checking and cleaning (that a lot of people miss) is the air assist behind the laser head. that can easily be the culprit for a higher fire risk if it gets clogged and/or is throwing lower volume of air. that’s a big part of mitigating fire risk.

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Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear about the damage to your Glowforge.

We may be able to repair this, but if not, we want to get you a path to get back up and printing.

I’ll be in touch via email to sort out the details.