Hello,
I’m having issues with cutting material all the way through. I was using 1/4 plywood with settings that have always worked. I pin down my material and make sure to use the auto focus tool but still wouldn’t cut through. I cleaned my lenses with no success. I went through 4-5 sheets playing with lower settings only to get a lot of charring. Would this be due to the upgrade? Thank you, your help is appreciated.
Is this PG plywood, or non-PG? If non-PG, can you cut through on PG materials?
Non-PG plywoods are hit or miss, depending on what’s actually on the inside. Some of the glues they use are not laserable, and there can be knots and stuff that the GF can’t cut.
Also, as for “charring” YES! My machine went super laser and almost caught fire. It’s like they threw the machine out of whack with this update. All these issues I’ve never had before. Be careful to catch your machine on fire or you’ll be screwed.
I actually no longer have PG material available and it’s been hard to buy… so I’ve been using what I have available of 1/4 baltic birch. I am aware of the glue spots and such and after the first one did not cut, I made sure the next few were free of voids in the areas I was cutting.
On one board I tried cutting a 9x11 frame around it, first cut I set auto focus and it didn’t even mark the back… second cut I manually entered the height with 2 passes at 150/FP and it still didn’t cut through. At this point I cleaned all my lenses and tried it again. I went down the line and tried different preset materials…thick walnut, maple, basswood, cherry. It was a hit and miss but nothing that was consistent. I did this with 4 boards.
After the problem with the first board, I actually stood and watched each cut after to see what it was doing. It was smelling bad but no fire… and yes I cleaned the fan and lenses to eliminate those as the cause and do not have the CF.
Maybe, maybe not. Please be clear about you thinking it is, or suspect is it. You can post any facts you want but anything beyond facts is supposition.
And posting to everyone else’s Support threads is rude and inconsiderate behavior.
As well as the FAQ on expected community behavior.
https://community.glowforge.com/faq#flag-problems
Have a good night.
Hey corkhats, I understand the frustration, but give them a chance to help, or the community to help with what’s going on with your system. There are a ton of good folks in the forum that will try to help. After all, it is why many of us participate here in the the community.
What kind of issues are you experiencing? I don’t mind trying to help, and I am sure that GF Support will do their best to try and help out.
Hi, thanks for the reply. It’s an issue with the machine focusing. It’s requiring that I place a piece of acrylic underneath the material or it wont even fire at all. I’ve been at it for 10 days. Right now it’s only giving me one or two pri ts per day
I don’t doubt that you’re having a problem, I just suspect it’s not software update related.
It’ll be interesting to see if you end up having to send the unit back in. You think you’re mad now? Just wait, you’re going to love that process. I look forward to your happy posts about it.
Did you have that issue yourself?
With what looks like focus? Nah. I had issues though and had to send a machine back in. It’s a long process, especially if you’re out of warranty.
You joined in Jan 2019, so looks like you’re just out of warranty? Sorry about that.
Obviously I don’t work for glowforge so take literally everything I am saying with a grain of salt, your experience might be really different from mine. In fact, with covid-19 I would be surprised if it weren’t. I have no idea how this is affecting Support’s processes and supply chains. One thing is for sure, I doubt it’s helping them there.
Back in your own P&S post they’re waiting on a response from you as to whether you used the Set Focus tool. They can troubleshoot more effectively if you answer their questions. 
I’m afraid you’ll keep getting flagged as long as you keep violating forum rules. 
Yes, pretty standard that calling someone two pejoratives in one post will get you flagged here. That doesn’t do anything to assist the OP.
I disagree, she was telling you why you were getting flagged. And as to her violating the policies, there’s actually no policy against bringing no value anyway. Which she was.
Just try to not be mad at us and realize that we’ve all been there and are actually trying to help and you’ll stop getting flagged.
A lot of people come here and expect it to be mean like the bulk of the internet. Granted sometimes people get a little snippy here and there, but in general I promise that this is a pretty nice corner of the web. We’re not out to get you, and believe it or not we’d like to see you get back on track – even now after you’ve flung names around and decided to fight us.
Sorry your thread has gotten so hijacked. I’ve always had to use 2-3 passes to cut through 1/4" Baltic birch, but it sounds like you had a different experience; you must have been getting better quality stuff than I was!
I’m not sure how Support will be able to help with no PG materials on hand to try known material and settings, though. Any chance you have any scraps of anything PG lying around?
This is the last I’ll post about it, but jerk is very much in the eye of the beholder, which is why replying to tone is against forum policies. Threadjacking, however, is kind of bad form – nobody was wrong about that, it’s kind of standard netiquette. We’re all equally important, so making more noise with other threads will not jump you in any lines, it’ll only serve to slow down and muddy the OP’s support path. Support is slow to reply, it’s a long process… before you start thinking it, I’m no “bootlicker” or GlowForge apologist, I’ve been sharply critical of their support process for a long time… But the people who are running that process are really great, as are the people behind the forum avatars.
It’s difficult to separate how you feel about the support process from the support staff, the temptation is to lash out at them, at the rest of the forum etc etc. We’re all in it together, we’re all stressed right now. I hope you get as quick a resolution as is possible, as I hope the OP does on this terribly jacked thread. Sorry @jam68stang, good luck. geek2nurse and support got your back.
I thought I had saved an MDF for future calibration but don’t seem to find it. I have PG acrylic and hardwoods … Oh, I just found a medium walnut plywood I was saving for a good project …
I’d hate to waste it but I’ll do what necessary to fix my machine. Although the issue was with 1/4 material will the medium work to test it? Still looking through my stash in case I have one hidden somewhere.
My medium acrylic works perfectly fine and it’s the only the thing that will work since it started. I’m curious to see if you try that and it works.