I’m back to having the problem I had last year where the laser power somehow isn’t consistent from moment to moment, despite having the same settings. Cuts seem to start late
I can see the laser on the whole time, but the cutting power seems to vary widely. This is a score with the following settings.
I’ve cleaned all the lenses and visually inspected belts and everything. Anyone have any ideas on what to try next?
This is the kind of thing Glowforge support needs to address in my opinion. Dirty optics, cracked wheels or belt problems would not cause this range of problems.
I’ve pinged support again. We’ll see if they have any new information from their end.
I ran the cut again and while it doesn’t look exactly the same, it’s interesting that it has some of the same patterns (ignore the big 1st – i’m using this as scrap). For example the S in WOODS didn’t show up at all in either, and the H and the Y in HENDY are the lightest letters. That makes me think it could be a software problem.
Though it’s strange – usually I can roughly infer laser output by how bright the purple glow in the laser tube is. In this case I see a consistent purple glow the whole time but the output power seems to vary quite a bit.
Here’s my “Gift of Good Measure” for reference. It’s very similar – engraves are ok, but scores and cuts are inconsistent. The 1/2" hole barely even tried to cut. None of the cuts made it all the way through (second pic is the back of the draftboard).
Looks like the tube is done to me, but support will need to work with you to confirm.
If this is your first machine, it lasted way longer than expected.
Support can use the Gift of Good Measure print to help diagnose the problem. Send them the photo along with the date and time of the print.
When the tube goes out isn’t it more gradual over time than this?
Sometimes my tube will cut, sometimes it won’t. Sometimes part of the cut barely scores and then fades into cutting (see my post from last year in the original comment, or the first two holes on the left of gift of good measure)
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. The leaking gas may have it to the point where sometimes it fires, sometimes it doesn’t - as as it warms from use during a cut, that may occur more frequently.
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