My glowforge pro is letting out smoke and fumes through the lid, door, and hose ends. Both exhaust fan and air assist are running perfectly fine. I have only had this machine for less than 2 two weeks, and have hardly used 5 hours of cutting. What could the problem be? Nothing appears to be clogged or gummed up.
Sounds like something is blocking the exhaust. Do you have a blast gate on it?
Check to make sure that nothing is blocking the hose, that there are no sharp bends in it, nothing blocking the exterior, nothing inside the hose. One other thing to check is that you haven’t accidentally flipped the “Use this with a Filter” switch in the app. (Look on the Settings Gear icon in the top row.)
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I have the compact filter attached to it.
Do you have the fan in the filter turned on and a good flow?
In that case, (and assuming you have dialed up the fan speed enough as @rbtdanforth suggested), you might have filled or clogged the filter. When the filter clogs, the suction from the fan is not strong enough to pull the smoke out of the Glowforge. Any time you see that happen it’s likely a full filter.
Five hours is not much time to fill it up, but it really depends on what you are cutting. (MDF and Draftboard fill a filter up ten times faster than acrylic and most hardwoods.)
(You can get a replacement filter in the Glowforge shop if you need one…it’s in the Spare Parts section.)
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Looks like it was the filter. Thank you! Super unfortunate I’ve only had it for less than 2 weeks and have hardly used it.
Talk to support about it. They can look at what you were cutting and see if it impacted the filter.
You might want to experiment with a pre-filter…it can catch some of the larger particles and might extend the life of the cartridge somewhat, but you will need to switch it out more frequently.
This is the one that @techyg was using on his…
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Thanks so much for the help @Jules and @rbtdanforth! There are a lot of factors that go into the lifespan of your cartridge, including how often you print and what material you put in your Glowforge. Draftboard and other MDF materials will use up the filter extremely quickly, while recommended materials like hardwoods, leather, paper, and acrylic will take a very long time to use up your filter. Unfortunately, because of all the variables, it’s impossible to estimate a typical lifespan.
@heatherchristensen19 I see that you also emailed in about this and we have followed up with you there, I am going to close this thread. If you have any other questions please feel free to open another thread or reach out to us via email.
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