Smoke Coming Out Of The Front of Machine

My machine seems to not be sucking all the smoke out. There is visible smoke coming out of the front of the machine and every time I cut, the room fills up with smoke even though I am running the exhaust out the window. I have turned off all the lights in the room and shined a flashlight at the unit and you can clearly see tons of smoke billowing out from the front lid like it is not sealed shut. Is this an issue with the door alignment or perhaps the fan is not operating properly to suck out all of the smoke? I have also been having issues with the unit having power failures on start up about every other time that I turn the unit on. Could this be related? Unless I am cutting in the early morning when it is about 58 degrees, it also seems to have a super long cool down time during cutting. If I want to cut 15 circles, it can take 30 minutes just to cut because the unit has to stop and cool down between each circle.

I have similar issues with my GlowForge pro. Originally thought that this was caused by an obstruction in the exhaust line. My line is completely clear yet the smoke continues to pour out of the front and bottom. Here is a video of what I see:

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Totally abnormal.

For folks who have cut a lot of material, or even just some MDF, the exhaust fan gets covered with gunk and stops working well. Take off the exhaust hose and check the exhaust fan for gunk.

For others, does the exhaust fan at the back left come on? Take the exhaust hose off and do an arbitrary cut at 1% power and see if the fan is working. Have you check to see if you have any airflow out of the exhaust hose? Go outside and check for smoke coming out.

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It’s worth checking your exhaust port, fan blades, and vent hose as a first step. People who have had this problem in the past have usually found some sort of blockage.

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I have the same exact problem! This is exactly what I am dealing with. Did you ever contact support? If so, did they ever say anything about it? This can’t be normal.

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I checked my exhaust hose, the fan, everything. I can’t see any blockage. Also, the fan has changed pitch over time as well.

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I contacted support when it first happened. At the time, I found a slight obstruction at the end of my exhaust fan and though that this was the issue. Unfortunately, I see the same behavior with a completely clear exhaust line. I even went to the side of my house and felt the air blow out of the tube during a print. Something is definitely not right.

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I have a clear exhaust line and can feel the air blowing when I go outside and inspect it during a print. There is a decent amount of flow.

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Did this and all appear to be clear.

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Did both of these and the fannappears to be working. My video shows smoke being sucked out the exhaust port in the back left corner.

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Ok, so. I did a little bit more investigation. Looks like my fan exhaust port that has the hex grid on it, just in front of the fan in the back of the machine, was pretty well obstructed from various ick that has accumulated. I probably cut for between 6 and 9 hours a day on my unit. So, maybe I just need to clean that out once a week. The machine sounds a lot quieter too. Hopefully, this will fix my issues. No more smoke is coming out. I and I can’t feel any air leaks anymore.

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Most likely an exhaust restriction. Only three causes I can think of.

  • The fan grill is blocked by debris (I have experienced this but only after extended use) Pull the exhaust duct and you see the aluminum grill in front of the fan.
  • The flex duct is crimped or bent at a sharp angle restricting air flow.
  • The exhaust fan isn’t working, or isn’t working as designed.

The case isn’t air tight. When working properly the exhaust fan moves more CFM than the intake, that creates a slight negative pressure in the machine so all the cracks in the machine will be pulling air in.
When I had the grill blockage problem the first place I noticed smoke coming out was at the front door, especially pronounced when the gantry was close to the front and the air assist was blowing directly at the door seams.

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I’m sure that fan grill is there for safety requirements, but seems unwarranted since there will be an exhaust duct attached, so after my warranty expires at the first cleaning of that grill I plan to remove sections of it to eliminate the ability of the grill to face load so quickly.

I resolve to prevent any children (there are none here) from yanking off the duct and sticking their fingers it the exhaust port of the running machine! :roll_eyes:

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If the pitch rises (i.e. fan is spinning faster) that is a sure sign the airflow is blocked. A bit counter intuitive because you might expect the fan to work harder against an obstruction but actually if less air flows through it it has less work to do.

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I have noticed when cutting a lot of draft board or PG ply that the machine case fogs & duct screen clogs up much more quickly than any other material - guessing its a remnant of the MDF core.

In general I tend to use a cleaning schedule that is about twice the OEM recommended. I have just found that a super clean machine - especially the optics - gives me the most consistent “prints”. I would rather spend an extra 10 min and a handful of Zeiss Wipes than to loose the time and material costs from a cut not going all the way through - or an inconsistent engrave.

Which is why I got a 5000 pack of wipes on Amazon :wink:

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Geez, 5,000! I thought my box of 400 was close to overkill.
Since I began using them though, I tend to use them on my glasses and magnification lenses also.

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Thanks for the help @chris1 and @CharlesDarwin!

@TimothyHand I’m happy to hear cleaning the exhaust connection worked.

I’m going to close this thread but if you have any additional questions please don’t hesitate to start a new thread or email us at support@glowforge.com