Since this problem is being seen on materials that were purchased from another company, we can’t offer support for prints that don’t come out as expected. I’m going to move it to Beyond the Manual so other folks here can help. Should this happen with a print on Proofgrade materials, please open a new ticket in Problems and Support and we’ll help you right away!
@jeremy5 I did have the same issue last week with thick draft board that was proof grade. It cut 3/4 way. I had two jobs to cut and everything went great on the first one and the second didn’t go through all the way. I can take a picture of the board for you.
I can’t imagine needing to air out my house after cutting anything, and I installed a vent myself. Needing to tape up the gaps on the machine just seems wrong. I would double check everything… It should work better than that.
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Have you ever cut mirrored acrylic??? It has a very strong smell. If I use any other material the scent is minimal and I don’t smell it upstairs. The tape seems to really cut down on the odor.
I got some aluminum tape and going to eliminate any gaps at the connection to the vent at the machine and going outside and presume that will make a difference as well.
You might want to consider having a tee coupling at the bottom of your vertical pipe to connect your flexible coupling to. The bottom of the tee should then be closed with something that you can remove and also seals. I suspect that some of the smoke particles coalesce as they rise in the vertical pipe and then become too heavy to be supported by the rising air stream. With the tee the falling particles will end up in the trap rather than the flexible tube.
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I used an inverted y instead of a tee junction, to avoid another 90 degree turn. It’s above the drop ceiling, where I keep my spiderweb collection.
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One thing I did as I had a roll of foam tape (it was double sided but a bit of powder and it was single sided.) as my exhaust fan was mainmed at the time I was getting a lot of smoke from the front lid. It did not help elsewhere but it made a permanent seal on that part of the lid still was able to close properly, as the foam only took up any open space.
Hey Jules, great post! Quick question. Do you have a link to the hose and connectors you bought at rockler? They have a lot to choose from and I’m not sure which one you got. I’d like to get one too! 
Oh man…if you had asked then I’d have had a better shot at remembering…
Let me go look…they do have a lot of choices as I recall…I bought a couple of extras I didn’t need.
One of these - it has the two ports for either end of the hose:
Just the hose here:
(I cut it in half…you probably don’t need 20 feet)
And I put one of these on the back of the Glowforge, since I have to swivel from the window to the compact filter with the hose…(just makes it easier).
Happy Cake Day! @slackk1994 
As it turns out a slice through the middle of an empty bottle of V8 is exactly the perfect size to fit the exhaust with a very tight fit that takes only an instant to take off or on.
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sorry to dredge up an older conversation, but I wanted to ask exactly where I should tape up for smell reduction? Here’s my set up:
- medium apartment with lasercutter in the main room
- default hose and clamps goes ~1 feet to a window
- window has one of these that connects to the default hose
I currently cut mostly acrylic and the smell lingers for a few hours after cutting (I’m now used to it though but house guests are not.) Maybe I can tape up the hose connections but the clamp thingy is in the way. Anywhere else I should tape?
I also want to reduce noise, but that’s another issue for another thread. 
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The V-8 trick above seals well and a Vivosun assist that runs all the time will clear out any smells and increase the volume of air through the Glowforge. However when you remove cut pieces from the Glowforge they will carry a smell for a few days.
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I got one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075J7ZYT8 and it helped to both reduce noise and smell.
I’m guessing it helps on smell because it removes the likelihood of pinholes in the hose
but yeah, acrylic is a pain. It just smells.
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I second the hose that @deirdrebeth has. It has reduced the noise and smell inside and made the noise outside almost non-existent.
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Thanks for the recommendation! I bought it once and it was not as advertised (6" shorter than 4 feet) and did not fit on my set up despite having 2 pairs of hands trying to put it on.
I just put on some aluminum tape between the window vent + end of hose. I can definitely smell acrylic seeping out from the glowforge output + beginning of host. I can’t find a good spot to put tape though, since there’s barely any room there. Maybe a new hose will do (it was super gross inside!)
If you want to use a really good hose, no smell, no pinholes, you probably want to go with the Rockler 4" quick connect series. It’s expensive, but you can cut the hose in half and get two hoses out of the deal (I think it’s like 20 feet which is way more than people need for this.) But it’s clear, so you can see any buildup and clean it when needed.
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Thank you for the recommendations! It is only 6-12" from the glowforge to the window, so I’ll have to find a good use for the extra length or shop around on that site. It’s not that expensive to be honest! I draw the line at multiple hundred dollar filters/fans.
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There’s a 12” version and it’s on sale 
https://www.rockler.com/clear-flexible-dust-collection-hose-optional-sizes
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Can you send a pic?
Can you send a pic of what the aluminum taping Looks like inside?