Hi everyone - I’ll try to make this as succinct and descriptive as I can. I’ve had a brand new Glowforge Pro for about 7 months now - for the most part, things have worked as expected. However, a few days ago (the last day I was actively using the machine to engrave & cut), I thought the motors that move the chassis sounded a little different than normal - as though they were working harder to operate than normal.
I hadn’t used it since. But this morning as I turn it on and it began it’s honing, I immediately could hear that the motors and movements weren’t smooth and the sounds were like something was seized up. I gave it a moment to see if it was just hung up - but it couldn’t even hone correctly and just made sporadic movements. The laser head never came underneath the camera - it was just off to the side.
I manually (and genlty, slowly) moved the chassis and head back to the home position. Turned it off. Turned it back on again - same problems.
So I visually inspected the tracks, rubber belts, and the wheels - everything (from a pedestrian point of view) looked normal. I applied a single and very focused squirt of WD-40 to each wheel (not the wheels on the laser head chassis) which really didn’t seem to do anything helpful.
I again power cycled, and the machine seems to have honed correctly (I’m about to do a calibration print). My concern is that the motors are about to give up while I have 25 orders to engrave/cut.
- Can anyone advise on what to look for or visualize to see if something can be remedied with the motors? I clean my machine once a week and am meticulous about every facet.
- What happens if this is a warranty issue and they want me to send my machine in? Will they send me a new unit or a loaner? And how quickly do they work on sending one to me? I’m so nervous that after a semi-successful (for me) weekend of sales, I won’t be able to fulfill these orders.