The Glowforge Compact Filter

email support@glowforge.com and they will allow you to do the switch.

If you have already ordered a Glowforge filter with the Glowforge, they will let you switch to a Compact Filter by sending an email to support@glowforge.com.

But they are not yet taking orders for the Compact Filter alone, so if you didn’t pre-order it, there is not a method in place for purchase yet.

Has there been more shipments of the Compact Filter since the original announcement? I filled out the form on Feb 13th to switch to the Compact Filter but apparently I didn’t make the cut for the first batch shipped. I can’t seem to find an estimated ship time for the Compact Filter anywhere in my account like there used to be with the original GF Filter.

It seems ironic that the substitute filter (offered to alleviate the frustration some buyers had with delays on the original filter) has also not shipped in half a year.

I’m starting to think these filters are made from unicorn flesh.

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gluten free unicorn flesh

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Uh-oh, they have shipped all of the original “swap out” orders for people who signed up on the list, so if you had one on order and wanted to change it for the Compact Filter, they likely misplaced the notice. Send an email to support@glowforge.com and let them know you are still waiting on it.

Wouldn’t surprise me. I ordered my GF on September 2015 but didn’t add the GF Filter until June 2017. I had a delivery date on my account that kept getting postponed like everyone else.

Then one day in early 2018 my air filter disappeared entirely from my account history. It took several weeks and emails with Rita to get this sorted. I even provided her with the credit card transaction info from my bank, but somehow the order had just gone “poof!” on their end. Finally, @Rita did some magic on her end and added the filter order back to my account manually.

When the Compact Filter was announced, I filled out the form (Feb 13, 2019) and have been waiting ever since. @Dan said there was a limited supply and it was first-come, first-served for the first batch. I assumed they were still waiting for more from their supplier. I had no idea they were supposed to have all been delivered by now. :frowning:

52%20PM

This was the thread when my order disappeared.

Yep, let them know and explain what happened like you did here. I’ll bet you anything that the manual intervention early on messed something up somewhere. They’ll get you squared away.

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Wow! You’re some kind of forum ninja. When do you find time to eat sleep or do real work? It seems you reply instantly with helpful info on each and every thread. Thanx.

I hope the folks at Glowforge give you some sort of kickback or other benefits for all the service you provide to us all on their behalf. Maybe they need to put you on their payroll. :slight_smile:

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Nope…couldn’t take it anyway, wouldn’t be fair. (I do this to keep myself out of trouble.) :wink:

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56%20AM

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I know draftboard kills the filter quickly and I assume the same goes for any MDF. What other types of materials should be avoided.

Resinous softwoods like pine and cedar, as well as padauk, which is a hardwood but has a sticky-ish resin as well that clogs the pores on the filter fast. (At least from my testing.)

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You did a lot of testing early on, including a bunch of pre-filter work. Curious as to what you do today. Do you use the compact filter? DO you use the panty hose or other pre filter?

No, I generally vent outside. I bought the filter to test it. (Because I was curious, not because I had no other option.) It works fine, but I do have the ability to vent outside here, so that’s the best way to save on filters. :slightly_smiling_face:

I would add that I do fire it up once in a while if it’s pouring outside, because the humidity gets cut way back that way.

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thanks.

I use the compact filter a lot since I can’t vent outside (HOA rules). I found a lot of the easy pre-filter options didn’t do enough (air-conditioner foam filters, washable woven filters, etc). They caught some of the particles, but I was still only getting ~15hours of wood cutting/engraving before the cartridge blocked completely. So I did some research.

I ended up building a box for a 4in, 20x20 MERV14 furnace filter and using it as a pre-filter. This is approximately the pre-filter in high-end laser fume extractors. This completely eliminated the clogging problem caused by various woods, with the filter now lasting 30+ hours. The charcoal is now the limiting factor, as it should be. It doesn’t even have a significant impact on initial airflow.

Honestly, I feel like Glowforge should offer up something similar as an official solution. I’ll be honest, wood doesn’t work well on the current filter as shipped. Even offering it as a add-on specifically for those who work with wood would be fine. While I built the box by hand, they could easily get metal boxes made cheaply and resell them, same with 4in or 5in deep large filters. The whole trick is it needs a MERV14 - 15 pre-filter to catch the gunk in wood smoke.

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Lots of quesation, my filter already stoped working after 6 project. 5 out of 6 where gf martial. Replace few time a month this rate so cost replacment a good quesation

Some materials do fill it up faster. Things like draftboard, MDF, soft woods with a lot of resin… will fill the filters up quickly, because they throw a lot of sticky particles that clog the filter.

You can order the replacement filters in the Glowforge shop in the Spare Parts section.

so what should I be using to lessen the resin more hardwoods??? if the filter goes bad in 6 use of draft board the cost 250.00 make that very expense project and out of reach., I was testing design on draft board because I am new and didn’t want to waste on test project.

Draftboard (or MDF) is always a problem with this kind of filter, and it will fill it up to ten times faster than plywoods and hardwoods. That’s just a function of the physics of it…draftboard and MDF throw a lot of glue and particles when they are burned. And the sticky particles clog a fine filter.

You can try using a pre-filter to catch the particles, but you need to clean/change that much more frequently. (Although they are a lot cheaper.) A couple of people got additional time out of their filters by using these little pre-filters.

You might want to give that a try if you need to cut a lot of MDF.

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