My package arrived with only 3 plastic handles installed. The instructions say to hold onto all 4 but one was already missing upon delivery, do I need it? Upon initial inspection of my glowforge I found some gritty white powder all over the components inside. It looks like it is coming from the white plastic coating of the outer casing. It’s as if the inside was not dusted off after being powder coated or something. The front bottom inner plastic edge behind the doorway seems to be the main source of the gritty white powder. It is also all over the internal parts including the laser tube & lens. Do I need to worry about it flying around inside and affecting my machine once I turn it on? Could it possibly get all over my lenses and cause damage, or other problems? There are also a few imperfections in the chrome coating behind the led’s when the lid closes, slightly sticking up out of the chrome finish on both sides. They are snagging on both sides of the lid causing light scratches in the plastic coating each time the lid is opened/closed.
Desiccant was securely fastened to inner foam with no signs of any leakage from it. It seems like my entire plastic housing is somewhat unfinished, and left with an overall gritty texture to it. Is this how it is supposed to feel? I thought it would have a smooth plastic finish like any other household printer would have?
Should I attempt to blow it all out with compressed air before I turn it on? Do I just wait for a response from glowforge? I wanna play with my laser:frowning_face:
Dang. That unicorn dandruff can be such a mess. Well, that’s what you get when you use unicorn tears for the coolant.
The way you describe it makes it seem like an manufacturing artifact, unless something occured during shipping. However, with the plastic bag around the Glowforge, I can’t image it being anything else but some manufacturing issue.
Two choices: clean it as well as you can going over all the surfaces. Give it a good blow with some low pressure air and hope for the best.
Or wait until support weighs in on this. It could be something that ultimately will interfere with electronics, bearings, and other parts.
I’d wait. this is a first time something like this showed that I can recall and the dust could be problematic.
Because of the way it is scattered and also under the door hinge, I suspect it is some sort of quality control failure at Flex and not something that happened during shipment.
Be interesting to know what it was, but overall I hope it is nothing to be concerned about, so your wait can be over.
Alot of it would probably wipe away if it was accessible to do so, but it is not possible to get in there to wipe everywhere. However, where it is concentrated behind the door it is not going to just wipe off easily, it would probably require sanding or buffing to get it all off. Anyone know what type of process is used to create the white coating on the plastic housing? Some sort of spray on powder coating or something that could have been over sprayed and not properly buffed off after?
My machine had a very fine white powder film on the rubber seals and around the glass areas which wiped off easily, I assumed it was a cleaning agent residue and thought nothing of it. This is something else entirely though.
Thank god it didn’t go through customs, white powders often attract suspicion!
Thanks for letting us know about this, and for providing those photos. It’s okay to wipe down interior of the Glowforge as thoroughly as possible and go ahead with setup.
Please let us know if you run into any trouble along the way. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience.
It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.
