Printed the “gift of measure-imperial” on the left and “gift of measure-metric” on the right after trying some other projects. The right side doesn’t cut through at all!
Just got my Glowforge and am extremely surprised by this problem. Figured with the Pro power this would never be an issue.
Very common problem for first time users…you want to make sure the material is completely flat…sometimes it warps a bit in transport and has to be acclimatized for a week or so in it’s new environment. (It’s wood…it warps and swells.)
There are Honeycomb Pins here that can be used to pin it down if there is a little bit of warp or twist in it.
And the machines usually benefit from running the Calibration routine at the link below. Between that and correct use of the Set Focus tool, you will eliminate most of the problems with not quite cutting through on the material.
Hmm. Alignment process seems to have made it worse. No sign of cutting getting through!
Uh-oh. In that case, Support will likely need some more information from you to figure out what the problem is when they see your post…
If you want to print the Gift of Good Measure file (on your Dashboard) on a sheet of Proofgrade material (you can use the sheet of Draftboard that they send with your machine for testing purposes), in the area where it’s not cutting through, and then post pictures of the front and back of the material after the print, it will help them to see what’s wrong.
To upload a picture here…just drag and drop it from your desktop onto a new line in a reply post. It will upload here.
Decided to try and see if materials “settled.” Noticed a fun little nuance, upper right, approximately one o’clock, of the printer head window was smoking and then showed a red ember. Stopped the machine as I figure this is the type of misalignment that can cause a fire.
Not using the Glowforge until I get further direction.
Yep! Unplug it too. 
(Let them check the logs.)
Hello! @shotofentropy I am so sorry for the cut-through trouble and the scare with the printer head window. I will do my best to get this resolved for you.
When your Glowforge is properly set up, you may have some harmless odor during printing which will rapidly dissipate. You may also smell something when you open the Glowforge lid after a print is complete. This is not harmful.
However, if you detect a strong, sharp smell that also causes eyes, nose, or throat irritation, or if there is visible smoke escaping while the lid is closed, shut off your Glowforge unit immediately. Smoke and fumes could be entering the room in excessive concentrations.
We’ve created a troubleshooting guide with illustrations. You can see it here:
https://support.glowforge.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034142593-Excessive-Smoke-or-Fumes-During-Print
Also, in this case, I would like to review some of your optics. Could you do the following for me?
Please send photos of all your cleaned optical components, with special attention to any damage you might find:
Both windows
The printer head window, on the left hand side of the printer head
The laser window on the inside left of the Glowforge
The printer head lens
Both sides of the lens, top and bottom
The mirror inside the printer head
The bottom of the printer head
Waiting for the next steps.
Hello @shotofentropy I am so so sorry for the delay. I went ahead and sent you an email in regards to the next steps. It is looking like we will be needing to replace the Glowforge for you. I look forward to your reply by email. I will go ahead and close this thread to mitigate any confusion or miscommunication. Thank you!
