Close Call

[Bert Kemp]

324785This cutout was running hot right from the get go, its 1/4 BB and I have to run it slow to get thru in 1 pass( I should know better LOL ) well all of a sudden it just caught fire. I was standing right there and a quick spray from my little water bottle took care of it, but Imagine if I wasn't watching:eek:

[David Somers]

Thanks for sharing that Bert!!! I am sure every single one of us drops our guard now and then and we all need reminders of what these puppies can do. Glad you caught it and no damage was done to your machine or you.

And I don't mean to dredge up the Glowforge discussion going on here right now, but for those considering it or waiting for delivery remember that what Bert experienced is a possibility with every laser. Please keep this in mind and be especially mindful of your new product.

Dave

[Ron Gosnell]

Thanks for posting this Bert,
I'm glad it ended well

Gozzie

[Dan Hintz]

Lot of detail in that area, which means the laser is going to linger in one general spot for a while. Long dwell times = fire at some point.

[Scott Shepherd]

Well, the cowboy was riding his horse in the desert, I can see the cactus :)

Come on Bert, those things are safe as DVD players.... :p

Glad you were there and caught it.

[Scott Marquez]

Thanks for sharing Bert, I really need to place a squirt bottle next to my laser, I Don't want to have to use my powder extinguisher.
Scott

[Dave Sheldrake]

I'm *supposed* to be the experienced guy with a lot of lasers

One fire resistant nozzle modifier Vs 180 watts = no contest

324789

[Bert Kemp]

Yes Right Dan all the hair on the horse's mane flying up all close together, I guess I have to make it a lot bigger or cut it out of 1/8 twice and glue together. I'm thinking 1/8 I can cut a lot faster and maybe will reduce the chance of flare up.
Hey all I'm glad I caught it to LOL .


Lot of detail in that area, which means the laser is going to linger in one general spot for a while. Long dwell times = fire at some point.

[Jeffrey Dewing]

Wow, Scary link! I've had times that I think everything is cool, and apparently not! Thanks for the reminder that stupid is the man that thinks danger isn't present!

[Dave Sheldrake]

Bert you need more nozzle air mate, some of that under burn is from flaming coming up from the underside

[Bruce Volden]

So,,,,,,did you finish the cut and make some pocket change?? ;>)

Bruce

[Bert Kemp]

I wish it was in the budget for a bigger air compressor.


Bert you need more nozzle air mate, some of that under burn is from flaming coming up from the underside

[Bert Kemp]

Nope it fell apart:(


So,,,,,,did you finish the cut and make some pocket change?? ;>)

Bruce

[John Noell]

FWIW, I finally learned that I could separate the cut strokes and, while slower, it has less chance of burn (FIRE!!!) on the "corners." Not sure how to say it so it makes sense, but think of a line of V's, and you cut all the left sides then come back and cut the right sides. Instead of a dwell on the lower tip of the V the laser just cuts a series of line. When I cut thin pearl shell on a backing, it eliminates the scorches I got sometimes. Takes some time on the setup (and not worth it for one-off's), but no more scorches or flame-ups.

[Jason Hilton]

So while you're over in the glowforge thread raving about how every GF purchaser is inevitably going to burn their house down you... Nearly burned your house down.

[Bert Kemp]

No Jason not at all true. I know the dangers of fire with a laser ,as you don't, and I supervise my self by watching as it cuts and I avoided a fire because I watch. Also my machine is entirely in a metal box except for the cover so even if I hadn't been right there it would take a long time to get the house going. I all so have a fire extinguisher if it had gone beyond what a spray bottle could handle. I'm never more then a couple of feet away when cutting.
Now if your Plastic glowforge goes up in flames the whole maCHINE WILL BE FUEL for the fire and besides a big fire that's hard to put out you have all those toxic fumes and black smoke from the plastic,that will make it hard to see and get out of the room so you and anyone else in the house will probably die from toxic smoke inhalation .
Do you think all the moms and pops that are buying these things sight unseen will have all the safety equipment such as a spray bottle and fire extinguisher sitting by the kitchen table and they will of course train their 10 year old on proper use of such equipment and tell him he has to stand there for 45 min's and watch and not leave it alone while it cuts out his train parts, while mom and pop drink beer in the other room watching TV. I DON'T THINK SO!!
gOOD LUCK jASON pLEASE DON'T BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN

[Mike Clarke]

So while you're over in the glowforge thread raving about how every GF purchaser is inevitably going to burn their house down you... Nearly burned your house down.

Jason,
That is a funny statement. It is very much an overstatment, but funny. No offense to you or Bert intended by me.

I did have a customer bring up the glow forge today. I gave him a link to the GF thread. Honestly I didn't read that much of the GF thread. I don't think I posted in it either. Any way it is not something that threatens me as you can see.

What I have heard from a few fireman recently is new homes burn faster than older homes. About 4 times faster according to an article I just saw. So whether it is Bert or a GF user if it gets out of hand it can be bad. I have found corrugated cardboard to be bad about wanting to catch fire in a laser.

[Keith Winter]

Wow glad you caught it! Thanks for posting.

[Keith Winter]

I wish it was in the budget for a bigger air compressor.

Bert I have one of those fish pump air compressors, right under a hundred bucks. Works really well for the price if you need something inexpensive.

[Bert Kemp]

Keith I think thats what I have tho I'm not really sure, it came with my wait for it..............fsl don't have any idea what it puts out for psi do you have a model # or send me a pm with a link for what U have. Thanx
wow big blank space whats up here



















































QUOTE=Keith Winter;2487773]Bert I have one of those fish pump air compressors, right under a hundred bucks. Works really well for the price if you need something inexpensive.[/QUOTE]

[John Bion]

Hi Bert, Stern reminder to us all, thanks.

I recently cooked two lenses due to one of our cats climbing into the warm compressor box (Plywood housing around the external compressor) and stepping on - thereby switching off - my compressor and I did not notice for quite a while due to the reservoir of my compressor gradually depleting. By the time I realised, the MDF smoke had cooked the lenses, but no fire fortunately!

Regarding getting a bigger compressor: Keep an eye on auctions of industrial/farming equipment and second hand sales from these. I picked up my compressor second hand for a song, I could hardly believe what I paid as I fork-lifted the beast into place. This compressor now runs my lasers, spray painting, sand-blaster and other pneumatic tools with ease.
One other point, if you have a 3 Phase Electricity supply, you can often pick up 3 Phase equipment cheaper second hand because there is less competition for it than for single phase equipment, those looking for 3 phase equipment generally buy new and those looking for second hand generally do not have 3 phase supply :) This applies in the UK and I assume it to be true your side of the pond too.

Kind Regards, John

[Dan Hintz]

So while you're over in the glowforge thread raving about how every GF purchaser is inevitably going to burn their house down you... Nearly burned your house down.

Sure. And this just shows that even an experienced user can have a fire.

Now remove the experience and increase the sample base by 10,000 units. Things don't look as user-friendly anymore.

[Mike Troncalli]

FOR SALE:

Slightly used Glowforge laser. Some scorching and burn marks around the edge.. Comes with free matching scorched table top..

:-)

[Chris DeGerolamo]

I am unfortunately part of the "been there, done that" crowd. Lesson learned the hard way.

Let me tell ya', this stuff burned like some self-oxidizing napalm mess...it melted into the grid and pooched it.

[Bill George]

I have a squirt water bottle for the little could be fires and I purchased a CO2 fire extinguisher than hangs on a hook right next to the machine. BUT you need to be there. Bert I have a air line branched off my big shop compressor and a regulator set at 10 psi. I just turn on a valve when using the air assist. Compressor rarely comes on.

[Matt McCoy]

...I know the dangers of fire with a laser...I supervise my self by watching as it cuts and I avoided a fire because I watch.

Did you have this knowledge before you owned a laser and became familiar with how to safely operate it?

Good to see that you caught it quickly.

[Bert Kemp]

No Matt I didn't and I burnt up my first laser so bad that I pretty much had to rebuild it. But again the laser was an all METAL box NOT PLASTIC like the glowforge and the fire was contained in that box. I got a second chance. When a Glowforge catches fire there won't be many second chances once that plastic ignites a spray bottle will be useless. I think these things should be sold with a FIRE Blanket as standard equipment. Just look in this forum and see how many of us have had fires. Its a FACT laser start fires its the nature of the beast and if your settings are off, your speed to slow, power to high, chances are your gonna have a fire and if your not paying attention it could be bad.




Did you have this knowledge before you owned a laser and became familiar with how to safely operate it?

Good to see that you caught it quickly.

[Jason Hilton]

Everyone started with no experience. And every laser manufacturer has safety requirements in their documentation that just as many users might ignore. Based on the conversations on the GF site many of the buyers have some laser experience already. And based on the conversations here over the last year, just as many buyers of other brands and Chinese lasers are new to laser engraving. My point is that while Bert is raving about the dangers of a Glowforge and derogatory to GF and future GF owners he's had a fire, and on a non-GF machine. You can't create separate categories for people if the qualifications for those categories are exactly the same.



Sure. And this just shows that even an experienced user can have a fire.

Now remove the experience and increase the sample base by 10,000 units. Things don't look as user-friendly anymore.

[Matt McCoy]

No Matt I didn't and I burnt up my first laser so bad that I pretty much had to rebuild it. But again the laser was an all METAL box NOT PLASTIC like the glowforge and the fire was contained in that box. I got a second chance. When a Glowforge catches fire there won't be many second chances once that plastic ignites a spray bottle will be useless. I think these things should be sold with a FIRE Blanket as standard equipment. Just look in this forum and see how many of us have had fires. Its a FACT laser start fires its the nature of the beast and if your settings are off, your speed to slow, power to high, chances are your gonna have a fire and if your not paying attention it could be bad.

Well, I think you can see where I was going there. Safety can be taught, and you should learn how to swim if you or your children are going to responsibly play around in water.

We don't know the flammability of the plastic used for the housing on the GF yet, so we have to wait to see if it will be similar to plastics used in cars, planes, construction, etc. that have fire-retarding properties. Although, here's what has been passed along so far:

"the design was created from plastic that softens rather than ignites, and as you probably saw, the lid is a very solid piece of glass. It's designed to fail in a way that does not spread any fire. We've also added a number of safety systems to avoid all the major causes of fires we've seen in laser postmortems. For example, we won't leave the head blowing air on the ember left from a cut - we shut off the air when the cut is done, unlike most systems. As another example, we can detect the collisions that are usually the start of a problem with our onboard accelerometers.

This isn't something I'd let a child use unattended, but I worry about it less than, say, my blender when they're around."


I sincerely hope you don't have a third strike.

[Mark Taylor2]

I'm glad you weren't hurt and no damage done, Bert. Thanks for posting this and the reminder that these things can do the unexpected.

[John Bion]

Can we please just drop the Glowforge rubbish. I, for one, am fed up with it. I can’t even skip certain threads, it is coming up elsewhere too. I have got to the point where I see certain names pop up and I think: “oh no, not again please!” :eek: :mad:

[Bert Kemp]

I sincerely hope that these safety measures are built in and that there are no serious fires from the Glowforge Lasers.
OK I'm outta here for the day have to go to Sky Harbor to welcome WWll Veterans home. John says thank heaven



Well, I think you can see where I was going there. Safety can be taught, and you should learn how to swim if you or your children are going to responsibly play around in water.

We don't know the flammability of the plastic used for the housing on the GF yet, so we have to wait to see if it will be similar to plastics used in cars, planes, construction, etc. that have fire-retarding properties. Although, here's what has been passed along so far:

"the design was created from plastic that softens rather than ignites, and as you probably saw, the lid is a very solid piece of glass. It's designed to fail in a way that does not spread any fire. We've also added a number of safety systems to avoid all the major causes of fires we've seen in laser postmortems. For example, we won't leave the head blowing air on the ember left from a cut - we shut off the air when the cut is done, unlike most systems. As another example, we can detect the collisions that are usually the start of a problem with our onboard accelerometers.

This isn't something I'd let a child use unattended, but I worry about it less than, say, my blender when they're around."


I sincerely hope you don't have a third strike.

[Matt McCoy]

Can we please just drop the Glowforge rubbish. I, for one, am fed up with it. I can’t even skip certain threads, it is coming up elsewhere too. I have got to the point where I see certain names pop up and I think: “oh no, not again please!” :eek: :mad:

John, there is an ignore feature you can use if you like. Hope your day turns around for the better.


I sincerely hope that these safety measures are built in and that there are no serious fires from the Glowforge Lasers.
OK I'm outta here for the day have to go to Sky Harbor to welcome WWll Veterans home. John says thank heaven

In case I haven't mentioned it Bert, I admire the work you do for vets. :)

[John Bion]

John, there is an ignore feature you can use if you like. Hope your day turns around for the better.

Matt, I think you have missed the point. If I “cancel” anyone, how can I be of benefit to them again or they to me - or through discussion (other than GF) benefit third parties - even years later? That defeats the point of the forum. We should be able to offer help/consolation etc and receive updates on a thread, without having to be bombarded by what has become a distasteful discussion. I am sure that I am not the only one that is fed up with this topic. We all know the pro’s and cons of the machine at this stage, why not let’s just drop the subject.

Kind regards, John

[Keith Winter]

Well, I think you can see where I was going there. Safety can be taught, and you should learn how to swim if you or your children are going to responsibly play around in water.

We don't know the flammability of the plastic used for the housing on the GF yet, so we have to wait to see if it will be similar to plastics used in cars, planes, construction, etc. that have fire-retarding properties. Although, here's what has been passed along so far:

"the design was created from plastic that softens rather than ignites, and as you probably saw, the lid is a very solid piece of glass. It's designed to fail in a way that does not spread any fire. We've also added a number of safety systems to avoid all the major causes of fires we've seen in laser postmortems. For example, we won't leave the head blowing air on the ember left from a cut - we shut off the air when the cut is done, unlike most systems. As another example, we can detect the collisions that are usually the start of a problem with our onboard accelerometers.

This isn't something I'd let a child use unattended, but I worry about it less than, say, my blender when they're around."


I sincerely hope you don't have a third strike.

This is funny. Plastic that softens aka melts instead of bursting into flames. Most plastic does this first then catches fire. Try melting a straw over a flame see what happens it melts then a bit later flames up. This is NOT a feature rather a normal property of plastic that they are spinning to make it sound better.

Glass that fails in a way that doesn't spread fire as opposed to....??? What the heck else would it do except fall into the if the container holding it melted? This is ridiculous to say it's a safety feature they planned on.

And air assist that shuts off at the end of the job unlike other lasers give me a break even my Chinese laser does that, it's nothing new.

Seriously Matt stop posting the GF features and replies from their site. Every time you do it just makes the GF sound more and more ridiculous. You're doing more harm to them than good.

[Jason Hilton]

It's the opposite. Every time someone posts a response from GF you go off the deep-end with absurd declarations that "everything-they say-can't-be-possible-because-it's-ridiculous-and-I-know-everything!" You're doing your own and this forums reputation more hard than good.




This is funny. Plastic that softens aka melts instead of bursting into flames. Most plastic does this first then catches fire. Try melting a straw over a flame see what happens it melts then a bit later flames up. This is NOT a feature rather a normal property of plastic that they are spinning to make it sound better.

Glass that fails in a way that doesn't spread fire as opposed to....??? What the heck else would it do except fall into the if the container holding it melted? This is ridiculous to say it's a safety feature they planned on.

And air assist that shuts off at the end of the job unlike other lasers give me a break even my Chinese laser does that, it's nothing new.

Seriously Matt stop posting the GF features and replies from their site. Every time you do it just makes the GF sound more and more ridiculous. You're doing more harm to them than good.

[Keith Winter]

It's the opposite. Every time someone posts a response from GF you go off the deep-end with absurd declarations that "everything-they say-can't-be-possible-because-it's-ridiculous-and-I-know-everything!" You're doing your own and this forums reputation more hard than good.

Actually if you read all of my posts you will see I have very rarely commented on GF. At first I was, actually posting that the GF sounded promising until I started reading all of their marketing spin. I have maybe posted 3 times about it, and I'm only posting now since Matt posted such a ridiculous statement from the glowforge site.

[Matt McCoy]

This is funny. Plastic that softens aka melts instead of bursting into flames. Most plastic does this first then catches fire. Try melting a straw over a flame see what happens it melts then a bit later flames up. This is NOT a feature rather a normal property of plastic that they are spinning to make it sound better.

Glass that fails in a way that doesn't spread fire as opposed to....??? What the heck else would it do except fall into the if the container holding it melted? This is ridiculous to say it's a safety feature they planned on.

And air assist that shuts off at the end of the job unlike other lasers give me a break even my Chinese laser does that, it's nothing new.

Seriously Matt stop posting the GF features and replies from their site. Every time you do it just makes the GF sound more and more ridiculous. You're doing more harm to them than good.

Hey Keith: Plastics designed with flame-retarding properties is a real thing, whether you believe it or not.

Many lasers in this category do not shut off the air assist at the completion of the job, whether you have experience with it or not. They still exist.

I just report the facts, you can decide for yourself to believe it or not.

I have no intention to do good or harm. Just trying to provide info for the sake of discussion.

John: I'll send you a PM to help keep things from getting off Bert's topic.

[Keith Winter]

Keith I think thats what I have tho I'm not really sure, it came with my wait for it..............fsl don't have any idea what it puts out for psi do you have a model # or send me a pm with a link for what U have. Thanx
wow big blank space whats up here
QUOTE=Keith Winter;2487773]Bert I have one of those fish pump air compressors, right under a hundred bucks. Works really well for the price if you need something inexpensive.[/QUOTE]

Hey Bert the inexpensive fish tank style air compressor my Chinese machine uses is a Hailea AC0-009D. So far it has worked really well for us when cutting.

[Bert Kemp]

Thanx Matt twas a long day just got home:)


John, there is an ignore feature you can use if you like. Hope your day turns around for the better.



In case I haven't mentioned it Bert, I admire the work you do for vets. :)

[Bert Kemp]

Thanks Keith I see it for 50 bucks from sinjoe

Hey Bert the inexpensive fish tank style air compressor my Chinese machine uses is a Hailea AC0-009D. So far it has worked really well for us when cutting.[/QUOTE]

[Bill Reibelt]

Good catch, Bill