[QuestSuperElf]

I have a laser cutting machine that has been working great for several months. But today the auto focus failed. Unfortunately, the auto focus did not stop the Z table from moving upward and there was some damage before I was able to shut off the machine. There is obvious damage to the auto focus plunger. Now the Z table will only move downward and not up. I suspect that is because the auto focus plunger switch is broken.

I have a few questions for the experts here. Has anyone else had this problem? Can I just remove or disable the auto focus plunger for now and use manual focus? I suspect that the beam will need realignment after the hard crash. What happens if the lens assembly was damaged too? What should I look out for?

I’ll have to be very careful not to trust that auto focus too much in the future.

[QuestSuperElf]

I found an old thread on a similar sight where some folks had the exact same problem: Auto focus probe broken . The folks in this thread recommend disabling the auto focus altogether so that is what I will try.