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View Full Version : Epilog not cutting entire shape



Phyllis Rhodes
02-19-2009, 5:53 PM
i've got an epilog helix 45w that's not quite 3 years old. i am engraving and cutting leather (24x18 sheets). each sheet has 48 rectangles with rounded corners. i'm only doing two sheets per month for the customer and so far i have done 6 sheets total.

i noticed on the 3rd or 4th sheet that a few of the rectangles at the bottom of the sheet were not cut out completely. at first, it was just a teeny tiny space that did not cut. small enough so that when i picked up the cut tag, it hung for a second on the uncut part, but then pulled apart from the rest of the leather.

the last 2 sheets i did, i had to hand cut that little piece on about half of the tags.

before i run each sheet, i run a small oval to make sure it is cutting all the way through. when i ran the test today, it did it on the oval. and it's about a 1/16" space that isn't cut. it is obviously right before the first node it starts cutting at.

so... it seems to be getting worse. i don't want to run the next sheet for fear i will have to hand cut every one of the tags.

any suggestions? it seems to be doing fine on everything else.

the only changes made to the machine settings has been the tickle (i think). maybe it's around 2? and the rectangles are "rectangle" shapes... not curves. i haven't tried converting to curves and cutting. i'll go do that now and report back. :)

well, i made two small rectangles with rounded corners and converted one to curves. it cut both out just fine.

my settings are: 10s/85p/2500f 600dpi

thanks,
phyllis

George Brown
02-19-2009, 6:14 PM
Can you include a picture of what is not cutting and possibly the vector of the part that is not cutting correctly.

Phyllis Rhodes
02-19-2009, 6:26 PM
oh good grief. i went outside to take a picture and realized it didn't cut at the beginning... i guess i need to adjust the tickle again. i have had this ongoing problem of the laser not cutting after it's been turned on. it takes anywhere from a half a second to 20 seconds to fire. that really bugs me. oh well.

however, it was still not cutting the larger rectangles. i'm going to run the job and see what happens. then i'll post pics if it does it again.

thanks
p

George Brown
02-19-2009, 6:31 PM
If it still does it, include the vector of the area that does not cut properly. I have an idea, but want to see it before I lead you wrong, especially if, as you said, the laser does not start instantly.

Frank Corker
02-19-2009, 6:52 PM
If the room that the laser in is cold, it will usually take a bit longer to fire up. Mine never used to but there is a delay now and again for me too. I just put a piece of sacrificial acrylic on the top and let it attack that, as soon as it shows smoke I stop and it's time to engrave.

Only because I had occasion when the bed came up too high and I had to lower it down manually, whenever I hear the problem of the machine not cutting deep enough on a certain area of the bed I always suggest that the bed might not be level. You might want to consider measuring it in the top left top right bottom left and bottom right. Might be your cause.

Peck Sidara
02-19-2009, 9:09 PM
Phyllis,

If the laser is cutting but just not all the way thru in certain areas then it could be...

*The leather isn't laying flat or is curling up causing the focus to be off, not cutting all the way thru.

*Your table may not be level.

*Your optics may be dirty/faulty causing a slight loss of power.

*Your laser beam alignment may have been thrown off.

*Your laser tube may be losing a little bit of power.

Laser T.M. controls whether the tickle mode is on and how strong the signal is.

Laser T.I. controls the duration of the tickle in 30 second increments I beleive.

Neither of which I believe is contributing to your problem. If all else fails, set them both to zero, save settings and see what happens.

Seems like a lot of possibilities but it's not that bad. Most likely it's something simple, some slight adjustment or perhaps your laser tube has lost just a little bit of power over the past three years, nothing a slight adjustment to your setings won't fix. Try upping the power in 5% increments from 85% up to 90% and so on.

If the laser simple shuts off in certain areas or at certain line segments then...

*Possibly a faulty interlock.
*Possibly an intermittently failing tube.
*Not likely, but possibly the artwork.

All in all, it's nothing that our super dooper free technical support team can't fix. They're open 6-6 M-F MT and can be reached at 303.215.9171 or at tech at epiloglaser dot com.

Give them a shot, they're really good at fixing these Epilog machines.

Bill Cunningham
02-19-2009, 9:36 PM
Does anyone have info on leveling the table on a TT ? I sent a email to Dan, but he tells me they have no printed procedure for this.. I can call him, and have him walk me through it but the problem I 'always' have is I no sooner get on the phone, and a customer walks in and I have to hand up..
If anyone has done this with a 12 x 24 TT, can they give me a brief discription of what I have to do to level it, before I open her up?

Phyllis Rhodes
02-19-2009, 11:40 PM
well, things happened and i couldn't get outside to run the leather.

peck, just as an fyi... it does exactly the same thing in exactly the same spot on each rectangle.. so i don't think it's a level issue.

since it's duplicating itself on each rectangle, it sure seems like it's the image. but it's just a rectangle and i rounded the corners.

i even checked to make sure all four nodes were connected, which i knew they were.

so, i'll report back when i get back out there in the morning.

thanks!
p

George Brown
02-20-2009, 1:14 AM
[quote=

so, i'll report back when i get back out there in the morning.

thanks!
p[/quote]

What you're going to bed, and the problem isn't solved yet!! :confused:

Rangarajan Saravana kumar
02-20-2009, 3:00 AM
Hi all,

I have Epilog Legend 24 EX 75w, replaced tube 1 year before

Now the laser is taking bit time to start say 10 second to 5 seconds

any suggestions


Regards,
saravanakumar

David Fairfield
02-20-2009, 9:12 AM
Occasionally, mine won't cut the first couple of mm. The armature moves but the laser doesn't fire. This is only an issue on the first run of the first job. I generally let the machine warm up a few minutes after switching on and before hitting go, seems to avoid the issue. Not a problem.

Dave

James Stokes
02-20-2009, 9:43 AM
I have the same problem with my laser. If I just turn it on and send a job, The first 3 or 4 lines do not engrave. If I turn it on about 10 minutes before sending jobs I do not have the problem.

Bill Cunningham
02-20-2009, 10:22 AM
Yup same here.. The old tube used to fire first time every time, the new one which has a lot more power than the old one ever had, sometimes has taken as long as 30 seconds to start firing.. This is probably due to shop temperature which I keep at 50 over night, and about an hour before I open the programable thermostat cranks it up to 69 .. The colder the machine, the longer it takes for the first burn. Once it starts, it fires reliably for the rest of the day.. The first job in the morning usually goes to a piece of scrap, once it fires, I hit reset and put in the job.. Ignore my table leveling request above, I figured it out, and now the table is dead level.. I had a chunk of wood get hung up on a protruding screw head between the table and the front of the machine and it pulled the table down 1/8" in the front.. All fixed now...

Phyllis Rhodes
02-20-2009, 9:50 PM
ok. i ran two sheets of leather today. the first sheet had a gold overlay on it so it looked metallic. that makes it a little bit stiffer than the regular leather, so i increased the power by 10 and decreased the speed by 10.

that one cut just fine. there was only one tag that didn't cut all the way, but it was the tiniest of places.

now. the problem child was the second sheet of leather. regular ol' black (soft) leather. every, stinkin' tag on that sheet didn't cut all the way. i took several pictures. i tried to show that the tags are in horizontal rows, but there is also one row on the far right side where the tags are running up and down and the uncut spot is in the same place on every one of them.

any ideas?

George Brown
02-22-2009, 1:35 AM
Phyllis,

On mine (a universal), there is a setting called enhance, according to the docs, it strings together the line segments that make up a vector cut. If I turn it off, even if my vector is a SINGLE line, the laser starts and stops as it cuts. Since I don't have a problem with it not starting instantly, the only effect is that it cuts much more slowly. If my laser did not start correctly, it would probably skip like yours does. Does your epilog have that type of setting?

Also, does the little uncut section correspond to the position where the laser starts cutting the rectangle? It might be that as the laser starts the cut, goes around the rectangle, but stops cutting just shy of where it started. Try to make a note of where it starts cutting.

On the one that cut properly, you said you reduced the speed. Try reducing the power and the speed (so you get the same amount of energy onto the leather), maybe you are having a problem with the speed of the cut?

In corel, enlarge that section of the vector by a LOT, just to make sure there is no break in the line.

I never run or store my laser in the cold. I take the laser out (easy on a universal) and store it in a box kept at 72 degrees. Before I run the machine, I warm up the room to at least 60, put the laser back into the machine, and then start working.

Can't think of anything else right now. Post some more info on above suggestions, and I'll try to think of something else.

Roy Brewer
02-22-2009, 9:22 PM
any ideas?Phyllis,

CorelDRAW always starts plotting a rounded corner rectangle with a line segment instead of a curve segment. Lines engrave faster than curves. As a potential workaround, reverse the direction(see below if you dont know how). This should, at least, make the gap smaller. Tech support may be able to help you fix it by adjustingthe M.T &/or M.I. settings; but even then I have to assume something has changed on your system to make that adjustment necessary and I tend to think it is the laser tube itself. (We both hope I'm wrong!)

Reversing the direction of a vector object:
1. Convert to to curves (won't work with native objects like a Rectangle)
2. Select the curve with the Shape Tool
3. RtClick on the selected curve and choose Reverse SubPaths from the resulting local menu.

Bill Jermyn
02-23-2009, 10:10 AM
Would this help I wonder?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSUnmxTBAic

George Brown
02-23-2009, 9:47 PM
I'm quite sure it would work, as a temporary fix, but you should not have to do that.

Bill Jermyn
02-23-2009, 10:16 PM
Hey, I shoulda been born rich, but you do what u gotta do.

George Brown
02-24-2009, 12:39 AM
Hey, I shoulda been born rich, but you do what u gotta do.
I don't have to do that with my laser, she should not have to do it with her's. There must be something else wrong. To do it as a temp fix is fine, but having to all the time is a lot of extra work.

Bill Jermyn
02-24-2009, 11:18 AM
Of course, but it may help him get the job out the door and leave the theorizing til later.

Dave Johnson29
02-24-2009, 12:44 PM
I don't have to do that with my laser, she should not have to do it with her's.

I noticed my laser doing the same thing on certain objects. I was cutting some acrylic the other day to make a locater for pet tags. I used the Corel file Chewbarka supplies and the outline for the 1-1/4" skull and cross bones thing looks closed in Corel but the laser stops a little short of the start position leaving a very tiny "tit" of acrylic to file off.

Seems like a Corel issue to me as there is no visible gap when I import that into my CAD software as a DXF. When Corel sends it to the laser it is stopping short for some reason. If I send it to the laser from the CAD software it cuts perfectly.

George Brown
02-24-2009, 12:50 PM
I noticed my laser doing the same thing on certain objects. I was cutting some acrylic the other day to make a locater for pet tags. I used the Corel file Chewbarka supplies and the outline for the 1-1/4" skull and cross bones thing looks closed in Corel but the laser stops a little short of the start position leaving a very tiny "tit" of acrylic to file off.

Seems like a Corel issue to me as there is no visible gap when I import that into my CAD software as a DXF. When Corel sends it to the laser it is stopping short for some reason. If I send it to the laser from the CAD software it cuts perfectly.

If it cuts correctly from the CAD program, it HAS to be corel. I do not have that problem. I used versions 8, 13, and 14, none of them had the problem. If you send me the file, next time I run the laser, I'll try cutting it and see if the same thing happens.

On a slightly different topic, later I'ld like to pick your brain on using CAD to run the laser. I use solidworks, and would like to draw in that and have the parts cut by the laser. I'm just a little stuck on some details.

Dave Johnson29
02-24-2009, 3:37 PM
If it cuts correctly from the CAD program, it HAS to be corel.


Corel v10 is certainly handling DXF in a funny way. See my response in this thread...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=1062759&postcount=10

I am not sure why it left the object open.



On a slightly different topic, later I'ld like to pick your brain on using CAD to run the laser.


Probably best to create a new thread George but the quick answer is a question. Does your laser look like a Printer to Windows? As in, is it listed in the Printers setup dialog?

If so, it would be up to the way Solidworks sends stuff to a printer. I have never used Solidworks as I am more a fan of ProEng Wildfire. :) I used an old, old CAD package to send the file to the laser though. I can't try with ProEng as my laser runs under win3.1, circa 1992. :eek:

James & Zelma Litzmann
02-24-2009, 10:54 PM
Phyllis,

I don't have the answer but I was wondering if any of the suggestions has helped fix it?

Phyllis Rhodes
03-04-2009, 2:23 PM
i will be running the next sheets of leather in a couple of weeks. i will try the reverse thing roy suggested and let you know what happens!

and yes, it looks like it starts engraving at the top left of the rectangle and goes clockwise.. and then stops just short of where it started.

thanks everybody!
phyllis

George D Gabert
03-04-2009, 4:18 PM
Could you put a lead in about 2x loner than the missing cut which would be a continuation of the horizontal line past the arc. I tried to show sample with red line

This would give the tube time to start up and would not require any more material.

GDG