Mirror out of focus ?

[onur cakir]

Hi everyone ! Hope you&your business all are good !

I noticed something weird with my Epilog a few days ago.

As you will notice on pictures, i spotted "pointer dot" around my lens. Is this normal ?

Pointer should be equal to laser beam i guess so i should not spot the beam around lens structure.

It still cuts 3 mm acrylic with %15 power (45W)

Thank you.

[Darren Null]

As a first stage, I would clean the lens, and then all your mirrors. It could be diffraction effects due to a dirty lens or mirror/s

[Rodne Gold]

The red pointer is a seperate system that uses most of the optics and mirrors the beam does , it can often go out of alignment at the source of the red pointer , it often uses a seperate mirror at its source (or a prism) and this can be adjusted to be co incident with the beam.
Im not familair with your laser tho...im sure the agents or manual will help

[Scott Shepherd]

Not familiar with the Mini either, but on the Helix, Rodney's exactly right. You can adjust the red dot pointer with no impact on the beam. It's part of the alignment process. You have to align the red dot point to the beam, and then you align the beam. It's easy to fix. Should take about 20 minutes once you get the instructions from Epilog.

[onur cakir]

Somehow i never thought that red dot uses some different mirrors etc. than laser beam.

Hope Epilog USA will respond to me....i'm not even thinkin' to call Turkey dist. for that.

[Scott Shepherd]

Doesn't use different mirrors, it's just injected into the process after the tube, at least that's how I recall it.

[Roy Brewer]

As you will notice on pictures, i spotted "pointer dot" around my lens. Is this normal ? Onur,

Tech support has a more detailed procedure if you need it.
First, I can't tell from the photos if the red spot is the "real" red dot or just a reflection of the red dot (the techs call it a "clipping" where small portion of the beam reflects off something along the path). To confirm, put a piece of masking tape covering the entry into the mirror lens assembly. Now, is that the only red dot you have or is it in addition to a brighter one striking closer to the center of the mirror/lens?

If it is the "real" red dot, then adjust the red dot to the laser beam at the furthest point of the table (forward, right on your Mini). Since you've gone this far, find your "target" alignment tool and put the aligned red dot in the center of the target.

[Peck Sidara]

Onur,

The red-dot pointer is a separate unit from the laser tube and has to be aligned to match the laser beam. It's possible that the laser beam alignment is good but the red-dot pointer is off and needs to be adjusted to match.

As Mr. Brewer has mentioned, the red-dot may be "clipped". It's also possible that the red-dot simply needs to be replaced.

Send me a PM with your email address and I'll forward the alignment procedure.

[onur cakir]

Thanks Everyone, Roy&Peck !

Things are much complicated i guess.

First i'll try red dot test with masking tape.

If its not aligned well i have another question for that.

-I also have a ruler aligment problem. When i first got the machine (2nd hand-used for 1 week), everytime i place a tile or a piece of wood to up-left connection point of the table and place my image to same corner in corel laser fires 1 or 2 mm off the point. So before any cutting or engraving job i manually test the image by using the -red dot-.

After i place the piece on table i send a square shaped cutting vector to Epilog which surrounds the piece without auto focus option and run a test roll with interlocks open. So i follow if the red dot travels exactly on corners of the piece.

This method hits the bulls eye everytime on piece i'm engraving or cutting. So if my red dot is out of aligment laser beam should hit around red dot and my test run procedure should not work.

Peck, i sent you a PM for that, thanks

[Dee Gallo]

Onur,

I bought a used machine also and when I first got it the rulers were not square nor corresponding to 0/0. There are screws on them you can loosen and use a square to get them perfect. They actually can be moved quite a lot.

:) dee

[onur cakir]

opps, i mis-posted end of my last post :)

I played rulers with allen wrenchs a lot, i know its a basic aligment process but somehow i failed to get the right adjustment.

I even played with home position settings ( without taking note of the factory position-Thanks Steve ! )

As i moved the ruler to the end with no space left i need 1,5 mm more.

[Brian Robison]

When you recalibrate the X and the Y, you'll need to send the file to the laser again. I do my test a little different.
I cut out a 1" square 1" below and 1"to the right of the corner. I measure the exact size of the hole left to calculate the "kerf". I then measure to the x and y edge from the hole. With a little math this gets me RIGHT on the money.

[AL Ursich]

I like that idea.... Will use it....

Thanks !!!!

AL:D

[Rob Bosworth]

I loosen the rulers and push them back and away from the marking area. Then I put down a piece of painter's tape about 1" in from where I think the rulers should be. I run the tape along the X axis and the left side of the Y axis. Then in CorelDRAW I layout a vector line that runs 1" in from the back ruler and 1" to the right of the Y axis ruler. I send the file over to the machine and cut the tape. Peel off the outside of the tape and leave the tape towards the inside of the X and Y axis. I then take a 1" wide ruler and aly it between the tape and the ruler on the table. Push the rulers of the machine up to the 1" wide ruler and tighten down the rulers on the machine. You now have the rulers or stops aligned to the machine's mevement system.

That is how we do it on an Epilog system. For some reason, we cannot get Epilogs to cut the tape right where the rulers on the X and Y axis should be. We have found moving the cut in 1" allows the systems to cut accurately enough to set the rulers.

On ULS machines, we just loosen the rulers and push them back and to the left, out of the way. Lay out painter's tape along the X and Y axis about where you think the rulers should be. Then lay your vector line along the top of the page and along the left side. Cut the tape, and pull the outside weed of the tape off. Shove the rulers up to the edge of the tape and tighten them down.

[onur cakir]

Thanks for all replies !

As we have 3 days of religious holiday ahead so i'll have enough time for calibration work ;)