Auto Focus

[Larry Robinson]

Looking to buy our first laser. I am curious as to whether the "Auto Focus" option is worth paying for.

Thanks
Larry

[Dan Hintz]

Depends... some here are happy to use it, while quite a few either rip it off of their machine first day through the door or do so after the first time it jams their vector table against the lens carriage.

[David Fairfield]

ha-ha autofocus. Worse than useless.

Dave

[Scott Shepherd]

It depends on what machine you're looking at. The Epilog and the Universal's have very different Auto Focus systems. The Epilog has a plunger that hits the work, the Universal has a beam that is shot across the table until it detects the top of the piece.

The Universal and Trotec (and maybe others) have a programmable Z-Axis, which allows you to bypass the autofocus all together. You simply enter the material thickness when you are setting the speed and power and the table will raise and lower to the right place, because it knows where it is.

I would not have a laser without a programmable Z now that I have had one for the last 2 years. I have the Auto-Focus that shoots the beam across the work and I've used it about 2 times, and both times were to figure out "what does this button do".

Just my opinion.

[Tom Bull]

Never use mine (anymore:mad:).

[Ed Harrall]

In a school I would not be without it :) Saved a lot of headaches for me

[Scott Challoner]

My LaserPro also uses a plunger. Fortunately, it "breaks away" when the operator (me) isn't careful. Now SOP is to lower the table when I turn the machine off so when it does its start-up routine it can't run into any material I may have left on the table. I've never understood why people don't like them. I use it every time.

[Rodne Gold]

I also have GCC/Laserpro machines where I have had very few issues with Autofocus and plungers and I love it and think it's a vital feature for ease of use in my org , however having said that , I wouldnt treat it as a deal breaker as it's not a huge issue to use a manual system and there is less to go wrong. At any rate , you have to tune the AF now and then as it does tend to drift from perfect focus points whereas manual will be spot on every time...
In my case , there was no extra to be paid for AF as all the machines come with it as standard..if It were going to cost a lot extra , I might have declined to pay for it.

[Niklas Bjornestal]

It depends on what material you're going to engrave, if you engrave materials with a different thicknesses it migth be worth paying extra for. If you only intend to engrave materials that are the same thickness its not that useful since you wont change focus that often.

[Mitchell Andrus]

My LaserPro also uses a plunger. Fortunately, it "breaks away" when the operator (me) isn't careful. Now SOP is to lower the table when I turn the machine off so when it does its start-up routine it can't run into any material I may have left on the table. I've never understood why people don't like them. I use it every time.

Same here, use it every time. It's accurate and removable. Snap the plunger on, hit the button, take it off.
.

[Belinda Barfield]

I have a Laserpro as well and love the autofocus. I do have the table set to drop two inches on start up (just in case), and never leave anything in the machine.

[David Fairfield]

Besides the bumping and jamming, the other problem I had with autofocus is I work with very small amounts of material at a time, the plunger would often miss it, head straight down for the grid and jam. Great. :( Just not practical for my application.

Anyway, I'd rather make a visual check of focus instead of relying on a mechanical device, if I were engraving something valuable.

I do like the idea of the presets for the Z axis.

Dave

[Viktor Voroncov]

Autofocus is must :) On GCC Mercury it was slightly old-fashioned, but detachable autofocus on GCC Spirit/GE/GX - super!

[Julie Nickerson]

I love the plunger on my machine. I wouldn't know how to focus otherwise.

[James Rambo]

The only time I had a problem with the autofocus was when the ribbon cable went bad. I called epilog and I had one two days later for only a few $$. I use it all the time.

[Scott Challoner]

At any rate , you have to tune the AF now and then as it does tend to drift from perfect focus points whereas manual will be spot on every time...




I do have the table set to drop two inches on start up (just in case), and never leave anything in the machine.

Where do I find out how to do these things? I haven't seen instructions for them.

[Larry Bratton]

Most of the time,the auto focus plunger thing is useful and tend to use it most of the time. However, it recently caused me a problem when engraving inside a round piece that had a circle routed out 1/4" deep inside of it. Although I manually focused in this area, the af plunger was striking the higher part outside the circle and moving the piece a slight amount. I ended up putting a piece of acrylic under it to hold it up while it was making the passes. I looked at it to see how to remove it and looked to be a small set screw. I decided to leave it, but it can be a pain in certain applications. I didn't pay extra for it as far as I know.

[Jim Watkins]

I didn't have any problem with mine except it got in the way when trying to engrave during rotatory tool usage.

I removed mine and have been happy to just manually focus.

[Gary Hair]

I love my autofocus. The only problems I have ever had with it have been mentioned already - running it into something I have in the laser. Always my fault and has been fixable except for one time... I bought a new plunger and it has been fine since. It wasn't terribly expensive, at least as far as lasers go, I think it was about $35.00 or so.

Gary

[Richard Rumancik]

I don't use the autofocus. Too many negatives for me. If I have a sheet of material, I can drop in the measuring probe, focus on one point, and then check 3 or more points on the sheet of material to ensure it is in focus all over the sheet. With autofocus, I woul pick one point but have no idea of how well focused it is elsewhere on the material. Laser tables with honeycomb are not flat and rigid like a milling machine table, and material is often not perfectly flat.

The Mercury manual focus is pretty simple - there is a flange sticking out of the carriage with a hole in it. The meauring probe is a pin with a shoulder. Drop the pin into the hole, raise the table till the tip touches the material. If I drag the carriage around by hand (which you can do on the Mercury) I can see the flatness - if the shoulder rises from the flange or if the tip does not touch the material, I can get an idea of flatness. I might choose to refocus on a different point to average it out.

Also, with the Mercury you need to enter the lens FL into the control panel before autofocusing. This is a pain if you change lenses. Plus, over the years, I bought some lenses from eBay and made my own lens holders. The autofocus only works with the lenses made by GCC.

If you use autofocus make sure you have an emergency stop button.

[Belinda Barfield]

Where do I find out how to do these things? I haven't seen instructions for them.

Scott, you should be able to access your machine settings and start up settings through your control panel.

[Scott Challoner]

Scott, you should be able to access your machine settings and start up settings through your control panel.

Oh yeah. F4. :o
If all else fails, read the directions (or ask a woman)
Thanks Belinda

[Hank Brinzer]

You might want to look at the Universal , Versa Laser There is a block in the set up, and all you do is measure the thickness of your engraving and the machine does an auto adjust, it has worked fine for me, but does take a little time to get use to. Good Luck