Epilog 36 EXT Troubleshooting

[Mark Ross]

Came in (Monday of course) and was told the laser is not cutting. I checked the mirror alignment using the red pointer, everything is okay, I checked the interlock switches, all three are okay. I called Epilog but they are not in yet. Anyone who has an Epilog 36EXT and might have some hints, I would appreciate it. I have a multimeter, etc, so I can check voltages and continuity etc. It is weird, it was working just fine on Friday.

Of course we have material stacked to the sky we need to cut ASAP. Ever notice that it is when you have a lot to do these things go down? It is almost like they know...lol.

[Martin Boekers]

Came in (Monday of course) and was told the laser is not cutting. I checked the mirror alignment using the red pointer, everything is okay, I checked the interlock switches, all three are okay. I called Epilog but they are not in yet. Anyone who has an Epilog 36EXT and might have some hints, I would appreciate it. I have a multimeter, etc, so I can check voltages and continuity etc. It is weird, it was working just fine on Friday.

Of course we have material stacked to the sky we need to cut ASAP. Ever notice that it is when you have a lot to do these things go down? It is almost like they know...lol.

Did you try to manually turn the laser on? That should force a fire if there is an issue
with magnets etc.

I have had the red dot get out of range so I put masking tape over the lens assembly to see if is off.
I also have had the air assist tube obstruct the beam.

Then again.... I had similar issues when the tube was going bad. Hopefully it's an easy (cheaper) fix.

I'll assume that the basics that the outline is a hairline, since I upgraded to X5 I've had the default
change from time to .5 from my default of a hairline.

[Joe Pelonio]

How long did you try running it? If it didn't run at all over the weekend, it may take a few minutes to get going again, especially now that the weather is cooling off. The Legends have no "tickle" feature. Try setting it on a slow speed and medium power, and vector cut scrap and see if it starts again part way through the job.

[Rangarajan Saravana kumar]

Have you seen any lose in power?

Vector only make difficult and raster working?

Regards,
saravanakumar

[Mark Ross]

Yet again, we are replacing the tube. This one lasted 19 months. The coherent is going bye bye and we are putting in an Epilog brand. Granted we cut 8-10 hours a day (vector, we do very little raster) but these tubes just are not lasting. The new unit should be in today, the core charge is more than the laser. At $1395 for the laser, based on 19 months - two years, its still cheaper than the ink I have to buy every month for printers. If these things did not have a shelf life, I'd keep a spare around. Their best "guess" is that something in the RF section is broken. The lase LED comes on on the mother board, the laser just up and died.

Being down for a day and a half (by the time I get the new one installed) is killing us, orders are backing up. I wish Epilog would hurry up and come out with a unit that will do a 4 X 8 sheet of material. We have decided that this is what we will purchase next as it will keep us from having to cut our material down and should also increase the material yield on the sheets. Not to mention, I can do some REALLY cool custom engraved star wars wall panels for my basement (Just kidding George Lucas, don't sic your lawyers on me).

[Joe Pelonio]

I know a guy that has a 4'x10' that he was selling for $80,000, don't know if he ever found a buyer or not, but man, that thing took up a lot of space and two heavy-duty fork lifts to move. Really fun to see it working, though.

Meanwhile, you need to find someone else in your area, perhaps on the forum that can help you out in cases like this. I have used a couple of members at times when mine was down or I had too much work to keep up. Even if you just break even, you will keep the customer happy.

[Bill Cunningham]

At 19 months, it should still be under warranty? I never had a problem with a core charge, I just gave them my creditcard number to buy the new one, and I assume that 'if' they didn't get the old one back, they would charge my card. The only charge on my card was for the new one.. Coming up to 4 years on the replacement, and it's still going strong.. Oh darn! I just jinxed myself..

[Mark Ross]

This tube was already a replacement to a warranty replacement, so we had to pay for it, but it is the Epilog brand module now, not Coherent, so we will see how it goes. So far the laser seems hotter than 45 watts, as we are almost doubling our cutting speed. Because of this, it looks like we will be catching up pretty quick.