Help a brother out! maybe need a table realignment or leveling?

[Gabe Gat]

ULS-P50
50W. Laser

It would appear that all of the sudden I'm no longer able to cut through the most basic woods at any of the settings i've mastered over time. I'm trying to cut 1/8 wood and even jacking the laser up to 100% power 2 % speed i'm not making it all the way through the wood. I'm usually able to do it @ 80% power 3% speed no problem. after messing around for hours and trying to figure out what's up I can tell you that the beam is not crisp at all four corners of the table, the further away from the source (bottom right corner) the worse it gets, it gets pretty wide down and fuzzy down there. I'd say there's a solid 1/8" difference between the top left and bottom left of the bed based on my focus tool. Does anyone have any experience with this type of issue?
How does one go about leveling the table? or is it a border issue that i'm missing, i would have though that if it was just a leveling issue I would at least be able to cut a 1" diameter circle at the top left corner, focusing right where that cut was but even that doesn't really seem to be working.

Ideas? Thanks for taking your time to read this.

[Glen Monaghan]

When did you last inspect and clean the optics? Actually remove the focus lens from the machine and check it for accumulated gunk and damaged coating. Ditto the final two mirrors.

-Glen

[Gabe Gat]

sorry should have mentioned that but it was the first thing I did, give everything a good clean.

[Dee Gallo]

I have the instruction sheet I got from Epilog on leveling the table. Here is the zipped PDF. Don't know if it is of any help for your laser model.

cheers, dee

[Mike Mackenzie]

Gabe,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news BUT this sounds like the laser tube has or is going out. clean the cooling fins on the tube and make sure that the cooling fans are working top and bottom fans. Also clean the vents by the power supply and blow out the power supply. I believe that I have instructions for leveling the table on the PS I have to find them and see how to prepare it for uploading here. You may also want to check for mirror positions just loosen the mirror place one finger in the hole on the bracket and squeeze gently to be sure the mirror is square with the brackets. Then do an alignment check if you have to bring the power up to 10% or above to burn a spot on the tape then chances are the laser tube needs re processing.

[Mike Mackenzie]

I could not get the attachment to the above post so lets try this one.

OK the file is to big PM me your e-mail address and I will send it to you.

[Martin Boekers]

It's quick to check alignment. Put a piece of masking tape over the round hole that the beam enters the lens carraige.
Then manually fire the beam and check to see how close to the center of the hole it is. You'll have to check with ULS
on how to manually fire the laser, on Epilog it is in the maintainance menu. You should always have a level close, and check
it from time to time. I think you have a combination of issues, leveling and alignment.

[Bill Stein]

I have to agree with Mike Mackenzie. Those were my exact symptoms when my tube started dying. Like all optimists, I checked the table, the alignment, cleaned like crazy, etc. -- anything to avoid shelling out $$ for a new tube. But the final solution was replacing the tube.

Bill