Does anyone here have a Micro-Mart Microlux Laserknife 2525?

[Deborah Jones]

It's fairly new. They just started offering it a couple of months ago. It's made in China but to Micro-Mark's specifications. (If you believe their website.) I'm beginning to think we are the only ones who actually bought one! LOL! There is just so little info out there on this machine other than a U-Tube video and instruction manual that isn't much help. We are newbies but learning as we go. We have done the Corel files for years and outsourced the cutting to others but wanted to do it ourselves.

We are trying to find other people who also have this machine. We're experiencing a few issues. Thus far their customer service techs have not resolved our issues and have not been of much help, which is surprising for Micro-Mark. We've always had a positive experience there prior to this. We've done far more to fix the issues by researching on our own in forums such as this one.

The symptoms are mostly that the further out it gets from "home" at the upper left, by the time it gets to the lower right it's no longer cutting, just engraving.
It starts out cutting just fine, then tapers off to just engraving.

We've tried various power & speed settings and this happens on 110# card stock, 1/16" chipboard, or 1/32" - 1/16" wood. We tried 70% power and it took multiple
passes to cut 1/16" chipboard so something is wrong. I would think that a 40 watt laser should cut that easily.

It doesn't seem to matter if we're cutting multiple grouped tiny items (1/2" x 1") or multiple larger items 2"-3" square or larger- it's just cutting inconsistently.

The bed was out of level by 1/8", so we shimmed it in one corner. We later raised the bed and leveled it again & made sure the nozzle was set to proper height (in all 4 corners of the bed) with the gauge that came with the machine. We cleaned the nozzle and lens and made sure the screw was tight. The mirrors were way out of alignment when we first got it, so we fixed that. They seem to be in alignment now but we still get this issue. The other problem is that sometimes the air hose gets tangled in the chain, but that's infrequent.

I would be very appreciative if anyone has any ideas. I'm not very techy but my husband is.

Thanks,
Debbie Jones
Phoenix, Arizona
Micro-Mark Microlux Laserknife 2525
40 watt
Corel x7

[Bill George]

First off it looks like a rebranded K-40 Laser sold on eBay for at times $600 or so, direct from China. Second there is no way a true 40 watt tube will fit in 32 inches of space. More than likely its just 32 watts on a good day. That is the size the K-40 machines take. Its rated at 35 peak, ,maybe. From what you are describing it sounds like the mirrors and optics are out of alignment.

Link to tube specs > http://www.lightobject.com/SP-35W-CO2-Sealed-Laser-Tube-for-Small-K40-laser-engraving-machine-P208.aspx
(http://www.lightobject.com/SP-35W-CO2-Sealed-Laser-Tube-for-Small-K40-laser-engraving-machine-P208.aspx)
Can you get your money back? An advertiser on here Automation Technology's sells decent machines. For the $2000 you spent, add a little more and you will have something that works.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Sadly Deb, Bill is quite right, it's a variation on the K40 theme made by another company for the European 240 volt market.Pretty much all the same no matter who you buy from, Shenhui, HX Laser, DoSan all make versions of the same machine.

Bill is also likely right about alignment so that will be the first thing to check out, they can be a bit of fun to play with as an introduction to lasers but also a PITA when you have to start setting things straight and doing jobs like aligning them.

[Deborah Jones]

Thank you for your response & info, Bill. It's beyond the initial 30 day warranty, but since it's not performing as advertised we may have some recourse. We're going to play with it more this weekend. It does still sound like an alignment problem but it seems to be pretty much on center when we do the test zap on masking tape over the mirrors.

I do have an additional question. We are working in a garage in Phoenix, AZ and it can get pretty warm out there in the Summer, although it is insulated and has sheet rock on the walls. I read something about temperature and the laser tube someplace. Is this a potential issue? The cutter is water cooled but we don't have any chiller on it, just the pump that came with it. -- Debbie

[Dave Sheldrake]

I read something about temperature and the laser tube someplace

Quite correct Deb,

16 - 20 degrees = excellent
20 - 25 degrees = start getting slightly lower beam quality and stability
25 - 35 degrees = the laser will still cut just not well at all
35 - 45 degrees = dead laser very quickly

Stability is the key, if you can only get down to say 22 degrees then try to keep it in a 3-4 degree range, this will be a lot more stable and give more repeatable results.

[Deborah Jones]

Oh my! The water in the bucket is likely just room temperature or slightly cooler. What, where, or how do I measure the temp?
I may need to look into a chiller attachment for the water pump.

Thanks so much for your input, Dave!
-- Debbie

[Gary Hair]

Oh my! The water in the bucket is likely just room temperature or slightly cooler. What, where, or how do I measure the temp?
I may need to look into a chiller attachment for the water pump.

Thanks so much for your input, Dave!
-- Debbie

and for our non-metric viewers - 20c is 68f - so room temp is probably ok.

[Deborah Jones]

Hi Dave, I just noticed you are from the UK. Is that in Celcius or Farenheit? (22 degrees).
Thanks,
Debbie

[Deborah Jones]

Ah! I asked Dave if that was C or F before I saw this. Thanks, Gary.

Room temperature in Phoenix out in the garage in the summer can be 100F+ (When it's 115F outside). Guess both a portable A/C unit and a
water chiller might be in order. Or is the water chiller a waste of $?

Thanks everyone for being so helpful to a newbie.

[Kev Williams]

If you're just using a bucket, and you can make ice, get a thermometer, and just throw a few ice cubes in the bucket when the water starts getting warm.

[Deborah Jones]

Thanks, Kev! Good idea, or even maybe those gel pack things. I have a couple thermometers used in cooking that go low enough in temp(one is an instant read).

Will try it out this weekend and see what the temp is (I probably don't want to know what the room temp water is!!) and then with ice.

We're using distilled water for the pump because we have very hard tap water. We can make distilled ice cubes easily.

[Dave Sheldrake]

If you intend on staying in the laser arena then a Chiller could be useful Deb, however it will need to be a "Chiller" not just a "Cooler"

Chillers work like fridges and can drop the temperature to 15 or so degrees C below room temp, a Cooler will only drop the temperature to the same as the surrounding room.

For example this

http://hpclaser.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=10

Is a chiller (HPC is UK based so you would need to find a company over there that can supply a similar item)

This

http://www.teyuchiller.com/Products/ChillerCW300050Wradi.html

Is a "Cooler" no matter what the name suggests, it basically pumps the water through tubes in front of a fan that blows room temperature air over it to "cool" it down.

If you have no real plans on upgrading the machine or expanding in the future then I'd go with Kev's suggestion and get either ice or ice blocks (used in cool bags) to keep water temperature down a bit.

A good stable supply of chilled water at 17-19 degrees C can make a big difference to cutting / engraving and will also prolong the life of the laser tube (lasers don't take well to big temperature variations)

Chillers also have built in water tanks and pumps, so that helps by removing the tank and pump from your existing system.

[Bill George]

Ah! I asked Dave if that was C or F before I saw this. Thanks, Gary.

Room temperature in Phoenix out in the garage in the summer can be 100F+ (When it's 115F outside). Guess both a portable A/C unit and a
water chiller might be in order. Or is the water chiller a waste of $?

Thanks everyone for being so helpful to a newbie.

At this point in your Chinese laser experience I would not put any more money into that machine.

Try to get the seller to take it back and get a refund. My other guess of the day, is your not the only one to get one of these machines from Micro Mark and they all have problems.
If the frame is not level or square it will never be right.

Hopefully you paid with Credit Card or PayPal so you will have some recourse.

[Bert Kemp]

Deb I'm near Phoenix and in Phoenix a lot, If you need some help I'd be happy to stop by and give you some advice. Its raining today and very humid keep an eye on your tube for condensation very bad. I just don't work on days like today. I have a 5 gal bucket I put gallon milk jugs that I have frozen in the chest freezer Keeps my water at around 58 to 65 F and when it gets to 65 I put in a new jug of Ice. My room temp is 72 to 78 pending on outside temp if its over 110 out room gets to 80 81 sometimes. swamp cooler LOL. Oh your also welcome to come look at my setup..

[Dave Sheldrake]

These one's aren't quite so dire Bill, they have the same layout and power system as the K40 but are closer to the Triumph TR-3020 quality wise. Hopefully it comes with NewlyDraw software rather than Winseal or suchlike but for a trainer machine so long as they are prepped properly they aren't too bad. Not normally quite so bent out of shape like the basic K40 stuff but $2,000 is a LOT for a machine in that size class :(

[Bert Kemp]

Thought it said corellaser software what eve that is yea 9inch engrave area pretty small, Dave go to bed


These one's aren't quite so dire Bill, they have the same layout and power system as the K40 but are closer to the Triumph TR-3020 quality wise. Hopefully it comes with NewlyDraw software rather than Winseal or suchlike but for a trainer machine so long as they are prepped properly they aren't too bad. Not normally quite so bent out of shape like the basic K40 stuff but $2,000 is a LOT for a machine in that size class :(

[Deborah Jones]

Ok, thanks! That's all good info to know and thanks for taking time to clarify the difference between the two. :)

At the moment it will be just for fairly limited use. We knew this was an entry-level machine and wanted to experiment with different things. I can see us stepping up and upgrading to something else later on down the road and will certainly ask for recommendations here on the forums when the time comes.

I don't plan to cut for anyone else besides my own small business (scale miniature dollhouse furniture and accessory kits and 1:48 and 1:144 structures and the like) I've been in business for 18 years but always outsourced the cutting to others. We just wanted to be more in control of the process and to be able to try a new design for something on the fly whenever we felt like it.
Thanks, Debbie

[Deborah Jones]

Thanks, Burt! We're down in Ahwatukee. (South of South Mountain) Normally, as you know, humidity is rarely a problem in Phx, LOL! (Except for monsoon season, which we're apparently heading into early this year.) I certainly would not want to mix condensation with that electricity! I'm still kind of nervous around the laser cutter a bit, but my hubby is careful and knowledgeable of electrical stuff.

We may take you up on that kind offer for help at some point. He's going to play with it some more this weekend and try a few things suggested here.

Everyone has been so helpful on this forum! Thanks, Debbie

[Dave Sheldrake]

Thought it said corellaser software what eve that is yea 9inch engrave area pretty small, Dave go to bed

meh...it's only 00:30 Bert :) still got some work to sort for tomorrow yet :)

[Bill George]

meh...it's only 00:30 Bert :) still got some work to sort for tomorrow yet :)

And this Forum is kind of addictive :)

[Bert Kemp]

That would be a nice Bike ride for me, just don't holler when its a 110 out, like riding in a blast furnace :eek:



Thanks, Burt! We're down in Ahwatukee. (South of South Mountain) Normally, as you know, humidity is rarely a problem in Phx, LOL! (Except for monsoon season, which we're apparently heading into early this year.) I certainly would not want to mix condensation with that electricity! I'm still kind of nervous around the laser cutter a bit, but my hubby is careful and knowledgeable of electrical stuff.

We may take you up on that kind offer for help at some point. He's going to play with it some more this weekend and try a few things suggested here.

Everyone has been so helpful on this forum! Thanks, Debbie

[Matt McCoy]

It sounds like you've crossed off the usual suspects. My guess is that you have a bad tube.

[Bill George]

These one's aren't quite so dire Bill, they have the same layout and power system as the K40 but are closer to the Triumph TR-3020 quality wise. Hopefully it comes with NewlyDraw software rather than Winseal or suchlike but for a trainer machine so long as they are prepped properly they aren't too bad. Not normally quite so bent out of shape like the basic K40 stuff but $2,000 is a LOT for a machine in that size class :(

Well I went to Micro Marts website and they look like they have upgraded the basic K40 and the software is some sort of revision so it works directly with Corel Draw. So maybe over priced a bit but could be useable. I think either it has alignment issues or perhaps a tube problem as suggested.

[Bert Kemp]

Deb Laser bits has a meter to check the tube, their in Phoenix so you could just drop in and pick it up, I think its $109 to rent it for a week. I asked them about will call and they said the price was the same. Kinda stinks that they can't drop the shipping charges if you go pick it up. There are a few other ways to check tube power , do a search on SMC to find it.

[Matt McCoy]

Deb Laser bits has a meter to check the tube, their in Phoenix so you could just drop in and pick it up, I think its $109 to rent it for a week. I asked them about will call and they said the price was the same. Kinda stinks that they can't drop the shipping charges if you go pick it up. There are a few other ways to check tube power , do a search on SMC to find it.

I would skip the power meter for this tube. It's almost half the amount of a new tube to rent it. I would check the quality of a test dot at the bottom right corner of the engraving/cutting area, which is the longest distance the beam will travel. A grid test pattern would help too.

[Deborah Jones]

Thanks Bert & Matt,
Good to know Laser Bits is local! I had no idea there was a local resource for stuff. We're going to try a few things today and Charles will look into
some ways to test the tube power. He's always researching stuff on the internet. I will pass along your suggestions.

At one point he did get a decent test fire dot at the bottom right but we will try that again. Didn't think of a test grid pattern but that makes sense.

We are going to try cooling the water as well with some Blue Ice packs or frozen water bottles. The weather is a bit iffy here today (hot and rainy on and off, not
a good combo for the laser cutter in the garage), so it may be tomorrow before we get back out there.

I am very appreciative of everyone's input and suggestions here and will report back with what we find out in our testing this weekend.

SawmillCreek forums and blog is a wealth of info. It was recommended to me by a very nice person at Innovative Lasers in Gilbert, AZ and I can't thank him enough.

-- Deb Jones

[Bill George]

Deb its not unusual to have a Chinese tube fail so soon. But have you used the masking tape over the mirrors starting with the first one off the tube trick? Burn spot should be in the center of each as you work your way around, one at a time.
I purchased my new tube from LightObject dot com. You might try to get one free from Micro Mart under a warranty.

[Deborah Jones]

Yes, we did do the masking tape routine on the mirrors. It was way out of alignment right out of the box and the bed was way out of level.

I thought perhaps the tube itself might need shimming but Charles says it's not pointing too low, but a bit high and you can't lower, only shim higher
He managed to get the mirrors ok by fiddling with it. There may still be some alignment issue though. We're going to check it again in a bit.

Micro-Mark only has a 30 day warranty I believe (maybe the tube warranty is longer, I'll check for sure.) and we've had it about 6 weeks. (Charles is only able to play with it on the weekends.)
Thanks,
Deb

[Kev Williams]

Not sure why many who build lasers can't find the time to make them work right before they ship them.

I've been lucky myself, in that regard. My first western machine was my rep's demo, and from day one 12 years ago the only adjustment it's ever needed was a rail belt, and that was my fault..

My LS900 I bought new, and it was perfect 'out of the box'...

But after reading all these horror stories about Chinese lasers never being aligned when the new owners get them, I was pleasantly surprised by my Triumph. My table is stationary and weighs about 50 pounds, and I did need to adjust the rails it sits on a bit. Took a couple of minutes. But the laser, mirrors and lens alignments were all dead on the money from top left to bottom right and everywhere in between. 19 months later nothing's changed. For a 1300 x 900mm table, I consider that pretty good. :)

I honestly don't know where Triumph lies in the "best to worst" Chinese laser category, but I've had good luck with the thing.

Software, that's another story... ;)

[Dave Sheldrake]

I honestly don't know where Triumph lies in the "best to worst" Chinese laser category

About Midway Kev, only really two controller cards and 4 driver boards on any given Chinese machine so the difference is mostly in the tube quality and cabinet build

[Bert Kemp]

Like Kev I bought a demo from my rep Rabbit Laser USA Hauled it over a 1000 miles in the back of my pickup, bounced it up my deck steps into the house and haven't don't anything to it except clean lenses and mirrors know on wood. Dave were does rabbit stand in the line. Still haven't figured all of lasercut. Rastering bit maps gives me grief. Maybe someday I'll start a thread and see if you guys can help me their.

[Dave Sheldrake]

HX Laser / King Rabbit are right at the top of the tree. Their build quality is second to none most of the time.

I have an HX 1290 as one of mine, it's suffered the worst abuse of any laser I have and still keeps going on a daily basis :)

[Deborah Jones]

New question: Does the rail bar (or whatever you call that moving arm thing that the nozzle moves around on) slant to the front slightly "by design" or is that a possible issue? The part of the rail to the back is slightly higher than the part of it that is toward the front- just on the left hand side. It slants down towards you as you are looking into the box. It's slight, but definitely not level. Hubby Charles says it's off by .5mm-1mm. It's not the guides that the rail rolls forward on. Those are level. The brackets that hold the rail/arm together on either side are level, but the left side of the arm does slant forward more than the right side. My question is-- is that normal or something "off". We don't see any way to adjust it really. Thanks, Deb Jones

[Bert Kemp]

pictures would help here, but off hand I'd say not normal, but the big thing is ,, is the laser head perpendicular to the table. The laser head should shoot straight down exactly. Make sure it sq to the table thats the important thing. with your power off does the x and y axis move freely in all directions? if not that might have something to do with the slant you say you have. really need a pic.

[Deborah Jones]

I agree, Bert...a picture is worth 1,000 words. We're going to get out there earlier tomorrow morning when it's a bit cooler, so will get a pic to show what we mean. The ice packs in the water worked well for us at keeping the water temp consistent.

We do seem to have the laser head square to the table (using the provided acrylic gauge) in all 4 corners and consistently spaced from the bed. I would have thought it would raise up a tad as it went to the right because of that slant on the left of the arm and straight on the right, but we do get consistent cutting all the way to the right in the first few inches down, just not all the way down the media to the lower right. The Bed is level in all 4 corners, etc. Very perplexing. We even raised the 130# cardstock stuff we were testing on by putting it on top of some 1/16" stock but still had the
same issue of just scribing in the lower right, not cutting all the way through. Will post some photos of our test runs tomorrow, also.

The Miliamps when cutting are consistent all the way through to the lower right corner (we watched that today) so it doesn't appear to have power fluctuation within a single run/pass. Mirrors are aligned pretty closely, too. We tried a few things, still not there yet.

I did contact Micro-Mark because the 30 days I mentioned earlier is actually their return policy. However, something as out of kilter as this puppy was out of the box, certainly merits some kind of recourse.

Thanks, Deb

[Bert Kemp]

still sounds like an alinement problem. also please don't put cardstock on top of other cardstock or wood or anything that doesn't have air space under it could cause a fire. try raising the honeycomb if you have to , but your laser should focus at it highest point you should not have to raise the material. have you checked lens again for dirt or cracked. is the cone on straight so the beam is not hitting the sides of the cone . check the out end of the laser tube for any obstruction like fuzz or dirt.
You might run a slope test to make sure your focus is correct, its not unheard of that the mfg sent the wrong focus tool

[Deborah Jones]

It's probably the laser tube itself that's out of alignment. It has always pointed high by about 3mm since the day we got it. :mad: He had to compensate by adjusting mirror 1 (and then the others). It's obviously harder to lower the laser tube than to shim it up. I suppose we could shim the opposite end of the laser tube to make it point slightly lower, but we haven't really wanted to monkey with the tube much until we find out from Mico-Mark what our options are on this mess. He did check the nozzle & lens to be sure they had no dust or stuff and all seemed ok.

We did try an experiment with the lens yesterday. We tried it both ways and it looked identical on the cut. Neither way was wider or thinner. We left it "flat" side down.

Thanks for the warning about not cutting with a solid surface below it! Good to know. He rigged up a little jig that seems to work well to lift the media up with air space below, at least on card stock. He went to a higher power setting and speed, and finally got it to cut in all 4 corners (raised on the jig) of 8.5" x 11" card stock with the 11" side situated left to right. He used 85% power and speed of 35. This is crazy that it took that much power to cut mere card stock with a "40" watt laser tube!

The card stock is used for just a couple of things I do. We just did a lot of testing with it because it was the cheapest thing to use in our trial and error phase. We are cutting 12 of the same item on an 8.5" x 11" sheet. We just did simple gingerbread man shapes. (Don't ask. It was my idea. <g> It's actually eventually going to be for a little bobbin to wrap lace & trims on with acid-free chipboard.)

The 1/16" chipboard is something I use more, and mostly 1/16" thick basswood (and 1/32") for dollhouse accessory stuff like trays, shelves, 1:48 (O-Scale) structures and the like. Occasionally I would 1/8" wood, but that's going to take multiple passes. I"m not even sure this machine can handle 1/8" basswood even with multiple passes based on what we've seen so far.

This afternoon 1/16" chipboard was cut (same design of 12) on speed of 30 and power of 90%. It took 2 passes and even then, only cut 8 of the 12 items (3 rows of 4 each) Starting with the 9th one, first one on the left on the bottom row, it didn't cut but engraved deeply and then etched lightly halfway though that one and engraved from then on fading out to nothing by the time it got to the last one.

I'm going to try to attach some scans of the chipboard and also the ones of the rail/arm showing the little slant in it. The first one is a pic of the left side of the arm/rail and you can see it slants down to the front slightly. The next pic is the right side of the arm/rail, showing it doesn't slant. The last one is a PDF of the chipboard. First page is the front, second page is the back.

Oops. It loaded them not in the order I said. OK, the one with yellow in it shows the slight forward slant in the arm. The one with blue background shows the right side of the arm. The vertical line is the bracket that holds the arm in place (no slant forward there). The PDF is the chipboard. It's not oriented the way we actually cut them. The one showing the back side would be the long side (11" side) going side to side, and the fainter lines fading to nothing go to the bottom right of the bed.

Thanks, Debbie

[Deborah Jones]

Forgot to ask you...what's a slope test, Bert? How do we do one?
Thanks, Debbie

[Bert Kemp]

can you back off a little maybe give me a better angle of the gantry put some arrows to show were its slanted. I can see the slant but not sure what it is thats slanted .
Slope test if you have a piece of anodize alum use it if not wood will do. Put it on your table raise one end about a 1/4 inch focus for the bottom and cut a line low power from bottom to top make sure your laser head won't hit the wood. fine the thinnest part of that line and thats were your best focus will be. Hope you understand that maybe someone else can jump in and explain better. I'm gone for a while

[Deborah Jones]

Hi Bert, Charles took the pics with his phone. He's got to go to work tomorrow but will post a better pic one night this week. (Or I will try it with my camera.)

Oh, I see the photo's orientation is off at an odd angle, so it's confusing. On the pic with the yellow in it. The back of the laser box is to the upper right corner of the photo and the front of the laser box is to the lower left. The gantry or bar thing that the nozzle runs back and forth on has a yellow warning sticker with an exclamation point on it. It slants towards the dot of the exclamation point and the back of the bar is just a tad higher than the front of the bar. I added some text and arrows. I hope this clarifies it some.

Thanks for the info on the slope test. We'll try that this weekend. (He works 4 day weeks so long hours during the week.)

[Bert Kemp]

You should be able to cut 1/8" Balsa no problem 1 pass with a 40 watt even with the cheap 30 watt tube it should do it. If you can back off and give us a picture of the whole laser head so we can see what your talking about it would help
Every machine is different in the way they mount the head and gantry types very a lot . their all similar but each has its own idiosyncrasy's LOL

[Deborah Jones]

I will take more pics and post them. Camera batteries are recharging. (I don't have a smart phone.) Meanwhile I have included 2 shots from Micro-Mark's website showing what it looks like, and an enlarged view (sorry a little fuzzy when I cropped & enlarged it), and our actual laser cutter's photo. Theirs looks to be pretty level from front to back, or if anything slightly higher in the front, but pics can be deceiving. It may not make much of a difference in the end, but we're trying to nail down any little detail that could cause it.

I agree this laser should be able to cut a lot better. I'm going to email their "tech" with the photos of the 1/16" chipboard that took 2 passes and still only cut some of them, and power settings & speed, and see what they have to say. Here's what Micro-Mark claims it can cut (from their own website):

Approximate Cutting Capacity

(actual results depend on type of material, thickness, cutting power, speed and number of passes)
Balsa: up to 1/4 inch in a single pass; 1/2 inch in multiple passes
Basswood: up to 1/8 inch in a single pass; 1/4 inch in multiple passes
Cherry/Walnut/Mahogany: up to 1/32 inch in a single pass; 3/16 inch in multiple passes
Gatorfoam: up to 3/16 inch in a single pass; 1/2 inch in multiple passes
Acrylic: up to 3/32 inch in a single pass; 1/4 inch in multiple passes
Styrene: up to 1/8 inch (for most plastics, we recommend multiple passes at high speed and low power)
Corrugated cardboard: up to 1/8 inch in a single pass; 1/4 inch in multiple passes
Chipboard: up to 1/16 inch in a single pass; 3/16 inch in multiple passes
Plywood: up to 1/32 inch in a single pass; 3/16 inch in multiple passes
PVC: Not recommended (gives off hazardous smoke)

Thanks,
Debbie


You should be able to cut 1/8" Balsa no problem 1 pass with a 40 watt even with the cheap 30 watt tube it should do it. If you can back off and give us a picture of the whole laser head so we can see what your talking about it would help
Every machine is different in the way they mount the head and gantry types very a lot . their all similar but each has its own idiosyncrasy's LOL

[Bert Kemp]

Deb looking at the picture on the website if the gantry is slanted forward toward the front of the machine or towards the rear of the machine I would think the laser beam is coming out at an angle and not shooting straight down at the material. I would think that this would cause a loss of cutting power. But other here might know more I'm still learning also.
You say your cutting chip board, I'm not certain what that is. If your referring to something like particle board which is a whole lot of wood chips glued together to make a sheet that might be a lot harder to cut because of all the glue. Try some1/8th lauan hard board from HD or some 1/8 Baltic Birch from woodworkers source on Black Canyon Highway and Union Hills .

[Mike Null]

Bert

Chipboard is the material used for the back of paper tablets or like they used to use as support in a laundered shirt. It may also be called cardboard.

[Bill George]

The picture and I only see one, seems to show a cover, not the carriage or laser head. It looks pretty shopworn for only being 6 weeks old.

[Deborah Jones]

Hi Bert, Yes chipboard is a type of stiff, compressed cardboard usually made from recycled paper & cardboard and is commonly found on the backs of writing tablets. Same idea as particle board, but cardboard. The scrapbook enthusiasts die-cut it and laser-cut it and embellish various shapes.

We have tried cutting various hardwoods (including walnut & maple) as well as basswood and they cut fine in the upper quadrant of the bed but have the same issue of not cutting as the laser nozzle runs to the lower right. We also felt it could be possible that just that slight slant towards the front in the rail/arm/gantry can cause the laser-beam angle to change as it goes to the lower right.

We have documented everything we tried (and the failures), and photos, and emails and bundled it all into a big email timeline and sent it to Micro-Mark's techs yesterday, and basically the ball is in Micro-Mark's court now. I did find out that the machine has a 90 day warranty and we are fast approaching that. However, considering parts of it were lost in transit and sat on a dock for a couple weeks, and considering we had problems right out of the box, I would hope they are a little bit flexible and will work with us. I'll report back what they say.

Thanks to everyone for all the great info and suggestions to help resolve this.

-- Debbie (& Charles) Jones

[Deborah Jones]

Hi Bill,
I'm a newbie to the forum and not used to how the threads and sub-threads flow, so the original thread has taken a lot of twists and turns along the way- LOL! I did post more pics on one of the sub-threads showing a more backed-off view so you can see the thing from a better perspective. (Those were enlargements from the Mirco-Mark website and look more pristine. My camera batteries died so I used their photos to show the carriage and nozzle assembly view.) I also included a closeup of the left side of our actual carriage arm that my husband took on his phone. Because of the odd way the shot was oriented, I marked on it some arrows & notes. There's a post somewhere here that shows those 3 photos together so you can get the orientation.

It did show a few dings and smudges in the closeup. The smudges on it were probably our fault (char residue on our hands probably from handling the media we were cutting) and it has since been cleaned, but the dings came that way. We have been gentle with it. We have documented all the issues and the ball is now in Micro-Mark's techs court.

Thanks,
Debbie

[Deborah Jones]

Hi again, Bill. I can't find the forum sub-thread where I posted the 3 pics showing the left side of our carriage that appears to slightly slant downward and a more backed-off view so you can see the orientation of it. I'll just repost those pics here on this message reply. Those more backed off views are from Micro-Marks' website because my camera batteries are not charged.

The first pic (that I notated with arrows & notes) is from the left side of our actual Carriage. Yes, it's got smudges, probably a little char residue, that has since been cleaned. The dings were already like that when we got it, I'm pretty sure.

The second photo will be an overview shot of the carriage rail taken from Micro-Mark's website.

The next is an enlarged (and bit grainy- sorry) view of the left side of the carriage rail (from Micro-Mark's website),

On the photo of ours, the slant towards the front is very slight but it's there. Maybe .5mm to 1mm. On the photo from Micro-Mark's website of the same area, theirs looks to be either level or slightly higher to the front than ours.

Thanks,
Debbie

Thanks, Debbie



The picture and I only see one, seems to show a cover, not the carriage or laser head. It looks pretty shopworn for only being 6 weeks old.

[Bert Kemp]

Deb did you ever try the slope test , I would try that test in all 4 corners to see if the focus point has changed. I'm sure it has. If you did an alinement and the beam hits the center of the tape in all for corners close and far and its no cutting in that one far corner the focus must have changed. You say the bed is level and sq, so whats left. I can't think of anything except that laser head is slanted and some how looses focus at that point. We need more help here guys, I'm not expert just throwing out ideas. has anyone else got other possibilities ??:confused:

Might also try focus laser in the upper left corner lower power to about 30% and say 350 speed and cut a line maybe 3 inches then mover the laser to each of the others 3 corners not changing the focus leave it were you set it a the upper right, cut a line in each corner and see if the line gets thicker or thinner. the line should be thin and the same in all 4 corners.

[Deborah Jones]

Hi Bert,
We haven't tried the slope test yet, but will. I'm still a little intimidated by the laser cutter to try things myself, but Charles will try it this weekend. I may have him try a quick test tonight when he gets home from work. We'll also try your other suggestion, above. Meanwhile, I hope I hear back from Micro-Mark about what they will do about all this.

[Deborah Jones]

Update on progress: Micro-Mark techs finally contacted us and said it should cut 1/16" chipboard in one pass at 5 mA power and 20 speed. That was a joke! It barely engraved and then trailed off to nothing in the lower right. We had tried it at 11 mA and 30 speed and it took multiple passes and even then wouldn't cut at the lower right.

They gave us some things to try, which we are in the process of doing. We leveled the gantry/carriage/arm that was sloping forward, we shimmed the bed in 2 places, and he's doing yet another mirror re-alignment.

Also, we found someone else who had purchased one over in a model shipbuilder's forum and his experience is eerily similar to ours. :eek:

So we still don't have the issues resolved to be able to cut consistently, but at least Micro-Mark believes us that we have issues. It remains to be seen if they will take care of it. We are documenting everything with photos to prove it still does not cut properly (or as advertised), even after trying their suggestions.

Thanks,
Debbie

[Deborah Jones]

Here's the results of a slope test we did a couple days ago. This is 1/16" basswood, elevated on the bottom with 1/4" scrap. We did it in all 4 corners. However, since then we tried
cutting something and were back to our old issues again of it trailing off to scribing instead of cutting in the lower right corner. He has since re-aligned all the mirrors painstakingly (hours of work)
and we're about to try cutting our sample file again.
Thanks,
Debbie

[Bill George]

For what you folks paid it should work, send it back.

[Deborah Jones]

I agree, Bill, but we are outside their return policy time limit. We are still within their 90 day warranty. We are documenting one more thing today for them and then it's in the hands of Micro-Mark to make it good one way or the other. We paid by credit card, so may have some recourse there also.
Thanks, Debbie