New Epilog!

[Martin Boekers]

Today is the day! Epilog Fusion M2 32 120 watt with camera, in place
and ready for the set up crew! :)

[Patrick Smithwick]

Looks good! I just picked up my new Fusion last week from Epilog as well. Hopefully I'll have it set up this week so they can come in and show me how to use it as well. Good luck!

[Martin Boekers]

We got the basics running, working through setting the camera up to a network.
It's more designed for a dedicated computer, but it should work with some tweaking... ;)

[Tim Bateson]

Congrats. I'm jealous of the 120 watt. The three cameras can be very tricky to setup. I use my desktop for everything, so I had to figure out for myself how to setup the network. I had forwarded that info to Epilog, so hopefully you now have updated instructions.

Do NOT try to run a camera job while the cutting grid is in the machine until Epilog has released a new driver to resolve an issue that could cause a head crash. The scenario for this situation is rare, but take no chances.

[Keith Winter]

Congrats Martin! Looks sharp, you're going to love 120 watts of power upgrading from a 75 watt. Cheers!

[Martin Boekers]

Congrats. I'm jealous of the 120 watt. The three cameras can be very tricky to setup. I use my desktop for everything, so I had to figure out for myself how to setup the network. I had forwarded that info to Epilog, so hopefully you now have updated instructions.

Do NOT try to run a camera job while the cutting grid is in the machine until Epilog has released a new driver to resolve an issue that could cause a head crash. The scenario for this situation is rare, but take no chances.


I sure hope we have an updated driver.... the disc provided didn't download so we downloaded it online.... It seemed to work fine... Dan from Fairway did our install.
We got the laser to run in a network, but for now the camera is only on my computer... I'm still running 32 bit but will be upgrading to 64 bit in the near future. Was it
both drivers that had issues or just the 64 bit? Dan said there are only 3 of us in his territory that have the camera, so that's you, me and one other. If someone in this forum
has one please chime in so we can help each other out with things....

You maybe jealous of the 120 watts but I'm jealous of your fiber... :)

I tried cutting a .5" black acrylic base and had pretty good flare ups, not sure what's causing it. I'm guessing since we have a 3" lens that maybe the air assist is too far a way to get sufficient air
to the surface.... I'll call Fairway and see what they say when I get a chance... From the limited time I've had to play with it I think I'm really going to love it!

[Kev Williams]

Not sure why this is, but I have two 3" lenses for my Triumph, and my 2" lens will cut thru 3/4" cherry in one pass, but neither 3" lens will. I've also found the 3" lenses to be nearly useless at cutting thru 1/8" Rowmark. If it was just one lens I would think I got a bad one, but two?

I also have a 4" lens, I think it works better than the 3" too, but I haven't done a lot of testing with it. (I actually bought it to engrave leather)

Anyway, try the 2" thru some thick stuff, you may be surprised...?

[Martin Boekers]

Not sure why this is, but I have two 3" lenses for my Triumph, and my 2" lens will cut thru 3/4" cherry in one pass, but neither 3" lens will. I've also found the 3" lenses to be nearly useless at cutting thru 1/8" Rowmark. If it was just one lens I would think I got a bad one, but two?

I also have a 4" lens, I think it works better than the 3" too, but I haven't done a lot of testing with it. (I actually bought it to engrave leather)

Anyway, try the 2" thru some thick stuff, you may be surprised...?

Actually, I ordered the 2" lens but I was told since I had the camera option I need to use a 3".

This 3" had no issue cutting through .5" black acrylic bases... I just had flare -ups and flames as if I wasn't using air assist.

The 2 - 75watt lasers I have both have 2" lenses, the Fusion has a whole different lens carriage, so they aren't interchangeable.

[Tim Bateson]

.. It seemed to work fine... Dan from Fairway did our install.
We got the laser to run in a network, but for now the camera is only on my computer... I'm still running 32 bit but will be upgrading to 64 bit in the near future. Was it
both drivers that had issues or just the 64 bit? Dan said there are only 3 of us in his territory that have the camera, so that's you, me and one other. If someone in this forum
has one please chime in so we can help each other out with things...

I had both Dan, and his son Danial, also the Ohio Fairway rep Mike, here doing the install. A lot of lessons were learned that day and a few since. I'm all 64bit here. The convert tool didn't work so well with Fiber settings, but I'm quickly building a new set of standard settings. I'm still getting use to the joy stick - both good and bad feelings about that type of control. There have been a few annoying issues that I'm keeping a list of and sending to Epilog - this is a new machine and that is to be expected. Now for the list of the positive aspects of the M2, those are growing daily. I really do enjoy using this machine! Just the fact that the M2 tells me how long a job will run has saved me hours of time. I was ecstatic to see the plunger Auto-focus was GONE and now done through the software. I actually had a job yesterday that I utilized both the Fiber & CO2 in the same job. The new Auto-focus was perfect solution for that. I do however sometimes mix up the manual focus tools - Fiber & CO2 are different lengths. I haven't yet tried the pass-through, but I should get a chance this next weekend when I am to Etch a long samurai sword.
On the down side my Insurance company has been a pain in the... over this new machine. I won't get into that mess now, it's all the price of a growing business.
Message me if you have any other questions on my experience with the Fusion M2.

[Keith Winter]

Curious why the insurance company cares? You're in a commercial building right, with sprinklers?

[Tim Bateson]

I have the shop in my house. Everything from properly tagged extinguishers, to their placement in the shop, to gun control. Mostly the issue is they don't understand this business or my machines.

[Martin Boekers]

Thanks Tim, I appreciate it.... I've only had about an hour on it so far... I have a couple rather large dye sub jobs that are due out in the next few days so it will be
a little while before I can put it through the paces.... Yes the auto focus feature is a great addition. I always wanted a repeatable setting on the Z-Axis!

I love that the frame is soooo much sturdier as now I can move it with out the fear of knocking the alignment "outta wack"

Your absolutely right on knowing how long the engraving will take, makes quoting jobs sooo much easier. One feature I wish it had (maybe it does) is a counter as
sometimes I need multiple passes and it would be nice to have it keep track of them.

The more I work with this laser the more I like it, quite a jump up from my EXT's...

[Tim Bateson]

No counter, :( you'll need to use the # copies feature in the print driver. It'll calculate run time as the total of the full job - 2 runs, the time shown is double that of 1 run. They say this is an estimated time, but so far it seems to have been dead on. As for alignment, this machine can be set on an uneven surface (way off level) & it'll laser perfectly.

[Martin Boekers]

Just talked with Epilog... the flame up was because the vector grid was not calibrated... All good now.... :)

[Tim Bateson]

Just talked with Epilog... the flame up was because the vector grid was not calibrated... All good now.... :)

I'm confused (no surprise). How do you "calibrate" the vector grid?

[Martin Boekers]

I'm confused (no surprise). How do you "calibrate" the vector grid?

It was supposed to be done at the factory from what I understand. It's done on one of the menu choices on the display panel.
Epilog walked me through it. Basically the way the auto focus works it has to know the table height. When you vector cut with the
vector grid in place, you have to chose that in the driver. Since the vector table is a different height than the main table to get
an accurate focus it has to know the height of the grid. Since mine had the wrong height, the focus was off, so that caused
the flame up. Once it is set it shouldn't have to be changed unless you use a different grid.. Hope that makes sense.. :)