Jim Benham
09-11-2015, 10:26 PM
Hello all. I am a newbie to this form, and a newbie to laser, however i have been in the CNC industry for quite some time. I manufacture tablet mounts and holders and am looking for some help on a laser machine I just picked up. Any help is much appreciated!
I purchased an Epilog Summit that was from the original owner and was said to have less than 1000 hours on it. The machine is in excellent shape and came with everything you can think of since day one. The laser is 25w and has never been replaced or recharged. I originally hooked it up to the laptop that the lady provided me with that was running Windows ME, and CorelDraw 9. Fortunately Epilog still has drivers available for the Summit so I was able to install Windows 7 32 bit with a copy of CorelDraw X5 ran through a USB to Parallel port to the machine. The primary job of the machine is going to etch our logo and part numbers on the holders, which are manufactured out of acrylic or powder coated aluminum. I tried etching out some text on a piece of acrylic and didn't have much luck. The power of the laser just seemed not very strong no matter what I tried. After messing around with it for a few days I realized that there were some dirty mirrors and lenses, so I did a thorough cleaning of all of them including the first mirror on the bottom of the machine which was super dirty. Now I'm able to successfully etch acrylic, but it just still doesn't seem powerful enough for what I need.
321261
Below is an example of what I'm trying to do with the machine:
Engrave our logo on to a holder that is manufactured out of aluminum then powder coated black.
Power is at 100%, Speed is at 8% (I've tried lowering the speed down to 1% even and it doesn't seem to benefit me much)
The file is a PDF, I've tried EPS with the same outcome.
I have the focus set right on the part. I've tried going a little higher and lower but no benefit.
321264
Here are the settings that I have on my computer
321265321266321267321268
Questions:
As you can notice on the first pass it does a better job of outlining the part than it does with removing the fill in the middle. Is this normal?
With a 25W machine it shouldn't take me 3 passes to get this outcome should it?
Are there any settings that I should be changing when engraving from the above screen shots?
Thanks ahead of time for all your help!
I purchased an Epilog Summit that was from the original owner and was said to have less than 1000 hours on it. The machine is in excellent shape and came with everything you can think of since day one. The laser is 25w and has never been replaced or recharged. I originally hooked it up to the laptop that the lady provided me with that was running Windows ME, and CorelDraw 9. Fortunately Epilog still has drivers available for the Summit so I was able to install Windows 7 32 bit with a copy of CorelDraw X5 ran through a USB to Parallel port to the machine. The primary job of the machine is going to etch our logo and part numbers on the holders, which are manufactured out of acrylic or powder coated aluminum. I tried etching out some text on a piece of acrylic and didn't have much luck. The power of the laser just seemed not very strong no matter what I tried. After messing around with it for a few days I realized that there were some dirty mirrors and lenses, so I did a thorough cleaning of all of them including the first mirror on the bottom of the machine which was super dirty. Now I'm able to successfully etch acrylic, but it just still doesn't seem powerful enough for what I need.
321261
Below is an example of what I'm trying to do with the machine:
Engrave our logo on to a holder that is manufactured out of aluminum then powder coated black.
Power is at 100%, Speed is at 8% (I've tried lowering the speed down to 1% even and it doesn't seem to benefit me much)
The file is a PDF, I've tried EPS with the same outcome.
I have the focus set right on the part. I've tried going a little higher and lower but no benefit.
321264
Here are the settings that I have on my computer
321265321266321267321268
Questions:
As you can notice on the first pass it does a better job of outlining the part than it does with removing the fill in the middle. Is this normal?
With a 25W machine it shouldn't take me 3 passes to get this outcome should it?
Are there any settings that I should be changing when engraving from the above screen shots?
Thanks ahead of time for all your help!