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View Full Version : 1994 Epilog Summit Laser, My first laser engraver!



Charlie Hawkins
12-16-2015, 4:34 PM
Hi All,
I picked up a 1994 Epilog Summit laser, with version 3.0 proms in it. I couldn't get it to fire up the display, but the fans would run. After troubleshooting it, I thought the power supply was bad, as it would output 28v. DC when removed, but only 1.8v. when installed. I purchased another Deltron power supply off of eBay, and received it today. The new supply was doing the same thing, so through process of elimination, I hooked up just the pc board power, and voila! It fired up, initialized, and allowed me to print wth the Windows XP driver off of Epilogs' website.
Now, when I unhook the laser power from the left side of the tube, it will still power up and run. The fellow I bought it from said they had replaced the tube in it several years ago, maybe two or three, and said the tube was good. If I leave the power connector hooked up to the right side of the tube, it runs, prints, etc. but no laser power as it will not burn a paper towel laid on the table. I have depressed the safety switches on the top housing, but still no output.
My thoughts are that the diodes on the left side of the tube are blown, or something like that. Anyone here ever run into the diodes being blown on the power input for the tube? I think the right side diodes are fine, as the unit powers up when that side is connected. When I plug in the left side, it arcs inside the connector, and shuts down the power supply. So, something is dead short to ground... hence my thoughts about the diodes. There are four of them, I believe on each end of the tube housing, and they look like 10 amp diodes, but will have to remove the tube housing to test them and see what they are. I am able to do electronics repair, on these older units without SMT stuff lol...
Anyone here have a similar problem, and fixed it without sending it out for 'repair'? I am very excited about using this older laser, and have been waiting to be able to find one that I can afford for a while. I know from reading about this unit, that it will last a long time, and the previous owner had purchased it new, in 1994 for his graphics business. It was extremely dirty, and I cleaned the mirrors, the lenses are still stained a little, but didn't want to rip apart the head until I determined the functionality of the unit. Thanks in advance, for any tips or thoughts upon what may be wrong with the laser.
Charlie
the Chaplain

UPDATE! I got the tube to faintly burn an envelope, but that is all. It will not output more than 50% power either, it must be because of the left side being disconnected... hence, 50% of the tube is working. I just type in some text in Corel Draw 12, and printed it, and it 'browned' the envelope. Not sure how to focus, as there is no red dot, or any reference as to what to do, and where the height has to be set.

Charlie Hawkins
12-17-2015, 6:45 AM
Ok, after messing around with focal length, I am getting some results, even though I have only one side of the tube powered up. It is rastering, in combined mode, and it will burn a line into wood, from Corel Draw 12. I drew a rectangle, typed some test text, drew some free form scribbles, and imported a color picture of the sunset from Windows sample pictures, and it engraved all these onto the wood, with rastering for the picture, the test text, and the brush scribble. The rectangle, and the drawing scribble, it actually burnt into the wood, about 1/32" deep. It is still only 50% speed and 50% power though. I am figuring this out, it actually has two lens sets that I can swivel into play, one higher and one lower, with appropriately higher and lower focus points. I will call Epilog today and see if they will send me the PDF files that I have seen mentioned here on the forum, so I can understand how to run this machine better.
The lenses were very stained, and it took a lot of cleaning/polishing to get them clear enough to burn with, I have not cleaned the mirror inside the lower part of the tube housing yet, (I am assuming that there is one in there) so it may even do better when everything is cleaned, aligned, and focused well. It seems only to work in combined mode, but perhaps I am doing something wrong, or perhaps it is because the tube is not functioning with both sides since it is unhooked on the left side.
Does anyone have an idea of whether there should be a red dot laser for positioning, or do you just somehow turn on the laser and use a paper to find the starting position? I am very new to this, so anyone who has any information, it would be very much appreciated.

Andrew Stow
12-17-2015, 1:15 PM
First things first, clean everything (sounds like you did that), level the table, and focus the laser properly.

Sounds like you might also need new mirrors and lens. Look into some of the chinese imports on ebay. Mechawin-win or something like that is the ebay user name of one of the sellers people here have used with good results.

That quick selectable lens thing sounds neat. Got a picture?

If you don't mind my asking, how much did you pay for this machine?

Charlie Hawkins
12-17-2015, 4:25 PM
Hi Andrew, I will look for new lenses, as they are pretty old and not that good. I used some Mother's polish to get the baked on stuff off, and the mirrors are flaking a little, I have some old hard drives that I may open up and cut some new ones out of the platters, I hear that works. I am not sure of the size lenses I need, but I can measure them and see. I only gave $200 for the machine, and then $53.40 for a spare power supply. So, I have total of $253.40 for far, plus gas money to go pick it up, which was 450 miles round trip. The lens thing, you push down to release it, and it swivels or pivots around to the other side 180 degrees apart. It is part of the brass assembly that focuses the laser beam.
Now, how do you level the table? And as far as focus, the beam is invisible until it cuts, and all I did was to raise and lower the table until the sparks were the most intense. Not sure if there is a way to manually fire the laser, or if thee is a way to add a red dot laser pointer to give a visual point to this unit... I know it can be added to other current lasers! So, I am going to be sent the PDF's from another member, who had one of these also, and that is very much appreciated! He told me to check for blown capacitors, etc. inside the laser assembly, and that sounds like good advice. Thanks for the advice on the replacement mirrors, and also lenses from the chinese eBay supplier, I have seen them also on there., when searching for used laser engravers.
Charlie
the Chaplain

Andrew Stow
12-17-2015, 6:00 PM
I don't know how it is for sure on your machine, but on my Legend the table has 2 screws at each corner of the table for raising or lowering that corner.

One of the screws locks it in place and the other raises or lowers that corner.

You level it with the machine off, so you can manually move the gantry and lens assembly to each corner. You can use the focus gauge to check for level at each corner. Or if you don't have a focus gauge, what I do is have a wood block and a feeler gauge and I measure off a flat spot on the lens holder. Adjust each corner until the feeler gauge has just a little bit of drag going between the lens holder and the wood block.

For that little amount of money, I'd say you did great. If nothing else, you could sell the tube, motherboard, and power supply and have a pretty easy DIY laser project.

Charlie Hawkins
12-17-2015, 8:00 PM
I called Epilog Tech support this afternoon, and those folks are great! The fellow I talked to told me that I should speak with Ian, as he knows a lot about the Summit. He also put me on hold, and came back with... A MANUAL! For a paltry $27.60, I have an Epilog Summit manual coming, including shipping. I cannot wait to get my hands on that, so at least I might know what to do and how to do it lol... Now that is a great thing!
I have been experimenting with a few things, and I etched a clip art graphic on Lexan! It was faint, but it was detailed, and looked nice. I have to get some wood, to experiment more with, this could be addictive... Now I have some time, and a lot of learning to do. Like, how to import a photograph and convert it to print without errors. Oh well, I will learn eventually!

Andrew, thanks for the tips on how to level the table, I don't know if I have that capability or not, but I will check it out.And, yes I did well, the person I bought it from had listed it for a while on eBay, and it did not sell, and after relisting it several times, he didn't relist it. So, I offered him an amount, and he called and said yes, come and get it. Now, I have to figure out what is wrong with the left half of the laser tube, and hopefully fix that.

Charlie Hawkins
12-18-2015, 5:33 PM
Well! Today, I aligned the laser beam, and it is engraving as well as I can expect with only half a tube working, but now it is skipping a 1/4" area about 1/3 of the way down my graphic picture. The job is only about 2 1/2" tall, and it is missing this small part of the engraving... now, I will have to figure out that.
I removed the long cover over the RF boards on the laser tube, and found a burnt component, that is mounted to the spiral loops of coax, and it is also mounted to the RF transistor, which is probably a tuning capacitor. It looks like mylar or mica sheets, and a small coil of copper wire, in a vertical configuration above the power transistor. It look remarkably like an RF power amp from ham radio, with a motorola 'cross' type power transistor. It brought back memories from my ham radio days, and using amps that i bought from the hamfests lol... So, it should be repairable, if that special component is still available from Digikey or some other electrical component parts house. I did see a few posts on this forum of similar boards that were charred like mine, so it should be something that others here are aware of, and had experience with. I figure I am using only half power right now, so 12.5 watts of engraver!
Does anyone have any info as to which type of tube would have been used in my Epilog Summit, whether it is a Coherent or Synrad tube, and which model it is? Thanks!

Charlie Hawkins
12-21-2015, 7:43 AM
I did some shopping for black granite tiles today, and locally in the box stores, there seems to be only Home Depot that carries them. I thought Lowe's would have also, but they did not stock them, even though their website shows them listed. I am going to try engraving a photo that I converted later today, and hopefully my daughter will send me a couple pics of her dogs that passed away this year, and I will make something for her to remember them by. Here is a sample pic that I converted with Adobe PS6 on my iMac!

Charlie Hawkins
12-23-2015, 8:59 PM
Here is a black granite tile I engraved with the Epilog Summit running half a tube, this was for my oldest daughter. She lost both her dogs the past year, and their whole family misses them very much. It is my first attempt at granite, and using Corel Draw Graphics suite 12, it didn't come out too bad. I know that there are design improvements that I could have done, but hey... it was my first one.