Issue with Epilog Legend 36EXT

[Chris Abitong]

Hello community,

Long time lurker first time poster. Extremely informative forum.

We've recently had to install a new x-axis belt on our Epilog Legend 36EXT as the old one was getting frayed on the top of the belt. And we've been having some issues with it. The laser head appears to drift.

I’ve attached a picture of a test I did on some 2”x2” pieces of Rowmark, the piece of the left should say Top Left and the one on the right should say Top Right and they both should have a .5"x1.75" rectangle beside the wording. I had them placed on the top left and top right of the table...


I'm awaiting a response from Epilog on the matter and figured I can get some help from the SMC community as well.

[John Noell]

First guess, dirty encoder strip.

[Gary Hair]

hic...looooksh...hic...o...hic...k...toooooomeeeee



Hello community,

Long time lurker first time poster. Extremely informative forum.

We've recently had to install a new x-axis belt on our Epilog Legend 36EXT as the old one was getting frayed on the top of the belt. And we've been having some issues with it. The laser head appears to drift.

I’ve attached a picture of a test I did on some 2”x2” pieces of Rowmark, the piece of the left should say Top Left and the one on the right should say Top Right and they both should have a .5"x1.75" rectangle beside the wording. I had them placed on the top left and top right of the table...


I'm awaiting a response from Epilog on the matter and figured I can get some help from the SMC community as well.

[Kev Williams]

First thing I'd do turn the machine on, move the lens head until it's centered across the table, then see if you can move the head side to side-

Just a guess based on what I see, which is 2 different but distinct left-to-right and right-to-left images, and that the head is continually walking to the right, it looks like the belt, OR the stepper motor (if it was loosened to change the belt) may be too loose. The slack would account for the double-image, and walking to the right would be caused by the belt slipping a tooth as the stepper suddenly stops and changes direction. The reason it only moves right may be because of the weight of the lens head would cause a different reaction during the stop-n-turn on the drive-cog side than on the idler-cog side...

I thought about maybe the stepper cog being loose, but seems to me the wander would be all over the place, rather than just the one direction...

Anyway, short version, it's most likely a mechanical problem, and easy to find & fix. :)