Kev Williams
06-18-2020, 12:10 PM
Was running some Cermarked SS Tuesday night when the power seemed drop, the beam spot just looked too tiny. So yesterday morning I had to cut and engrave a couple of 5-3/4" gauge dial faces out of 1/32" wht/black Rowmark. It cut the dials okay, but wouldn't engrave thru the white at my normal settings. Uh oh. I had to lower the speed from 80% to 30% just to finish the engraving. 1/8" Rowmark has always cut cleanly in 2 passes at 100% power and 7 speed. Yesterday 12 passes wouldn't make it all the way thru...
I checked all the lenses and mirrors, beam alignment, all same as usual. I pulled the shutter assembly off and made sure no bug got fried to the #1 mirror or anything else was obstructing the beam. I pulled the lenses from the collimator, no problems. Put everything back together, re-aligned the red and main beam paths, no change in power :(
SO, I sent Evergreen Laser an email last night, and will be sending them my tube for a rebuild. I'm not sure if it just needs a charge or if I lost a capacitor. Pretty sure it's NOT a capacitor, as I'm experiencing MUCH less than 50% power now. I've heard many great things about Evergreen, and Sheldrake recommends them, and that's good enough for me :)
Progress reports to follow--
I checked all the lenses and mirrors, beam alignment, all same as usual. I pulled the shutter assembly off and made sure no bug got fried to the #1 mirror or anything else was obstructing the beam. I pulled the lenses from the collimator, no problems. Put everything back together, re-aligned the red and main beam paths, no change in power :(
SO, I sent Evergreen Laser an email last night, and will be sending them my tube for a rebuild. I'm not sure if it just needs a charge or if I lost a capacitor. Pretty sure it's NOT a capacitor, as I'm experiencing MUCH less than 50% power now. I've heard many great things about Evergreen, and Sheldrake recommends them, and that's good enough for me :)
Progress reports to follow--