I need help, please

[Carla Lange]

The table on my Epilog Helix won't go down. Does anyone have any ideas? I called Tech Support, but it was yesterday, and the suggestion he made to loosen the belt didn't help. Of course since it's the weekend, they are not in now. When I push the down button, all I hear is a clunk. When I push the up button, I hear the motor trying to go up, but it's already in the up position, so there's no where for it to go. The up and down screws that enable the table to move look fine to my eyes, the belt looks OK without any missing cogs that I can see. There doesn't seem to be anything jammed anyplace. Any ideas out there?

Thank you for trying to help.

Carla Lange

[Jeff Chumbley]

Possibly the auto focus plunger stuck?? Just a guess

Jeff

[Frank Corker]

Hi Carla,
I know exactly what to do. It happens to me every now and again when I try to use autofocus on something under 2mm.

Remove the four screws from the front of the machine (the big bit with Epilog carved out of it), put the lid to one side. You will see what appears to be two bands running diagonally across the machine. It is actually one band in a continuous loop.

Grab hold of one in each hand and hold them tightly, move them in opposite directions of each other - (crossing your hands over as you move them your right hand will go to the left and your left hand to the right). This will actually allow you to manually move the cutting grid up and down. It's a bloody nuisance to do but it works fine, plus it will probably be exactly what the guy at Epilog will tell you to do.

:D

[Carla Lange]

Thank you all for the emails and posts. I have not been able to fix it yet, but tomorrow is another day. It looks like the focus if fine, but the table might be off of the top track/screw.


Carla Lange

[Frank Corker]

I assure you it's as I have said above. I have the Helix and I get the fault quite often. The above fix will sort it

[Carla Lange]

Frank,
Thanks, it worked like a charm. Thank you ALL for your emails and support. This forum, and it's people are wonderful!

[Frank Corker]

Good to here it. It is a nuisance when it happens, but it was occuring so many times for me that I now have to keep the front lid unscrewed. I would go the extra mile and do a couple of test cuts on paper (very low power settings with very fast speed) to see if the table is still level. If it isn't, then you have to remove the belt off the small wheels on either side and manually move the table until both are exact same height.

The lesson for me is that if I am going to engrave anything below 2mm I use the manual depth setter. It doesn't do it when the flat steel engraving deck is on, just the vector grid.

[Carla Lange]

Thanks, I did undo the belt and re-aliened the table. It was off a tiny bit, but I think it's right on now. You think they would come up with a limit switch, or a cap of some sort to prevent this from happening. I think if I work with anything thinner I'll just put it on top of a piece of wood or acrylic and not worry about it focusing on the thin stuff.
Thanks again,


Carla Lange

[Brent Brod]

I experienced this for the first time a month ago when the focus probe missed the workpiece and jammed. Now, I manually focus on anything thin. Also, I start out with the table in a fairly low position so I can tell if the focus probe is going to hit the work or not. If it looks like a miss, I press stop and manually focus.

Glad you got it working again.

[Carla Lange]

Brent, good idea. Guess I'll have to try that method too.


Carla Lange