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Tom Cullen
12-13-2006, 2:48 PM
Hi everyone,
I need help in a big way! up until this morning my laser was running fine. I cleaned all 4 mirrors and the lens and re-set them . Now when I try to burn a tile (black marble) instead of the nice whites and contrast, I get what looks like mottling.it first started with horizontal striping , so I took the mirrors out again and cleaned them off once more and re-set them.The lines wern't as bad but the bright white I usualy get is now very dull and spotty ..almost like shading and as if the laser isnt firing as it should. I haven't put a call into laserpro yet, I expect I would get a faster responce here. Please help! almost at panic mode here.

Thanks
Tom

James & Zelma Litzmann
12-13-2006, 3:19 PM
Tom, both times we've done something like this it was our oversight, like out of focus and one of the lens were loose, the one up top. I hate telling on our selves but it was very upsetting, but a relief when it was a fast fix.

J&Z

Joe Pelonio
12-13-2006, 3:45 PM
Tom,

I have an Epilog but should be similar. On the lense, it should go on only one way. One side is convex, the other flat. Any chance you put one of them in upside down after cleaning? That would cause focus issues.

Tom Cullen
12-13-2006, 6:00 PM
Thanks everyone,
I checked the placement of the mirrors five times already and the actual lens only screws on one way, i didn't remove the lens from the housing , just unscrewed it and cleaned both sides. I think at this point it might be a power issue with the laser tube?? I can burn wood and the like but just get poor results when using marble. I have been pumping out really nice stuff up to now, and would'nt you know I have like eight things to get out to customers this week. My support guy said he will send out some type of meter to check the power levels.

Tom

Joe Pelonio
12-13-2006, 7:54 PM
Tom,

My sincere sympathy if it's the tube. Try cutting 1/4" acrylic in the lower right corner of the laser, or wherever is the farthest point from the tube on your machine at the normal settings. If it cuts at 0,0 but not at the far corner it's power. You would also find that engraving something big that goes all the way left to right that as you get farther away it becomes fuzzy or not as deep. If there are no scratches on the mirrors or lenses, no missing gold coating on the mirrors, it could still be an electronic issue
rather than worn out tube. Could even be alignment, did you do a re-alignment of the mirrors to make sure they are in good focus across the table?

(Just trying to give you some small bit of hope).

Rob Bosworth
12-14-2006, 11:36 AM
Tom, I would be surprised if your laser went down at the same time as your removing the optics and cleaning them. I would bet you have an alignment problem. You need to make sure the laser beam is traveling down the center of all of your optics. A little clip here, a little clip there, and you have lost a lot of power, and the dynamics of your beam.

You can probably check your alignment by using a piece of masking tape, and pulsing your laser. You won't have to use much power, to put a mark on the tape. If you use tape to check your alignment, make sure you do not push the sticky side onto the surface of your optics.

IF your system does not have a manual laser on/ off, you can make a short line in your graphic software, and send it over to the system as a file. Use low power, all you are trying to do is leave a mark on the tape. Check your alignment in all four corners of the machine.

After you have re-aligned your system, remove the optics and clean them again. (Hopefully, you won't have to do another re-alignment after putting the optics back in place.)

Tom Cullen
12-17-2006, 5:34 PM
Thanks everyone for the advice, I spoke with my rep and he is in the process of sending out a tube replacement. I am still covered by the warranty PHEW! I am sure all is well with the mirrors, when I clean them I do it one at a time. I'm pretty sure it's power, it barley scratches the surface of most materials,even at 100 power and a very slow speed. I'm praying that after a swap my problem is solved.

Tom

Alan Young
12-20-2006, 10:53 PM
I have the same laser. Check your driver and make sure the ramp option is not checked on. If mine is on the power is cut by 75%. Sounds like what I went through trying to solve the problem. Still no fix, I just don't use the ramp function.

Alan