Epilog 35 Watt slow to start burning

[Ben Levesque]

I have a brand new Epilog mini 35 watts. And usually all my process needs to start the job at power between 3% and 6%, and then I finish the job at 35% of power for cutting.

Problem is; even if the laser is on for 15 minutes before I start a job, the laser light won’t run until 25 seconds to 40 seconds after it has started the job.

I've notice that to make this phenomenon disappear I need to start at higher power like 25%, and then go down to 3%.
At 25% power during the first job, the laser runs right away, no delays.

This is really annoying , because I need to start at 6% and finish at 25% not the other way around.

Anyone ever saw this problem on their laser?

Ben

[Joe Pelonio]

Never seen that one. I have an Epilog Legend 45 watt (2.5 years). On the other hand I rarely start out at power less than 10%.

Start by calling technical support, it could be a problem that's covered by warranty and you need to get started having it fixed asap.

[Jim Good]

For the first job of the day, I always have to run a test cut before I start any project. I place a little circle or square and vector cut it somewhere in the waste area. Usually, the first 1/16th of an inch will not cut. Then I am good the rest of the day.

I have not encountered anything like Ben has experienced.

Jim

[Joe Pelonio]

Funny, I've heard others say they have to let them warm up 15-20 minutes before they can run anything, doesn't make sense to me and never had a problem with the first job of the day, often at 5am, just turn it on, send the job and go.

[Pat Kearney]

Never encountered that particular problem. Three or four times now since I 've had my laser (just over a year) I sent jobs to it and then as it started to engrave the carriage moved but no laser fired - as if the cover were open - but it wasn't. When this happens I just send the job again and it works fine. If I were you I'd definitely call tech support ASAP.

Good luck and welcome to the great world of laser engraving!

PAT

[Frank Corker]

No I have had my Epilog for just over a year now, warm up is within two minutes of starting up, barely have time to get the article laid out on the engraving bed

[Ben Levesque]

I'll see what tech support tells me, and I'll post the answer here.

Thanks everyone

Ben

[Bill Cunningham]

My epilog starts instantly as well, vector, or raster..
The only weird thing it does once in a while, is when I hit the focus button, the head moves very slowly to the focus point which I though was strange, but then one day, I had left the door closed and when I hit focus, the head did move slow to the focus position, 'in a full vector burn':eek: .. I'm just expecting now, that someday I will have a one piece customer supplied part, all ready to go.. I'll absent mindedly close the door and hit the focus button.. The one time in a hundred it burns all the way to the focus point will be then...:mad: With the door open the safety kept the beam from firing.. I 'hope' I've trained myself to never trust the focus with the door closed, it could get expensive...

[Kurt Sallaz]

I have a brand new Epilog mini 35 watts. And usually all my process needs to start the job at power between 3% and 6%, and then I finish the job at 35% of power for cutting.

Problem is; even if the laser is on for 15 minutes before I start a job, the laser light won’t run until 25 seconds to 40 seconds after it has started the job.

I've notice that to make this phenomenon disappear I need to start at higher power like 25%, and then go down to 3%.
At 25% power during the first job, the laser runs right away, no delays.

This is really annoying , because I need to start at 6% and finish at 25% not the other way around.

Anyone ever saw this problem on their laser?

Ben

Hi Ben,
We have a mini 45 and ours does the same thing. The rep told us that if you don't use it on a regular basis that the gas takes some time to warm up. Also we had a bad power supply that Epilog replaced right away.

Kurt

[Joe Pelonio]

My epilog starts instantly as well, vector, or raster..
The only weird thing it does once in a while, is when I hit the focus button, the head moves very slowly to the focus point which I though was strange, but then one day, I had left the door closed and when I hit focus, the head did move slow to the focus position, 'in a full vector burn':eek: .. I'm just expecting now, that someday I will have a one piece customer supplied part, all ready to go.. I'll absent mindedly close the door and hit the focus button.. The one time in a hundred it burns all the way to the focus point will be then...:mad: With the door open the safety kept the beam from firing.. I 'hope' I've trained myself to never trust the focus with the door closed, it could get expensive...
That one I've seen a couple of times, but that in 2-1/2 years. I've just considered it a temporary "bug" but do try to always have the top open for manual focusing anyway.

[Wil Lambert]

I have had this problem with our EXT and Epilog said we had to have the tube warm up if it was not run for a while. My work around for this is to go into matinence mode and manually fire the laser a few times. This seems to warm up the tube instantly. The high the power the faster the warm up.

Wil

[Ben Levesque]

I have had this problem with our EXT and Epilog said we had to have the tube warm up if it was not run for a while. My work around for this is to go into matinence mode and manually fire the laser a few times. This seems to warm up the tube instantly. The high the power the faster the warm up.

Wil

Thanks Wil

This makes a lot of sence.
I did not get any reply from my inquiry with epilog yet.

Ben

[Roy Brewer]

I have a brand new Epilog mini 35 watts. And usually all my process needs to start the job at power between 3% and 6%, and then I finish the job at 35% of power for cutting.
Problem is; even if the laser is on for 15 minutes before I start a job, the laser light won't run until 25 seconds to 40 seconds after it has started the job.

Ben,
Epilog tech support is closed for the holidays. While this post is neither technical nor intended as a response from tech support, I can throw a bit of light on the situation.

About one year ago DEOS (the manufacturer of the tube used by recent Epilog lasers) made some significant changes in their laser tubes. These changes, amongst other things, made the "infant mortality" rate negligible; a very pleasant change for new owners and Epilog tech support. A side effect (the only one of which I'm aware) was change in the warm up. This should explain why several in this thread indicated they do not have to warm up their system and others (obviously since the change) do.

As one poster said, the best way to assure yourself the system is ready for "prime time," is to run a tiny vector job (.5" circle, e.g.) at 100% power. Seems each laser has its own personality; some only need this after a week end, others daily.

Apparently older systems applied "tickle" to the tube only if the laser was on and the lid was closed, on your laser(and all recent Epilogs) it does not matter how long the system is powered up before lasering begins.

[Jim Good]

I was wondering why there were many people needing to run a test cut and why many did not! At least I feel like I don't have a machine that is running incorrectly. Why didn't the rep explain it to me in this manner? That would have been helpful.

I run a little .25" square vector cut and it looks like I get a no-go for about .10" up to maybe .25" when I first turn the machine on for the day. It doesn't matter how long I let the machine warm up. It needs to actually fire to get "warm". At leastr I know why, now!

Thanks, Roy.

Jim

[Barb Macdonald]

I have a July 2006 epilog ext, and it had this problem, along with several others that I'm learning more about each day from these posts, (what a great forum!)which seems to have been fixed by service from my tech. Is it, or isn't it, normal for these machines? It's been just fine, since, with really cold mornings. I do let it "warm" up, like for the few minutes it takes to initialize, but before that I needed a scrap piece to warm up with. I think I'm more confused now:)
I'm getting several warranty parts from epilog regarding an x-axis shifting issue, as my latest problems showed up again, while working with laserable plastic from encore etc. I don't know if these machines are "robust" enough for full-speed full-bed size raster production work in this material? That said, the first work I had for my new machine was 4000 3"x 4" white/black valve tags, 3 lines 3/8" text/vector cut, all diff, with two holes in 'em , a rotary engravers' nightmare (suuuure, you can do multiple set-ups:) The machine had some weird issues like the air assist hose catching, and hanging up the x-axis cause it was flying around so much. The flatness of the material was a slight issue, but not too bad at all, and I was fair-paid for the work, thank goodness. I'm just wondering if the filthy-ness of the material causes me to have to over-clean the machine? Is that possible? Is this hard on the machine? I clean the encoder strip and the rails and the belts, and the auto-focus plunger of the crud build-up, exactly as per my service techs specs (I'm great at following specs!). Is this OK? Is that x-axis really tuff enough?http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon5.gif An RF unit, and a periscope have already been replaced.
(I was making clear acrylic Christmas ornaments, and the raster text just kinda faded away.... to odd lines)
Currently, my raster text fades, if I try to do a larger size piece than the top left corner of the table, like 3x12 maybe, (otherwise, I have to autofocus to each piece) and after a service tech alignment, including the mirro at the bottom, and the red-dot, just to be helpful, (cause it was WAY off) and one sheet of test laserable,(45 minutes of rastering full width) the next test, after the service tech left, of course, did the shifting thing, big-time, and the fading thing in really weird places, to the point that I'm hoping for the best with this machine.
I cleaned the machine, ran the next test, same thing.
The x-axis has a "thunk", on boot-up.... BUt not everytime, of course. Service tech has heard it, didn't like it, it's been doing that for a few weeks, anyway!
I guess I was hoping it wouldn't argue so much while doing material that I hate rotary engraving, and it is amazing, the detail you can achieve.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
It's been so great at vectoring acrylic, to the point that I wish my TRAX Sign System had some plastic in it somewhere!!
It doesn't seem to mark my black anodized aluminum TRAX white, my customer didn't like the lack of contrast, but I guess I should wait 'n see, once I have more parts.
I haven't seen much about the laserables, on these posts.
I'm such a "newbie", I can't really add anything useful, except "Yes, I've had THAT problem!!"
And yes, I'm amazed by the capabilities of these machines, I just want to keep mine happy for many years to come!
Thanks for listening!
Barb

epilog legend ext, xenetech 13x13 & 16x25, corel x3, casmate! Still runnin', after all these years.... Mimaki plotter, too, ditto..

[Dave Jones]

A couple of thoughts:

Somebody (Roy Brewer?) said that certain newer Epilog tubes will not put out anything for the first couple of seconds of firing if they've been sitting unused for a couple of days or more. Older ones didn't do that, but older ones were also more likely to fail in the first few months. So it was a trade off.

All laser engravers, new or old, should be turned on and allowed to warm up for a minute or two before you fire the laser.

One thought on the power/engraving fading across the table is focus. Try this:

- put a piece of material on the bed.
- drop the table down an inch or so
- put the manual focus fixture on the lens assembly
- hit the appropriate buttons to free the X/Y axis
- Raise the bed so the material touches the focus fixture
- move the lens assembly around the table and see if the material moves up and down relative to the focus fixture as you move the lens assembly around the table.

For the laser to be in focus, that fixture should show that the material is flat and even distance to the lens across the whole table within a very small tolerance. If the material is warped or the bed is on an angle then the distance between the material and the lens will change, causing it to be out of focus.

p.s. - If you can't figure out how to turn off the X/Y axis on your machine, do all the steps up to the last one and then turn off the laser. When it's off you should be able to move the lens assembly around manually with no resistance (just don't touch the actual lens or mirror surfaces).