Epilog X belt

[Nigel Morgan]

Hello All,

Had a few small tears on my machine X axis belt shortly after purchase, had to buy a new belt from the reseller, now one has appeared again in about the same place. Has anyone else had a simular problem, the tear is nowhere near the lens area so its not a burn problem, its on top of the belt.

Cheers

Nigel

[Rob Bosworth]

Nigel, what model Epilog do you have? Are the tears happening on the left side or the right side of the lens assy?

[Joe Pelonio]

I'm going on 3 years and never had a belt problem on my Legend 24TT.
Seems odd that you'd get two defective ones, more likely something else causing it, could it be hitting on something, or maybe the motor is out of alignment?

[Peck Sidara]

Nigel,

If it's an Epilog machine and you had to purchase the belt, the belt comes with a 1 year warranty. Basically if it's starting to fray again, contact Epilog's technical support to determine the cause, get another replacement belt and any additional parts to prevent the belt from fraying shortly again. It should be very easy to determine the cause as the belt only loops around a few small items. Epilog tech support's # is 303.215.9171.

Regards,

[Nigel Morgan]

Hello Everyone,

The tear is on the righthand side of the lens carrier and on top of the belt, I have the Helix 45W 24" x 18". Thanks for the reply Peck, I thought you were Tech Support, obviously the belt is rubbing somewhere and its a fault with the machine from the beggining, I contacted the reseller in Auckland and expect a reply some time in a month or so, they are pretty laid backup there.

[Peck Sidara]

Hi Nigel,

If the tear is on the right side of the lens on the top side then the belt is wearing against one of the idler pulley's, I-beam cover screws or x-motor pulley. I am no longer with the techncial support group and have since moved into an internal sales & marketing position. Here's how we fix your machine:

Turn the machine off. If possible, remove the I-beam cover (grey cover that goes over the I-beam (bar assembly) and remove the right side panel. It should all be Phillips head screws.
With both panels removed and the machine turned off, gently slide the engraving head left to right, most likely you'll see where the belt is rubbing.
Send an email to tech at epiloglaser dot com and copy AMT on the message. Provide your serial number and a simple brief description of what's occuring and what you've found if anything.
Expect a response from one of our tech reps shortly and follow their guidelines on how to remedy the issue.If you'd prefer to discuss over the phone, we're open M-F 6-6PM MST. 12 noon today is 8AM the following morning for you. Calling us within the next couple of hours would work just fine.

Additionally, we will be more than happy to contact your local rep on your behalf.

Let us know if there's anything else and we'll go from there.

Regards,

[Shane Turner]

Hi Nigel

I share your pain with the Auckland Epilog reseller. I've been waiting 2 months for a visit "tomorrow morning." Heck, I'm only 20 minutes drive away form them. :(
We've had similar problems with our machine, same model as yours. With us the air assist hose seemed to be at fault, getting perodically jammed and causing the laser to stop firing. I'll have a closer look at our belt on Monday, looks like it may be a common fault with this model.

Regards,

Shane

[Judith Halliday]

Hello Everyone,

The tear is on the righthand side of the lens carrier and on top of the belt, I have the Helix 45W 24" x 18". Thanks for the reply Peck, I thought you were Tech Support, obviously the belt is rubbing somewhere and its a fault with the machine from the beggining, I contacted the reseller in Auckland and expect a reply some time in a month or so, they are pretty laid backup there.


I have the same machine and have had the same problem. I am on the second belt and it is fraying the same way the first one was.

:cool:

Judy

[andy blackett]

Evening All,

My first post I know but I saw this post and had to reply!!

We've got a mini 24 machine and this belt fraying problem happens time after time. At the moment the machine is in with the repair guys at Identify (UK) who seem to think they're on to something with an alignment issue.

I'm glad to hear though that its not just me, must just be a design fault/flaw if its happening on different model machines!?

Andy

[Stephen Beckham]

I'm with Andy - got the Mini 24 and my second belt just started showing wear on the right side - top edge only a couple months replaced. The first one lasted a long time with the tear and had no issues. I left it until the tear was about three inches long. It was always linear versus up and down - so I figured I'd let it go.

It was only the top flange and never made it down to the actual grooves, so I figured it wasn't making too much fuss - I just kept it trimmed.

Then I found out it only cost $25 to fix it - and I felt silly. A $20K machine waiting to fail for a $25 part! I'm going to get another an keep it on hand but let this one go for awhile.


I did notice it's the part that wraps around the corner when the head is between five and six inches. I do a lot of small stuff and that's probably the most used stopping/return point...

[Rags Alan Ragland]

Nigel
I to have had the same problem with my Legend 36EXT. My second belt is beginning to fray after only 2 months with the new one. It seems to be a common problem with Epilog machines. It only took them 3 weeks to get to mine.
Rags

[David Fairfield]

Funny, I do a lot of small stuff here with an Epilog mini 24, 3 years steady use and never had any issues with the drive belts. Epilog replaced a motor for me (no questions asked, free of charge & sent overnight) aside from that, no harware probs.

Guess they had a bad batch of belts, but cheap enough to replace. I'll keep an eye on it!

Dave

[Rob Bosworth]

I have worked on a lot of Epilog machines. From 1996 through today. I too have seen an occasional belt fray, and it usually frays along the top edge. I had one machine that would fray the top edge, then rip the belt apart when the frayed piece got stuck in the drive system. Here is what I have come up with.

IF the drive belt is not properly adjusted, and they tend to ride high on a drive gear, pulley or idler, they tend to fray. The lip on some of these components that drive the head, can be fairly sharp when they have the belt run into and on them. If you pull the covers off the X axis rail assy., then move the "head" left and right, you might notice that the belt tensioners might be pushing the belt to run to one side or the other on the drive gear, pulleys or idlers. Most of the machines I have had a "fraying" problem with, use two flat head socket cap screws, one on each side of the tensioning roller's axle. If one of the sides of the axle tensions the drive belt tighter than the other side, it pushes the belt to ride against one side of the drive gear. This misaligned tension on the drive belt will either cause the drive belt to push on one side of the gear or the other. This misalignment of the belt tensioner starts causing fraying, which gets worse and worse exponentially (OK, maybe not exponentially, but the more it frays, the worse things get.) Before just chalking up this fraying problem on a design flaw, eyeball the alignment and tensioning of the belt. I can often see that one of the tensioning screws is screwed down further than the other one, because the axle does not sit straight between the two tensioning screws. If you slide the "head" back and forth, you might be able to see the belt move up or down on the pulleys that it is riding on, as the head gets closer and further away from the component that is causing the fraying.

This has only been my experience. I am sure that there might be a flaw on a prt that is causing the belt fraying, but I have not seen that to be the case, most of the time.

Good luck.