A little mysterious.... problem, that isn't consistent

[Barb Macdonald]

Hi all
My epilog ext 60 watt has been churning out some pretty good stuff! My exhaust issues are still there, not as bad, but still there...
But, when I'm lasering brush silver rowmark, I'm getting a blurring effect in the tiny and otherwise text. Doesn't happen with other similar rowmarks. It's the "wiped with a tissue " effect. I've checked alignment, I seem to be worst in the top left corner, but everywhere else is fine. Cleaned everything, before I began more work last week. (using distilled h2o, now). The other laserables are fine, just this stuff. What could be the issue, here?
I've started using top right as my home position, just to avoid the top left corner, where the focus/alignment seems a wee bit off.
I wonder if my tube is going, again? RF unit was replaced summer before last. It's just odd that the only material that's giving me grief is the brush silver/black core stuff..... I've been making some business cards, and the throw outs are all this material...... Other stuff is fine.
Trying to build my web-site, toooo. Oh, my:)
Best to all
Barb

[Rodne Gold]

If I understand your description of the problem correctly , We have had this problem , it was down to the fact that there is a tickle voltage that keeps the laser firing prior to its main firing , sort of keeping it on the boil to put it simply. If you look closely it seems to be a shadow either side or on one side of the text.
Happened to us mostly with Rowmark flexibrass.
Ask your laser mnfgr how to turn down the tickle(sometimes called trickle) voltage and see if that helps.

[Joe Pelonio]

That particular material is more sensitive to focus than others.
Are you sure the material is flat in that corner, the corner's not turning up a little?

Is the bed totally level?

You can check by moving the head with the machine off and measure in several places all over.

[Mike Null]

Barb

Just a couple of suggestions. One, not all colors engrave at the same power. In this case try reducing your power by 5%.

Two, try reducing the dpi setting. Sometimes too high dpi will cause very small text to lose its sharp edge.

[Sean Bullock]

I have seen this occur in several different materials. I talked with an engineer about this and he suggested it might be the trickle effect. I simply started masking the materials where this occured and the problem was solved.

[Stephen Beckham]

Barb,

Only other suggestion that I didn't see was to cut both power and speed by the same ratio. I've had plastic issue running it at book settings. Cutting it back from 100/50 to 50/25 seemed to help.

This seemed to cause me problems when doing very narrow jobs. I never see it when I'm doing 10"-12" signs, only when doing 3" name tags etc...

[Peck Sidara]

I concur with Stephen & Mike. Try adjusting the power/speed settings as not all colors engrave the same.

If that doesn't work, attach a picture and involve our tech support group. If it's not the settings or material, it could be alignment, tickle settings and maybe something mechanical within the I-beam that needs adjustment (since this occurs on the smaller text).

[Bill Cunningham]

For badges and metal plate that are done one at a time, I have a 2" by 2" square.. (not a square shape, but like a carpenters square) that I tuck up against the left home position rulers then move a couple if guidelines to the 2" vert/horz. on the screen and line up everything to that point.. Seems to solve the sometimes weird focus in the upper left corner..

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

Bill,
thanks for the idea. I had made my own, but it did not have any ruler on it.
I tried your carpenter square idea, and now I have the ruler again.

Thanks

[Barb Macdonald]

Thanks very much to all. I tried lowering power, voila! Much better.
The CREEK RULES!!!
Best $ I've ever spent, and I've spent a few:o
Have a great day
Barb