+1 for Epilog Support

[Dave Fifield]

My 36EXT's tube went south on me t'other day. I called Epilog yesterday, in the afternoon, and my new tube was at the front door just after 10am this morning!! Outstanding service!! I'll swap it out tonight.....wish me luck!

Cheers,
Dave F.

[Larry Bratton]

My 36EXT's tube went south on me t'other day. I called Epilog yesterday, in the afternoon, and my new tube was at the front door just after 10am this morning!! Outstanding service!! I'll swap it out tonight.....wish me luck!

Cheers,
Dave F.
David:
How old is the machine. My EXT is 17 months now and I am hoping if the tube decides to go that it does before the warranty runs out. Did it exibit any symptoms that is was going to go out? I have been cussing mine lately because it doesn't cut 1/4" acrylic like it used to. I have cleaned and aligned it, but it seems the lack of cutting usually occurs on the left side bottom. When we did the last alignment, we could barely get a test burn in position 4, even after holding the up key for 30 seconds. The tech at Epilog had me to leave the target in and run a file, and it burned a hole right through the target. He then declared it was aligned and that was it. Problem in left corner still persists.

[Dave Fifield]

Hi Larry,

My 36EXT will be two years old at the end of the year, so it went just in time (kinda reverse thinking here)!! I don't use the laser very much (perhaps 5 to 8 hours a week max), but I'm told that doesn't make any difference to its life expectancy since the number one failure mode is gas leakage over time.

I had noticed a gradual lowering of power over the whole cutting area over a period of a couple weeks, and had to increase power settings or reduce speed to compensate. Just last week though, I'd gotten to speed 2% (P=100%) while cutting 1/4" acrylic and it wasn't getting all the way through any more, not even in the upper right corner (max power position). Previous to this, it had started "dragging" the acrylic cuts so the cut out shapes were all distorted (sideways drag due to not enough power). We went through the beam alignment on the phone, but it was centered pretty well. I'd ruled out a dirty or misaligned lens also (since I have many lenses to try). It had to be a failing tube. Much kudos goes to Epilog for such fast response!

I have the new tube right here - so I'm off to work on it right now.

Cheers,
Dave F.

[Dave Fifield]

All done. It took a long time to get it all aligned, but I did it right and it cuts perfectly again now. :)

Just an FYI for those of you who wear graded bifocals like me......when you're doing any alignment procedure on your laser, you might want to find your old non-bifocal reading glasses when you're checking the shape of the red dot! I was fooled into thinking it wasn't perfectly round and spent several goes around the alignment procedure trying to make it so before it dawned on me that it was my spectacle lenses that were doing the distorting!! :mad:

Talking of dawn....it's almost that time....I'd better go get some shut-eye!!

Cheers,
Dave F.

[Larry Bratton]

Hi Larry,

My 36EXT will be two years old at the end of the year, so it went just in time (kinda reverse thinking here)!! I don't use the laser very much (perhaps 5 to 8 hours a week max), but I'm told that doesn't make any difference to its life expectancy since the number one failure mode is gas leakage over time.

I had noticed a gradual lowering of power over the whole cutting area over a period of a couple weeks, and had to increase power settings or reduce speed to compensate. Just last week though, I'd gotten to speed 2% (P=100%) while cutting 1/4" acrylic and it wasn't getting all the way through any more, not even in the upper right corner (max power position). Previous to this, it had started "dragging" the acrylic cuts so the cut out shapes were all distorted (sideways drag due to not enough power). We went through the beam alignment on the phone, but it was centered pretty well. I'd ruled out a dirty or misaligned lens also (since I have many lenses to try). It had to be a failing tube. Much kudos goes to Epilog for such fast response!

I have the new tube right here - so I'm off to work on it right now.

Cheers,
Dave F.
Thanks for the reply Dave. I learned something this morning from another post here, that different colors cut differently. This stuff we have been cutting 1/4" cast Ivory and it actually has reflective tape on it. I need to test some 1/4" clear to see if the problem persists. If it does, then that will bare out that it is something else.

[Brian Robison]

Is the Epilog alignment procedure on the Epilog site someplace? That site needs some navigational help IMHO.

[Peck Sidara]

Is the Epilog alignment procedure on the Epilog site someplace? That site needs some navigational help IMHO.

Brian,

The alignment procedure is not available on our website but can easily be emailed or faxed to you thru our tech support department: tech at epiloglaser dot com or 303.215.9171.

If there are specific suggestions on improving our website, please PM and I'll forward to our webmaster.