Vytek L-star series banding and lasering problems

[victor belfour]

Hello everyone. This is my 1st post here. Hope someone can help me

I work in an industry where we do laser etchings onto polished flat rock (mainly granite and marble, mostly headstones). We use a vytek laser, one of the L-star or LS series lasers (our model# is LS 4896) , it is a 35 watt machine.

About a week ago our laser started producing less than stellar results, banding started showing up in the white area's of larger etchings. 1st it was vertical. We cleaned the laser lens but now horizontal banding was showing up. Additionally now. After several laser lens cleanings the laser is not shooting well at all. Etchings come out "dark". Whites are not white and at the end of the image being burned, the laser looks like its fading the whole image away; as if its losing power. We've tried several old jobs that we have already lasered with good results but now are coming out faded. We are currently undergoing a thorough cleaning of the machine but are not sure this will solve the problem.

Additionally, after cleaning the laser lens we have noticed the lens has a thin coating that is peeling away on the surface. Vytek has never mentioned that their lenses deteriorate overtime and we are wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem. Please see attached photo of our lens.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/35mm_dslr2.jpg

If anyone has any suggestions or has encountered similar situation i'd like to know how to resolve it. This is holding up our production in a big way.

Thanks

[Scott Shepherd]

Don't know anything about Vytek, but lens do get damaged and wear over time. I would guess that lasering stone products would do nothing but accelerate that process.

[James Stokes]

That lens could very well be causing the problem. Change it and see how the laser does. If that does not fix the problem you may have to have a recharge on your tube.

[victor belfour]

Don't know anything about Vytek, but lens do get damaged and wear over time. I would guess that lasering stone products would do nothing but accelerate that process.


Hey thanks for your quick reply!

I'm just unclear how lasering stone would deteriorate the lens that much quicker? We have the compressor running at all times when using the laser and I'm assuming that the debris from the etching is being blown away. Is there the possibility that some of that has come up into the lens area? The degradation looks more like peeling than abrasion.

[victor belfour]

That lens could very well be causing the problem. Change it and see how the laser does. If that does not fix the problem you may have to have a recharge on your tube.

Thanks for your input!

I've read mention of "tubes" in several threads here but i'm not sure what exactly this means. Is this the light source of the laser much like the light bulb in a video projector? I know those dim and burn out over time due to their high intensity and constant on and off use. Is the laser unit prone to this type of dimming and failure over time? Vytek had never mentioned this type of maintenance and had said this machine should be basically "maintenance free". Our model was manufactured in January 2007 so its just a year and 1/2 old.

[Neal Schlee]

How long is the Vytek warranty? Longer than a year I'd hope. Banding can also be caused by worn lense carriage bearings.

Neal

[Scott Shepherd]

I'd call Vytek's tech support and send them the photo of the lens and see what they say. Might be a defective lens, or might be what the consider normal wear.

Air assist certainly helps, but nothing is perfect and when you're chipping away tiny bits of stone and blowing air into those particles, it could cause some minor issues. Is that what's happened? I have no idea and I wouldn't speculate on the cause, I'm just raising this issue that any time you laser something abrasive, the wear possibility goes up (along with the maintenance to keep it clean).

[Dan Hintz]

I'm assuming this is an RF-powered laser. If it's not the lens, the RF section of the power supply could be going bad, or the tube could be in need of a recharge. It's not common for an RF-based tube to need a charge so quickly, but they do need recharging from time to time (20-40k hours should be a good average benchmark, though this is strictly an average and outliers do exist). It doesn't take much of an out-of-spec component in the RF section to trash the supply... a bad cap can lead to some nasty oscillations that can kill the FETs in a hurry.

[Jack Harper]

I have the big brother to yours. There are a couple of mirrors in the end of the head that need occasional cleaning and alignment. Get you book out and read up on aligning the beam. With all this said, I am in agreement that the problem is probably the lens. Vytek warned us not to clean too often and when doing so, clean very very gently to avoid wearing off the coating.

[Mike Ireland]

Regarding the banding: vertical banding usually has a mechanical cause such as worn belts, bearings, etc. Horizontal banding is usually caused by the laser tube. It could be failing, which would be indicated by the faded engraving caused by less power. Along with the lens, you should also check the output power of the laser tube.

[victor belfour]

How long is the Vytek warranty? Longer than a year I'd hope. Banding can also be caused by worn lense carriage bearings.

Neal

vytek only warranties its products for one year. considering the costs i would've thought it would be longer. Are its competitors the same?

[victor belfour]

I'd call Vytek's tech support and send them the photo of the lens and see what they say. Might be a defective lens, or might be what the consider normal wear.


yes. we've sent vytek support the photos. They have said that lens wear does happen.


Air assist certainly helps, but nothing is perfect and when you're chipping away tiny bits of stone and blowing air into those particles, it could cause some minor issues. Is that what's happened? I have no idea and I wouldn't speculate on the cause, I'm just raising this issue that any time you laser something abrasive, the wear possibility goes up (along with the maintenance to keep it clean).

yes we're thinking that too. after an engraving there is lots of particles left on the material and engraver bed that basically amounts to dust but courser. We also do a test run of our designs on glass before lasering on the material itself so i'm sure particles from the engraving materials are accumulating everywhere around the engraver. whether this is shooting up the lens that emits the laser is speculative. Our lens doesn't look scratched or sanded but more looks like a peeling of somekind is going on. but you might be right. We're not sure.

[victor belfour]

I'm assuming this is an RF-powered laser. If it's not the lens, the RF section of the power supply could be going bad, or the tube could be in need of a recharge. It's not common for an RF-based tube to need a charge so quickly, but they do need recharging from time to time (20-40k hours should be a good average benchmark, though this is strictly an average and outliers do exist). It doesn't take much of an out-of-spec component in the RF section to trash the supply... a bad cap can lead to some nasty oscillations that can kill the FETs in a hurry.

By RF i'm assuming you're meaning Radio Frequency? I'm not sure hot to tell what our power supply is, it plugs into 220volts here i'm assuming, my boss might be able to tell me more about that. It truly does feel like the laser runs out of "steam" so to speak, as the last couple engraves we have done started out fine but then white intensity starts dropping off and gets dimmer and dimmer towards the end. Who would we have to contact in order to recharge the laser? Can you elaborate: What is a "bad cap"? FETs? I'm not sure what those are.

Thanks for your input!

[victor belfour]

I have the big brother to yours. There are a couple of mirrors in the end of the head that need occasional cleaning and alignment. Get you book out and read up on aligning the beam. With all this said, I am in agreement that the problem is probably the lens. Vytek warned us not to clean too often and when doing so, clean very very gently to avoid wearing off the coating.

How long have you had your vytek laser for now? Are you operating it in a very "sterile" dust free environment? Yes, they warned us about the delicacy of the lens. It has not been cleaned on regular routine basis. I dont think it was our cleaning that wore off the coating, and vytek didn't accuse us of that either after they examined the photos i sent them of the lens.

[victor belfour]

Regarding the banding: vertical banding usually has a mechanical cause such as worn belts, bearings, etc. Horizontal banding is usually caused by the laser tube. It could be failing, which would be indicated by the faded engraving caused by less power. Along with the lens, you should also check the output power of the laser tube.

thanks for the suggestions. How does one test the ouput power of the laser tube? does it involve special equipment and a technician? Where can we find such a person. We're up in Canada.

As a test for myself. I created a solid white vertical line about 1" wide and 20" long in photoshop and put a fade to black on its edge so the image goes from solid white fading to black. I processed this through photograv and then sent it to the laser to shoot onto a piece of scrap glass spray painted with some flat black paint to show the etching better. The laser starts shooting the vertical line from black to solid white. As the laser moves down and continues to etch the line downwards though, you can see fluctuations in the white portion of the etching as if the laser was losing intensity. Please see photo (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/vertical_IGP8594.jpg). The white portion should be uniform in intensity.

I also flipped the design to the horizontal plane and ran it, there wasn't nearly as much fluctuation in the white as there was in the vertical burn previously and seemed to exhibit no banding, see photo2 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/horizontal_IGP8596.jpg); but these were both small tests.

Has anyone seen this type of problem?

[Jack Harper]

How long have you had your vytek laser for now? Are you operating it in a very "sterile" dust free environment? Yes, they warned us about the delicacy of the lens. It has not been cleaned on regular routine basis. I dont think it was our cleaning that wore off the coating, and vytek didn't accuse us of that either after they examined the photos i sent them of the lens.

I have had mine for about 21 months. We have it located in a 12000 sq ft space. The space is kept reasonably clean but given such a large space it does get dusty. I have added additional filters to the electronics and laser tube cooling as well as created air dams on each of the three mirrors to prevent dust and/or debris from getting to the mirrors. I have also increased the air flow to the lens to create a stronger dam from flying debris. As for checking the power, you can rent a power meter from laserbits.

[Bill Cunningham]

When your lens gets dirty with dust whatever, it heats up, and this is probably why the coating has failed. It may also explain the variation in the raster (not taking into consideration the obvious problems with the lens coating) as the lens gets hotter, it probably expands a bit, and with all the deflection on the bad surface coating as the lens gets hotter, the raster gets worse.. The lens looks shot, I can't see it ever working right again.. Just a thought...

[Rodne Gold]

IMHO That coating has been worn off by cleaning , time to replace the optic. Even the slightest amt of stone dust on the lens , combined with lens fluid will create a very nice grinding paste.
There is a VERY specific way to clean lenses and mirrors , for mirrors you lay a piece of lens tissue on it , drop a drop or 2 of cleaning fluid (kodak lens cleaner) on the tissue and drag it over the mirror , NEVER scrub.
With lenses , buy PECPADS (lint free cloth squares) at any photo shop , soak the optic in lens cleaner and shake it around to dislodge ANY dirt and then pat dry with a fresh pec pad. DO NOT SCRUB.....
I do however think you might have 2 problems , motion system slop + a bad optic. Banding is not normally associated with a bad final optic , that would give you consistently even poor results and not "band"

[Sandra Force]

What type of cooling system is used on your Vytek? I have found that if the cooling system is not doing a good job the "fire" from the laser will degrade. A down and dirty way to check this is to stop soon after it startes to loose power and feel the tube leading to the first mirror and see if it is hot. Warm is OK, hot is not. I think that Vytek is like mine and the laser tube travels on a gantry over the substrate, if so this will at least allow you to rule out overheating on the tube.

Also, check with Vytek and see exactly how many and where the mirrors are so that you can make sure that all of them are clean.

[victor belfour]

thanks for the information. We operate our laser in a large workshop but that opens into a sandblasting area. We try to keep it very clean but dust buildup is an ongoing battle. We undertook a thorough cleaning and blowing out of the machine and all panels and there was quite the cloud of dust around everything; so i think that helped but we're still getting issues.

By filtering do you mean additional intake fans in the housing on the side? there must have been a lot of work and machining to accomplish that. Do you void your warranty with vytek if you alter the machine like that?

If you have photos of your alterations i would be very interested to see how you implemented these modifications so that we could possibly do the same in our shop. I think we will have to do additional steps to fight dust in our environment.

Thanks for the input.

I have had mine for about 21 months. We have it located in a 12000 sq ft space. The space is kept reasonably clean but given such a large space it does get dusty. I have added additional filters to the electronics and laser tube cooling as well as created air dams on each of the three mirrors to prevent dust and/or debris from getting to the mirrors. I have also increased the air flow to the lens to create a stronger dam from flying debris. As for checking the power, you can rent a power meter from laserbits.

[victor belfour]

When your lens gets dirty with dust whatever, it heats up, and this is probably why the coating has failed. It may also explain the variation in the raster (not taking into consideration the obvious problems with the lens coating) as the lens gets hotter, it probably expands a bit, and with all the deflection on the bad surface coating as the lens gets hotter, the raster gets worse.. The lens looks shot, I can't see it ever working right again.. Just a thought...

thats seems pretty viable. We've undertaken a thorough cleaning and blowing out of the machine but are still having issues with dimming of etched images lasered on one side of the machine, but this dimming does not show up on images lasered on the the other side :P

Thanks for the explanation of the lens. Yes i think something like what you described has occurred and we have a new one on order. But i still feel there are other issues at work as sometimes the laser has been lasering pristinely and other times it doesn't and we're not sure why.

[victor belfour]

Thanks for the suggestions. We do have a new lens on the way. I do not think it was caused by excessive cleaning, but i have only been working here for 3 months and this is the second time we've cleaned the lens.

Thanks for the detailed instructions. I will go out and purchase some better cleaning pads as you suggested. I definitely wont use those ragged qtips that vytek supplied us with :P

Vytek did train some people here in their correct method of cleaning the lens which was to place it on a lens pad, place a drop of their supplied cleaning solution onto the glass lens and lightly draw another piece of tissue paper they supplied over the lens till it was evenly coated. No excessive rubbing was ever used. This hasn't been done too often i would suspect.


IMHO That coating has been worn off by cleaning , time to replace the optic. Even the slightest amt of stone dust on the lens , combined with lens fluid will create a very nice grinding paste.
There is a VERY specific way to clean lenses and mirrors , for mirrors you lay a piece of lens tissue on it , drop a drop or 2 of cleaning fluid (kodak lens cleaner) on the tissue and drag it over the mirror , NEVER scrub.
With lenses , buy PECPADS (lint free cloth squares) at any photo shop , soak the optic in lens cleaner and shake it around to dislodge ANY dirt and then pat dry with a fresh pec pad. DO NOT SCRUB.....
I do however think you might have 2 problems , motion system slop + a bad optic. Banding is not normally associated with a bad final optic , that would give you consistently even poor results and not "band"

[victor belfour]

thanks for the input.

I'm not sure what you mean by cooling? Are you referring to the air compressor that is shooting air down the shaft where etching occurs or on the laser housing itself? Whatever cooling we have now is whatevery vytek installed and after opening and cleaning the interior of the laser housing, it looks like there is only a single exhaust fan on the back of the laser as pictured here: laser cooling1 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8578.jpg) and here: laser cooling2 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8581.jpg)

we shall try doing an aligning of the mirrors to see if that helps the problem. I'm not sure which tubing you're referring to or others have mentioned "laser tube" and i can't readily identify what that is as most of the laser assembly is housed in a self contained box and i dont think we want to open up anything more than what i've shown above.



What type of cooling system is used on your Vytek? I have found that if the cooling system is not doing a good job the "fire" from the laser will degrade. A down and dirty way to check this is to stop soon after it startes to loose power and feel the tube leading to the first mirror and see if it is hot. Warm is OK, hot is not. I think that Vytek is like mine and the laser tube travels on a gantry over the substrate, if so this will at least allow you to rule out overheating on the tube.

Also, check with Vytek and see exactly how many and where the mirrors are so that you can make sure that all of them are clean.

[Dan Starr]

Victor,
I also have an L-star 4896. From looking at the picture of your lens, I would definately think that is part of your problem. Mine was having similar problems about a month ago and after beating my head against the wall for a week (talking to tech support), I discovered that my mirror just above the lens was peeling like cheap chrome. Of course vytek was more than happy to sell me a new one for the bargain price of $200. So whatever you do don't order your lens from vytek, they will rape you. PM me and I'll send you the name of the company they buy their optics from, that should save you a few bucks.

[victor belfour]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input into our situation.

My 1st new concern is does anyone else have a bit of movement or "play" in their laser tube assembly? What i'm talking about is the telescoping tube that emits the laser straight down onto whatever material that is being etched as pictured here: tube1 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8598.jpg)
Since i've only been here a short time, i've come to notice a bit of back and forth motion (about 1 or 2mm) in the head when adjusting the optimal height for etching different thicknesses of rock. Could this account for varying degrees of banding or dimming of our etchings? If so do you guys perform any routine tightening of this mechanism? if so where? Here are some shots i've taken of the laser/emitter housing and the screws that hold it to the belt.
housing1 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8599.jpg), housing2 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8605.jpg), housing3 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8604.jpg)

could any of the bolts indicated above need tightening? if so which bolts? the ones in RED or the one in YELLOW as indicated here: housing4 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8599_2.jpg)?

The reason I ask is that in addition to the occasional banding and dimming of etchings, i also notice some "slurring" of the dots that the laser puts down as depicted here: blurring1 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8621.jpg), blurring2 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8619.jpg), blurring3 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8618.jpg).

A cross design that we've lasered many times before now comes out slightly "warped" in the horizontal area as shown here (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8603-1.jpg). This has led me to ask the question about the how much play there should be in the laser emitter.

My 2nd big concern: can someone identify this device: unknown1 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8608.jpg), unknown2 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8609.jpg)? After staring at the housing around the laser emitter head for some time, i noticed this item was lose and moved it around assuming it was meant to be like that, closer inspection revealed it had been snapped off as shown in the 2nd photo, perhaps during a previous cleaning. I do not know how long ago this happened but it didn't look like it happened recently. we have no idea what is it, my assumption is that it is some sensor that is used to tell the laser that is has reached it's extreme top left position when you datum the machine. Am i correct? Should we glue it back down? it is resting comfortably in the place it should be.

[victor belfour]

We've run some etchings in various positions along the assembly where our laser etches and we are getting some varying results. Banding doesn't seem to be as prevalent after some serious cleaning (but we haven't run a large job yet).

We're still getting inconsistent results with our images, with some turning out less bright, less detail and having more contrast that other images.

For instance, a headstone we were etching the same design in the upper left and upper right corners as seen here (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8610-1.jpg) turned out differently.

The Humming bird and flower design was first lasered in the upper left corner of the rock (as indicated by "image1" in the above photo). This image turned out dark , not much detail in the black areas and had to be lasered over 2x more to produce adequate results, even then it did not match the quality of our test burns on glass. See here: bad1 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8611.jpg), bad2 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8616.jpg)

The same design was then lasered in the upper right corner of the stone ("image2") and came out very well with nice details in dark areas, much better brightness and adequate tonality. See here: good1 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8612.jpg), good2 (http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l282/vrbucket/Misc/_IGP8617.jpg)
I know the photos cant show you everything but the second burn did do much better than the 1st.

The laser was properly warmed up before each burn and leveled. I cant understand why we're getting better etchings in some areas and not so good in others. This is very confusing and i dont have a clue. Perhaps the 1st image being burned had the laser emitter further away from where the laser shoots off the second last mirror on the opposite side of the machine
and could indicate our mirrors might need better alignment? But we have done test burns on glass on the same side as where image1 was etched , but much further back and have produced very good result.

I have a headache trying to figure this thing out. :(

[victor belfour]

Thanks for the info Dan

PM sent.

I just discovered that mirror the other day and it was pretty grimy. Our was not peeling though, I cant imagine why yours would be other than poor manufacturing or a defect. Our was pretty dirty and we did a good cleaning but our inconsistent etching results still remain. I think Vytek charged us $200 cad for a replacement lens. It should be here next week sometime.



Victor,
I also have an L-star 4896. From looking at the picture of your lens, I would definately think that is part of your problem. Mine was having similar problems about a month ago and after beating my head against the wall for a week (talking to tech support), I discovered that my mirror just above the lens was peeling like cheap chrome. Of course vytek was more than happy to sell me a new one for the bargain price of $200. So whatever you do don't order your lens from vytek, they will rape you. PM me and I'll send you the name of the company they buy their optics from, that should save you a few bucks.

[Dan Hintz]

I definitely wont use those ragged qtips that vytek supplied us with :P
:eek: That's what they gave you to clean your lenses with, Q-Tips?!!! For shame! That will scratch the living crap out of them... no wonder the lens is FUBAR'ed.

That loose component is an IR photosensor... when the carriage gets to the end of its travel, the beam between the two black ears is interrupted. It's there to let the machine know when you're in a specific spot (the end), so you need to get that back into place. Otherwise, a large file may try to shoot the carriage off of the track end.

[Jack Harper]

thanks for the information. We operate our laser in a large workshop but that opens into a sandblasting area. We try to keep it very clean but dust buildup is an ongoing battle. We undertook a thorough cleaning and blowing out of the machine and all panels and there was quite the cloud of dust around everything; so i think that helped but we're still getting issues.

By filtering do you mean additional intake fans in the housing on the side? there must have been a lot of work and machining to accomplish that. Do you void your warranty with vytek if you alter the machine like that?

If you have photos of your alterations i would be very interested to see how you implemented these modifications so that we could possibly do the same in our shop. I think we will have to do additional steps to fight dust in our environment.

Thanks for the input.

We did not add any cooling fans. Instead, we added a high capacity filter to the front of the main power cabinet and the carriage vent for the tube. All we did was make a new flange to adapt a round filter to the square hole of the current fan filter. We removed the junk filter supplied with the unit and used filters for a wet/dry vac. These filters are readily available at you local Lowes or HD.

As for the play in the lens head, no we do not have any play what so ever.

I know you said you are new to the company, however, you do need to make sure the unit is cleaned on a regular, strictly adhered to schedule. Electronics degregate rapidly with heat and dust acts like a blanket concentrating the heat on the electronics. Cleaning will help but substantial damage may have already occurred.

[Demers Sunny]

Hello,
Hi have a Vy-Tek laser system Model LS-4896 and we try to adjust the mirror alignment of our laser but we have a lot of trouble to adjust it. So some of you have a trick to adjust it faster then pass a day to adjust it?

[Zsolt Paul]

I have a Vytek 5151...basically a step down in size from the L star, but an enclosed unit. I have more mirrors in mine than the L star, due to the enclosed design and the laser shooting up from the back of the machine, then to the front on the side, then across to the other side, then down. Yeah!!! Lots of fun aligning this baby! All that means that I have quite a bit of experience aligning. When a laser lases differently in spot then in another spot, it generally means the beam is going out of focus slightly. That can be due to a bad alignment at one or more beam benders/mirrors OR an out of level table can cause this too. You need to get the book out, follow alignment instructions and do a complete alignment. Also, make sure the work area is completely level with the gantry at all points. It must be equal distance from the gantry/nozzle head EVERYWHERE. If there is a height difference and the work piece is not laying completely equallly flat, then the focus can be in and out accordingly.

[Demers Sunny]

Victor,
I also have an L-star 4896. From looking at the picture of your lens, I would definately think that is part of your problem. Mine was having similar problems about a month ago and after beating my head against the wall for a week (talking to tech support), I discovered that my mirror just above the lens was peeling like cheap chrome. Of course vytek was more than happy to sell me a new one for the bargain price of $200. So whatever you do don't order your lens from vytek, they will rape you. PM me and I'll send you the name of the company they buy their optics from, that should save you a few bucks.

Hi Dan,

I have exactly the same problem then the other guy with my laser system. When I'm running a Big project I get a fade on both edge. At the beginning I was thinking it was my alignment the problem but when I'd run the alignment test everything is okey. When I'm trying to ask to VyTek what's the problem they told me it's probably because my lens is durty or damaged but it's false my lens is okey. Now I'm confuse... I have no idea what I should do to fix that up...

[Demers Sunny]

Hi,
I'm working with a VyTek LST-4896 and we have a problem when we're trying to run a big project. So when we're running a big project we have a fade on both edge of the machnie (right/left). I'd talk to the tech support of VyTek and they told me it's a caused by the mirror alignment or my lens have been damaged. I did check both
Possibilities and it's not that who caused this problem... Now I don't know where I should search to find out how to fix this problem... If anyone have a solution let me know. It will be really appreciated.
Sunny Demers

[Zsolt Paul]

I have a vytek fx5151. What size is your table? Please be more specific. What is a "big job" for you? What are you engraving onto? Did you do the laser pulse test with the crosshair, is that how you checked for alignment? Have you done a bidir test?

[Sandy Henry]

Have been considering new Vytek for granite & marble. Info from this forum is making me very hesitant. I've already experienced banding with my Epilog. Universal rep tells me its caused from glitch in Epilog driver & if I buy Universal, I won't have banding. Universal owner tells me he also has issues with banding. Vytek tells me that Universal & Epilog both have problems with banding due to heating up & cooling off, BUT, if I buy Vytek, there will be NO banding!! Re-polishing bad shots taken on tomb stones could break a business real quick. Not sure I have the nerve for it. Any thoughts??

[Dan Hintz]

Any company that tells you banding is not possible on their machine is flat out lying to you. It is possible with any of the machines because the cause is not always under their control (except in the case of drivers)... tubes going bad, loose mechanical components, etc. all can cause banding. Those are fixable with new/repaired components, but that doesn't remove the possibility of it happening.

[James Stokes]

With Vytec you get absulutely no support.

[Zsolt Paul]

With Vytec you get absulutely no support.

Hm... intersting.... I 've been very happy with Vytek's support.

[James Stokes]

Hm... intersting.... I 've been very happy with Vytek's support.


You are the only one I have ever heard that from. I know about 20 Vytek owners and every one says the same thing. They may have changed but I do not know. Last year I lost my computer that I run the Vytek from. I had to get a new computer. The driver installation disk was bad. I called Vytek right then to get the info, They told me they would E-mail it to me. It took 3 weeks and a dozen phone calls to get that driver.

[Bill Cunningham]

Have been considering new Vytek for granite & marble. Info from this forum is making me very hesitant. I've already experienced banding with my Epilog. Universal rep tells me its caused from glitch in Epilog driver & if I buy Universal, I won't have banding. Universal owner tells me he also has issues with banding. Vytek tells me that Universal & Epilog both have problems with banding due to heating up & cooling off, BUT, if I buy Vytek, there will be NO banding!! Re-polishing bad shots taken on tomb stones could break a business real quick. Not sure I have the nerve for it. Any thoughts??

Tell the universal guy to put that in writing on universal letterhead, that if you get banding they will replace your machine and ruined product.. Don't hold your breath..Because your universal rep does not know what he's talking about! As Dan said, 'any' machine can have a banding problem due to a number of problems ranging from the output file to dirt on the belts or track.