Tickliing a laser

[Jeff Belany]

Since I got my 45W Helix I've noticed that it doesn't start firing right away on the first job of the day. At first the laser was in a shop that was a little chilly in the morning and the salesman chalked it up to that. Now that laser is in a storefront and is well heated and it continues to do this. Sometimes it is only a few seconds, one day last week it was 4 minutes before it fired. I've been told I need to "tickle" the laser to get it to fire. I know I will have to call tech support but I'm curious what the procedure is and if many of you have had this problem. The last laser I ran for 10 years and never had any similar problem.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

[Jim Watkins]

Jeff,
It's not really a problem but the way the epilog works. What I do is vector cut a scrap piece of wood at 100% and it usually fires in a few seconds.

There is a "tickle" but I don't remember how to adjust it.

[Randy Digby]

My TroTec was a little slow out of the gate a couple of times and the service tech had me change the software "tickle" setting - problem solved. Maybe your's will be a phone call and easy fix also.

[John Noell]

Yeah, you can set the tickle up to shorten the time but I just do the same as Jim (and many others). Vectoring is faster than rastering to get it started up.

[Frank Corker]

The process for tickling an Epilog laser is in the manual, you can get the latest manual on their website epiloglaser dot com

[John Schulz]

I've been told I need to "tickle" the laser to get it to fire. I know I will have to call tech support but I'm curious what the procedure is and if many of you have had this problem.
Jeff in northern Wisconsin

Procedure:
1) Take hand, open, palm up, fingers extended
2) Raise machine cover/shield.
3) Place hand inside machine to the RIGHT of optical head.
... Placing hand and fingers to the LEFT will have no effect.
4) Gently allow fingers to caress optical area support mechanisms.
... Do Not Touch Optics!!!
5) Remove hand, close cover.
6) Attempt beam. If no beam, REPEAT.

Note: Some machines are more sensitive than others,
so depending upon orders received and economic usage,
some lasers MAY require more frequent tickling than others.
----- YMMV -----

[Marc Myer]

Great idea!
I tried that, and suddenly my machine is much nicer to me.