Vertical stripes Engraving

[mike wallis]

Hi everyone,
Im engraving some photos on Black Marble and seem to get noticeable vertical striping in the engraving that is not in the photo. I was wondering if anyone had come across this and if you have how did you correct it.

Thanks for any info,

Mike

[SteveKrim]

Hi Mike,

I realize you have an Epilog - I have a Versalaser and have had the same issue. In the VersaLaser advanced settings, there is a setting for "quality" (1 - 5, 5 being the best), I have found for photos, 4 eliminates the "lines". There may be a similar setting withing the Epilog driver somewhere!

Steve

[mike wallis]

Thanks Steve,
Epilog mini has a clip art setting and a Photo setting besides the resolution settings. When I select the Photo setting it helps with the stripes, but there is still evidence of them there. I also tried taking the laser out of focus +/- which helped with the stripes but degraded the quality of the photo.
I put a call into Epilog and E-mailed them some pictures to get there input on it, hopefully they can get me going in the right direction.
I attached a sample photo, this piece was engraved at a speed of 25, power of 100, and a resolution of 600 dpi on a 35 watt machine.

Mike

[mike wallis]

I've been working with Epilog with the striping issue and have got it cleared up for the most part. For future Mini owners they had be adjust the tension on the horizontal belt. Also someone recomended that I add a UPS backup power/surge protector to compesate for the power fluxuations. Not sure if that will help but it could'nt hurt.

Mike

[Keith Outten]

Mike,

I believe the condition you are describing is called "banding" and I think it is addressed in the manual. Sounds like you have corrected the problem already but it is a problem when using higher DPI settings.

The surge protector might also be a problem, I installed one and my engraver started dumping files in the middle of engraving. I was told by Epilog tech support that the machine has a built-in surge protector and there is no need for an external protector, however the battery backup isn't installed so when you lose power you lose the job.

[Steve Spaulding]

Surge protectors are good, Line conditioners are better.

Surge protects against power fluctuations coming in and effecting everything down the line and Line conditioners receive the electricity from source, and then regulates the output to try and keep a constant flow at a pre-described voltage.

The advantage is that there are less swings and a more focused uniform voltage level.

Liken it to stanaing on a concrete pole versus wooden one.

With the consistency of a more constant incoming power source, the tube is then better positioned to have a more coanstant output and thus a more uniform presentation in the materials.

Steve Spaulding
www.isssales.com

[Joe Pelonio]

Mike,

The tension on the x belt is easy to adjust, at least on my legend. Does it feel pretty tight? If it feels loose that might help. On mine it's a phillips screw under the right end roller that you loosen, then pull the cam/base
to adjust and tighten back up. You just need a really short phillips to get to it.

[Rob Bosworth]

I think when people talk about banding, they are talking about horizontal banding rather than vertical banding. If you look at the vertical banding, does it look like a repeatable pattern that could be caused by a mechanical component. We usually find this vertical "striping" is caused by excessive belt tensions, or dirty drive components. IF you see this repeatable pattern in most things you engrave, try removing your X axis drive belt and cleaning the drive gears and idlers on your system. Often times this is caused by belt debris building up in mechanical drive components. I use a stainless steel dental pick to clean drive gears and idler pulleys. Inspect the belt for excessive wear or rubber "chunks" between the teeth.

From what I have always treated as banding is the laser output changes somewhat over time leaving horizontal areas looking different. So in laser created banding, you might get a 1/2" of great engraving, followed by 3/8" of something that looks different, then maybe 3/4" of great engraving. then a 1/4" of different looking engraving, etc. This happens as the movement system works its way from back to front or front to back. Banding caused by the laser does not look like a repeatable pattern left to right on engraving. (At least from what I understand.)

[mike wallis]

Thanks for the replies but I got this one figured out back in 2004. This post must of popped up on a search.

Just to clear up the type of banding I was having back then was vertical banding. Yes, adjusting the belt tension really made a difference and I haven't had any issues with vertical banding since.

The horizontal banding is the one that really kicked my butt and I still fight it to this day. Hopefully my next machine with be magical and not band.

Steve I would like to try the Line conditioner you mentioned, will I need to take out a second on the house to get one?

Thanks

[mike wallis]

Steve, I just ordered a Tripp-Lite Line Conditioner to see if it will make a difference on the banding. It makes sense, the smoother the power is to the tube the better the chance of getting smooth power out of the beam.

There not bad in price, a 2400 watt, 20 Amp line conditioner is about $220.

They had a 15 Amp version for about $150 which should run the Mini ok but after talking to Epilog I think the 20 Amp will be a safer choice.

[Joe Pelonio]

Steve, I just ordered a Tripp-Lite Line Conditioner to see if it will make a difference on the banding. It makes sense, the smoother the power is to the tube the better the chance of getting smooth power out of the beam.

There not bad in price, a 2400 watt, 20 Amp line conditioner is about $220.

It's $207 at Amazon.

[mike wallis]

Hi Joe, thanks for the heads up. Yeah I saw that one at Amazon. I usually prefer to purchase from Amazon because there so fast in shipping. I found one at Buy.com for $217.00 with shipping and tax included. Amazon was $207 plus shipping and tax.

Thanks again.

[Shane Silcox]

Mike -

Dont want to dig up an old thread - but did the line conditioner help with the horizontal banding?

[Bill Cunningham]

Anytime I have seen banding on a job, it was usually because I was mixing dpi's.. If your etching the marble at 600 dpi, make sure your photo was scannned, or re-sampled to 300 or 600 dpi.. If you are etching a 200 or 400 dpi scan at 600 dpi, you 'will' get a less than perfect picture.. I have also found that although the photo mode on the epilog is pretty good, when you etch two photos beside each other, one in photo mode, and one processed in photograv, the photograv image is far superiour to the basic photo mode.. Photograv could certainly use some moderinizing or 'updating' as far as the human interface, and the ability to 'really' customize your saved parameters, and background substrates, but it does do the job it was intended to do.. Just for the price, (twice the price of X3) I would have thought it should be a bit more customizable as far as adding or modifying your options and visual substrates are concerned..

[Gary Hair]

Photograv could certainly use some moderinizing or 'updating' as far as the human interface, and the ability to 'really' customize your saved parameters, and background substrates, but it does do the job it was intended to do.. Just for the price, (twice the price of X3) I would have thought it should be a bit more customizable as far as adding or modifying your options and visual substrates are concerned..

I talked to the folks at PhotoGrav a couple of weeks ago and they said the new version that should be out first quarter 2007 will have a lot of new features including a better interface.