Full Version: Vector Cutting Edge
From: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#1]
25 Feb 2007
To: ALL
I have a 30-watt Epilog Legend 24 EX that I have really enjoyed.
I don't do a great deal of vector cutting, but when I do, I find that I am limited to the table area in upper left hand corner to get a good clean edge on my cuts. When I get anywhere beyond that six-square-inch area I see a tremendous drop off in the quality of the cut, and in most cases, it doesn't even cut all of the way through on that first run as you get further out onto the table.
The beam almost appears as though it is getting wider as it is vector cutting the substrate, so I figure it may be a focus issue.
I checked the alignment of the beam and it appears to be aligned just fine. I checked the level of the table in relationship to the engraving head and it is spot-on.
Has anyone experienced this problem?
Even when raster engraving text, I get a slightly bolder mark on the left part of the table, which then gets progressively weaker as you engrave to the right. For rastering, the engraving is acceptable and of good quality on the whole table, but the engraving does differ slightly from edge to edge.
I'll give tech support a call this week to see what we can figure out, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask here.
From: Dave Jones (DAVERJ) [#2]
25 Feb 2007
To: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#1] 25 Feb 2007
I don't know at what point they started adding "Radiance Optics" to their lasers (the current Legent 36 EXT has it). My understanding is that on models that don't have it then the beam is constantly diverging with distance from the laser. If it diverges too much then part of it misses the mirror as it gets too far from the laser tube and power is lost. Even if it doesn't miss the mirror, the beam is constantly changing thickness and that can effect the spot characteristics.
Radiance optics collumnates the beam so it doesn't diverge based on distance from the tube and gives a more uniform spot across the table.
From: Mike (MIKEN) [#3]
25 Feb 2007
To: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#2] 25 Feb 2007
On my last machine this kind of thing happened and it turned out to be the tube. It kind of gradually died.
As the carriage moves toward the front of the machine does it appear to be in alignment? Also had a one time problem with that where the left side was an inch or so out of line with the right.
From: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#4]
25 Feb 2007
To: Mike (MIKEN) [#3] 25 Feb 2007
Mike,
I set the manual focus at the surface level of the table, then turn the machine off. I move the the engraving head across the full table and watch to see if there is any change in the distance between the focus attachment and the table. It looks to me like it is very level. Actually, I was pretty impressed.
From: Mike (MIKEN) [#5]
25 Feb 2007
To: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#4] 25 Feb 2007
On my Universal the carriage was out of alignment. That is if you pulled the carriage all the way to the front the right side would be at the stop but the left side was one inch or more away from the stop.
Something had blocked the movement and knocked it out of alignment.
From: (Brian) (MOSTLY_HERE) [#6]
25 Feb 2007
To: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#1] 26 Feb 2007
Hey Dave,
I have had the same thing on my 24 EX. I had to keep lowering my speed to cut through. It seemed the longer I ran, the worse it got. I also had noticed that my rastering small fonts was getting unacceptable. The strange thing I had noticed, the closer to the laser tube the, the weaker the power seemed. I contacted Epilog and determined the laser tube was the culprit. After the new tube it has been better but, I still can notice some "cold spots" on the engraving table. :@ I'd be interested in what you find out.
From: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#7]
26 Feb 2007
To: (Brian) (MOSTLY_HERE) [#6] 26 Feb 2007