Camtech L20 jumping to the left on the Y axis

[Deb Westenberger]

I have a Camtech L20 that I've had going on 8 years now, and have had the same luck as many of you trying to resolve my problems with Camtech. HELP!!! For absolutely no reason, the laser head, in the middle of etching a file, will jump to the left on the "Y" axis usually an inch, maybe two inches, and continues to etch the file at this new location. Not good if you're etching a large, expensive piece you don't want to ruin. Also, today, it totally rammed into the right margin and stopped. Any ideas what might be causing the problem?

Also, if I set the bitmap margin at 2, it will give me wide bands (noticeably whiter edges -- around 4-6") at both the left and right sides the entire height of the file. ??? If I change the machine configuration settings to a large bitmap margin (say, 6) the banding will disappear, but it makes the jumping to the left I mentioned earlier worse.

Any help from you experienced Camtech users would be HUGELY appreciated!!!

[Phil Horne]

I was having the same problem with my Leetro based laser.. It ended up being the file size.. Not sure what about the large file caused the problem, but every time I loaded a large (very large high res image) for engraving the laser would engrave fine for a while and then suddenly crap the bed in what sounds like the same manner. I never did find a solution unfortunately.. So my suggestion to you is that you might try a lower resolution file??

[Deb Westenberger]

I was having the same problem with my Leetro based laser.. It ended up being the file size.. Not sure what about the large file caused the problem, but every time I loaded a large (very large high res image) for engraving the laser would engrave fine for a while and then suddenly crap the bed in what sounds like the same manner. I never did find a solution unfortunately.. So my suggestion to you is that you might try a lower resolution file??

Thanks, Phil. My husband totally went through the machine last night and checked chain tension, etc. and found the chain on the y axis was a little tight, so he loosened it. Other than that couldn't find anything mechanical wrong. I don't think the files I'm trying to run are particularly large; one thing I'm going to check, though, is to make sure the resolution of the file and the resolution on photograve are the same.

I really appreciate your input. Eliminating every possibility helps to find the cause!!!

[CHRISTIAN SEPULVEDA]

Hello Deb, did you ever find out what was the problem with your Y axis? We purchase an used 2001 Camtech laser, and just recently started having problems with the y axis, and it sounds exactly like what you are describing. Any luck fixing your?

[Robert Gauntt]

Hi my name is Bob, I can't help you with your problem. I was contacting you for some information I was thinking of buying a camtech l20 and was wondering can you run your laser without a chiller? I was told that the chiller is for doing vector. If you can run without the chiller how do you do that.

Thanks, for help.

Bob