Epilog 24TT HELP!!!!!!

[Pete Thomas(UK)]

Can any one please give me some guidance. New to lasering and the forum. I have just bought a used Epilog 24TT. Had it for nearly three weeks. On Friday eve I was rastering some acrylic when it started to miss out some bits of the image text I was engraving. Checked all connextions, resent image, restarted Corel draw and PC. RRestarted laser.Still no change.
I tried repeating the same job to see if the same bits were missing. It missed out bits at random. Then on the 7th or there about time it worked OK. Tried the rotary fixture, 3 glasses came out OK the the next ones missing bits again.

Any one out there had the same problem? Any suggestions please. Going nuts at the moment. Got jobs to do and a dodgey laser. Cant afford to mess up more work.

Thanks,
Pete T

[Larry Bratton]

Pete:
Have you contacted Epilog Tech support? Have you cleaned your optics? Many times weird things are caused by dirty lenses and mirrors. That's the first thing to look for if your quality is suffering. That's probably the first thing tech will ask.

[Joe Pelonio]

Clean the encoder strip. It's located under the x axis bar cover. Remove the cover and it stands up along the top, less than 1/4" high. Use a q tip with windex or alcohol to wipe it down, dry, then try again and see if that helps.

[Pete Thomas(UK)]

Thanks Jo,
I will have a look at the encoder strip. Should I expect to find it visibly dirty?

Just tried it again on some scrap glass. If I move the image along 4 or 5 inches it seems to work fine. Would that point to the encoder(what ever that does?). Also guess the mirrors must be OK.

I have contacted Epilog but guess they will not be about at the weekend.

Still puzzeled.

Pete T

[Scott Shepherd]

I agree with Joe, encoders are dirty. Might not be visibly dirty, but you should see residue on the cotton swap you clean it with.

Very easy to do. Just take that cover off, and wipe that long thin clearish strip down. Just be gentle with it.

[Joe Pelonio]

That strip tells it where it is, on the x-y axis. If it thinks it's in the wrong place it will not fire. It's the most common reason for that problem. If that doesn't do the trick then you consider the ribbon cable attached to it, mine has had to be replaced, but there's an easy way to check it. Let us know what happens after the cleaning.

[Bruce Volden]

Pete,

Also when you are cleaning the encoder strip, look at the black assembly the strip rides in. I have found "fuzz balls" in there which will mimic the exact same symptoms you describe! This assembly reads to contrast lines on the encoder strip. The strip has 300 lines per inch, now imagine having some dust/dirt/fuzz adding a line here and there and you can understand how it misses/gets lost.

Bruce

[Pete Thomas(UK)]

Cleaned the encoder strip. Was not bad at all. Tried again. First two attempts had lines. Been OK since.

The laser stops firing for the whole of its movement for several passes. some times 1/16" sometimes1/2". It does the same with the rotary attachment also. Don't think it could be the encoder. All a bit new and very frustrating.

[Joe Pelonio]

Obviously Epilog Tech Support is the best place for information, but we are speaking from our own experiences. You can try taking that white ribbon cable off, and reversing it. There are several wires in it and only a few are used, so when you reverse it you are now using different ones. This worked on mine, stopped the symptoms, so I ordered a replacement.

["Terry Pless"]

I had a similar problem once and after pulling out my hair and the teck's I found the trouble was the magnets/switches on the lid (Legend 24ex 35watt.) were out of adjustment and would sometimes interrupt the firing of the laser. some times I'd close the lid slowly and the magnets would not pull the safety switch completely and would cause the laser to go on and off. I placed two magnets on the switches and no more trouble, then I worked on the lid magnets and no more problem. Hopefully yours will be as simple to repair. Good luck. Terry

[Scott Shepherd]

I had a problem with our Epilog similiar to that on the rotary. It would work fine and then just skip a line or several lines. Had to replace the motor on the rotary axis to resolve the issue.

Could be a motor (or motors) problem. Tech support is going to have to resolve it, I think, as Joe mentioned.

[Pete Thomas(UK)]

It gets worse--- seemed OK so I put on the rotary to finish the job. Problem--would not "print". Took off rotary back to table--would not print then. Re installed driver for laser- still not working.

Depressed.