CO2 laser focus issue

[Erik Nauman]

Hi folks,

Our 60 watt CO2 Universal Laser has had a focus problem where it does vector cuts well in certain areas of the bed and poorly in others. If you drew a line from the upper right to the lower left the top triangle cuts well and the bottom triangle won't cut through the material. The technician who installed it 7 years ago said he fixed it last summer but it's not fixed and he's not responsive.

Here's what I've checked:

• CO2 cartridge was replaced a year ago, should be full power
• bed is completely level
• pointer stays in the middle of the focus lens in all areas of the bed. 
• reset the CO2 cartridge, seems properly installed

Anything else I could check? We're getting resigned to just using a limited area of the bed, which sucks. Here's a picture of how the beam is clearly unfocused.

Thanks,

Erik

[Laurie Toyama]

I have similar issues with our new Epilog FusionEdge. In fact, I still can't get the FusionEdge to autofocus/manual focus for one pass vectoring. The FusionEdge was perfectly sharp when it was first installed, but after a month, it lost the ability to autofocus. No amount of aligning and calibrating the focus/manual focus has gotten us back to the original autofocus capability

Aligning the laser mirrors has helped. These videos were useful in helping me understand alignment and how to do it. While the example is an Epilog, it should be similar to your Universal. Searching for "align laser mirrors" yields many results. 

I really like all of Trevor's videos/channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReIcWelhlfc 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPc4nr110eI

Good luck!

- Laurie

Laurie Toyama

Program and Technology Manager, 

FabLab Santa Clara High School

49ers STEM Leadership Institute