[InfernusDoleo]

My wife laser cuts scrapbooking shapes with my FSE 40watt laser. The other day, she knocked over a wooden template I had in the laser, and it blocked the Y gantry from moving. She started a job, the gantry jammed, she panicked, and instead of slamming the big red emergency stop button, she danced about in a panic for a minute and 42 seconds while the laser jammed back and forth. Ugh.

Now, the alignment is completely off when I use it to cut out business cards. I cut rounded edge cards for my business and the alignemnt is completely off. Picture of what it looks like attached. (Ignore the lighter lines, that was from a test cut on the other side).

Heres what I've tried:
I've re-tightened the X axis eccentric pins so the X axis is stable.
I loosened the Y axis coupler and made sure the Y axis was square.
I checked the bearings, which were binding on the Y axis rods for a LONG time, I actually have grooves cut into my Y axis rods. I rotated the bearings to they are not in the grooves any longer.

Every FEELS to move relatively smoothly.

But the alignment is off.

I do not believe anything is SLIPPING, as it's repeatable - it cuts that way almost every time. Some cuts look better than others, but they are ALL off. In the same place. If it were the belts or the steppers, if I started the cut in a different spot, it should look different. It does not.

Any thoughts on possible cures? Might I have damaged the steppers (I dont believe so, otherwise it wouldnt be as repeatable).

Something is off. I cannot figure out WHAT it is. Its driving me batty.

[Exsecratio]

Has the belt jumped a tooth ID? not unusual for crab gantry to cause this kind of problem.

cheers

Dave

[derekja]

When our fse jams like that the belt takes a lot of abuse. That's what I'd check...

[InfernusDoleo]

I've checked the belt section that contacts the pulley - it all looks fine. As for jumping a tooth, that wouldnt matter, it's a closed loop belt. After re-squaring the Y axis jumping a tooth shouldnt matter.

[epilotdk]

Is the belt missing a tooth?

[InfernusDoleo]

Nope all teeth are there.

The only thing I can think of is the bearings and rods are so badly abused it's 'jumping' causing inconsistent movement. I just mostly disassembled the entire thing to see what it'd take to replace the rods and bearings, and basically, given HOW much work it'd be to replace them and hope it fixes it, and for the age and lifespan of my laser, combined with my time constraints and budget, I'm scrapheaping the thing.

Now I need to decide:
Cheapo FS laser for $1850.
Newer 5th gen FS laser for $3500

Or just get a decent one and get a Universal VLS2.3 30 watt. Obviously the Universal is much more expensive. But I already own a VLS 3.5 for more hefty jobs (kept my FS laser so I had one at home and one at the shop) and I love it.