Laser cutter open day

This page holds various resources for a laser cutter open day, whenever such a thing might be held.

Sample Projects

HBRectifier keyring

Guy Lymer created a keyring which can be used as a sample design. You can right-click and "save link as" on this link.

It's supposed to be an oval outline sized to about 60mm wide & maybe half as tall. When imported to laser cutter PC, it shows as 55mm, but we discovered that anything can be re-sized on the laser-cutter PC software, which is a good discipline anyway, as it fixes the size to something sensible.

Hinged Box

Github

Laser Cutting procedure review

1. On any PC:-
   1. Draw to scale in inkscape
      • Surround by a box of known dimensions - for later scaling.
   2. Convert all objects to paths
   3. Save as svg (to edit later if necessary)
   4. Export as dxf
   5. It doesn't matter what you sample in, it doesn't seem to work anyway. (?)
   6. Put on usb-stick and move to laser-pc.
2. On laser-cutter PC:-
   1. File import (3rd from left top icon), & select DXF file from USB stick
   2. Select All, then Tools > Unite Lines with a threshold of 0.1 (note that this saves the last entry, so if someone's altered it, that needs amending)
   3. Set size (left side menu)
   4. Order cutting by colour - higher in list = earlier
   5. Set type (cut/score/raster) and speed/power per colour (consult tests or table in pamphlet)
   6. Click top timer icon to show how long it's expected to take.
   7. Click left side icon to 'centre to table' - often imports image outside boundaries of laser-cutter bed
   8. Download (bottom right of screen) > Delete all (clears buffer) > Download current
3. On laser-cutter:-
   1. Set laser focus: Press "Z" then use focus tool (acrylic square) & Up/Down green buttons (unless someone has already set this for the material you're using).
   2. Esc > Datum (?)
   3. Esc > cursor arrows to position laser at top right of image to cut (Esc to accept start pos)
   4. Test to see extremes of image file. If 'Soft Stop', it's because image is outside boundaries of laser-cutter bed - in software, select 'centre to table' & lase cutter bed area should show as frame with image file inside it.
   5. Start to cut

Interesting projects

Laser cutting on instructables.com
Topographical Map
Simple box
Candle holders
Peach Pie(?!)
Periodic table coasters
Laptop stand
Box designer
Laser cutting basics