Laser Cutting

The laser room is equiped with a Trotec Speedy 300, 80W, CO2 laser capable of cutting, engraving, and marking a variety of materials. Two desktop computers with Adobe Illustrator are available for preparing laser job files.

Certification
The Laser Basic Use & Safety class is a required certification to use this machine.

Trotec Speedy 300
Note: Cutting operations have reduced maximum work area, i.e. cutting along work area perimeter is reduced from listed work area (~1 cm).

Manufacturer's Manual

File Preparation
Drawing files must be sized in mm's.

Software
Jobs are "printed" to Trotec JobControl.

Approved Materials
These listed materials are tested and approved by Fat Cat Fab Lab for lasering. Not every material on this list can be laser cut, some can only be engraved or marked--see "Considerations / Uses" for details.

Prohibited Materials
Do not laser any of these materials, especially anything with Chlorine (Cl). Cutting materials with Chlorine will generate chlorine gas which is known to do undesirable things to the human body.

Troubleshooting

 * Job Control error "No more room left for jobs"
 * Make sure your job is smaller than 27" x 17"
 * Make sure you're sending your job in the correct orientation.


 * Laser decides not to cut all, or certain vectors:
 * Make sure you don't have overlapping cut lines. This can be caused by using the "Paste in Place" function in Illustrator.
 * In Illustrator:
 * Check your Document Color Mode (duh).
 * Check the dropdown menu in the color tool palette. Confirm that RGB is selected, and not Grayscale or other.
 * Select your vectors and bring up the color dialog. Edit menu -> Edit Colors -> RGB


 * Laser chamber fills with smoke.
 * Check that the air filter is working, by manually toggling the air filter power button. On the airfilter console, this button's icon is a circle with a line through it. If it's not running, stop working and notify the #laser Slack channel or the Board.