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 Windows 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

Terminology

 * Bitmap - Representation of an image as bits of information (pixels); used to allow logos/stencils to be changed into colors.
 * Vector - Representation of an image as shapes, rather than bits; used to allow logos/stencils to be modified as objects.
 * Trace Bitmap - Can be used on a bitmap to to turn it into a vector.

Drawing files must be sized in mm's. Cut lines in file should be drawn with a width of 0.001 mm.

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. It can cause harm to the machine and any human being in the area.

Operating the Laser
Never leave the laser unattended while in operation! Materials can catch fire so the laser must always be used with attention by the operator and they must stay present in the laser room.

Lens Types
We have 2" (default) and 4" focal length lenses.

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.

Air Filter Replacements
The air filter has 5 different layers and usually the top fiberglass one needs cleaning about every 2 weeks, depending on usage.

The 3 below that get replaced after 1000 hours.

From top down, they are:
 * Screen
 * Fiberglass
 * Cartridge
 * 70 lbs activated charcoal
 * Fiberglass

Replace Honeycomb Bed
A replacement can be found on eBay for much less than it can be purchased from Trotec.

Search for: Aluminum Honeycomb Sheet / Honeycomb Grid Core - 1/2" cell, 24"x48", T=1.00"

Extricate the old honeycomb from the frame, keeping close track of the bolts. Count the cells in the X and Y. Cut the new honeycomb using the same number of cells. Re-assemble frame.