Laser Cutting: Difference between revisions
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|+ Where to Buy Materials
|-
! Type !! Material !! Source !! Thickness !! Sizes !! Cost !! Location !! Notes
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! rowspan="2" | Plastic
| Acrylic || [https://www.makerkraft.com/ Makerkraft (Beadkraft)] || 1/16" (1.5mm), 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (5.6mm) || 12"x12", 12"x24", 16"x29", 18"x24", 48"x96" || Best price in NYC ||
|-
| Acrylic || [https://www.canalplastic.com/ Canal Plastics Center] || 1/16" (1.5mm), 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (5.6mm) ||
|-
! rowspan="3" | Wood
| Basswood || Blick || 1/4" (6mm) || 6"x24" || $10 || 21 E 13th St, 650 6th Ave || Not too much issue with warping. Note that this is solid wood, not plywood
|-
| Plywood || Blick || 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (6mm) || 12"x24" || $3.63 || 21 E 13th St, 650 6th Ave ||The label does not indicate the type of wood. Some pieces are warped but you can look before you buy and pick good ones
|-
| Plywood || [https://smile.amazon.com/Premium-Plywood-Perfect-Projects-Woodpeckers/dp/B07F1WGHQW/ Woodpeckers, via Amazon.com] || 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (6mm) || 12"x24", or 18"x24" if you remove the extra 1" with the bandsaw || $5.50 || Web only || This is Baltic birch plywood. Some pieces had warping issues, still somewhat usable but not great.
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|}
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Revision as of 04:45, 22 March 2022
The laser room is equiped with a Trotec Speedy 300, 80W, CO2 laser capable of cutting, engraving, and marking a variety of materials. Two Windows desktop computers with Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape 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
![Trotec Speedy 300 laser cutter and engraver](http://static.miraheze.org/fatcatfablabwiki/thumb/8/82/Trotec_Speedy_300_Laser_Cutter.jpg/300px-Trotec_Speedy_300_Laser_Cutter.jpg)
Laser Type | CO2 |
---|---|
Work Area | 736.6 × 431.8 mm (29 × 17 in) |
Max. Workpiece Height | 149.9 mm (5.9 in) |
Laser Power | 80 W |
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
A majority of questions about the laser can be answered in the manual. Please consult the manual if you need help and no one is around to provide an answer.
File Preparation
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
The only software that is able to run the Laser is the manufacturers Trotec Job Control
In the case of whatever computer controlling the laser breaks down, a backup of the JobControl ISO is backed up to the internal Fat Cat Fab Lab Google Drive, and can be reinstalled from that.
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.
Type | Material | Considerations / Uses |
---|---|---|
Paper | Cardboard | |
Cardstock | ||
Chipboard | ||
Foamcore | ||
Museum Board | ||
Paper | ||
Velum | ||
Plastic | Acrylic | Mirrored acrylic: Laser mirror side down, or cover top with tape if there is no dull side. |
Cellulose Acetate | ||
Delrin | Provisonal. Needs a test to be accepted. | |
Kapton | ||
Melamine | ||
Mylar | ||
PET | Not PETG! | |
Polypropylene | ||
Rubber | For stamps. Johnson Plastics Low Odor Laser Rubber only! | |
Wood | Balsa | |
Birch | ||
Cedar | ||
Cork | ||
Maple | ||
Oak | ||
Plywood | ||
Tape | Kapton Tape | |
Masking Tape | ||
Painter's Tape | ||
Textile | Cotton | |
Leather | Vegetable tanned only! | |
Linen | ||
Polyester | Best with 5% cotton blend. 100% polyester may catch fire. | |
Wool | ||
Stone | Concrete | |
Granite | ||
Marble | ||
Glass (engrave) | All Glass | Engrave only. |
Engraving Laminate | ADA Applique | Rowmark brand. |
ADA Substrate | Rowmark brand. | |
FlexiBrass | Rowmark brand. | |
FlexiColor | Rowmark brand. | |
LaserLIGHTS | Rowmark brand. | |
LaserMag | Rowmark brand. | |
LaserMark | Rowmark brand. | |
LaserMark Reverse | Rowmark brand. | |
LaserMax | Rowmark brand. | |
Textures | Rowmark brand. | |
Metal (mark) | Anodized Aluminum | Mark only. |
Brass | Mark only. Must be treated first. | |
Ferrous metals | Mark only. Must be treated first. | |
Miscellaneous | Borax + Water Solution | Treatment to create dark black engravings on wood. |
Dry Moly Lube Spray | Treatment for steel to mark it. |
Prohibited Materials
Do NOT laser any of these materials. It can cause harm to the machine and any human being in the area.
Material | Notes | Consequence |
---|---|---|
ABS | Possible death. Releases cyanide gas and will likely catch fire. | |
Coated Carbon Fiber | Noxious fumes. | |
Fiberglass | Noxious fumes and can't be cut. | |
HDPE | Catches fire. | |
Polycarbonate/Lexan | PC absorbs IR light. | Cuts poorly and can catch fire. |
Polypropylene Foam | Melts and catches fire. | |
Polystyrene Foam | Catches fire. | |
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) | Includes vinyl, artificial leather, etc. | Possible death and destroys laser. Releases chlorine gas which quickly corrodes optics and metal machine components and also humans |
Where to Buy Materials
Try these places.
Type | Material | Source | Thickness | Sizes | Cost | Location | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plastic | Acrylic | Makerkraft (Beadkraft) | 1/16" (1.5mm), 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (5.6mm) | 12"x12", 12"x24", 16"x29", 18"x24", 48"x96" | Best price in NYC | 146 W 29th St, Flr 2 | Ken delivers to FCFL! |
Acrylic | Canal Plastics Center | 1/16" (1.5mm), 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (5.6mm) | 345 Canal St | ||||
Wood | Basswood | Blick | 1/4" (6mm) | 6"x24" | $10 | 21 E 13th St, 650 6th Ave | Not too much issue with warping. Note that this is solid wood, not plywood. |
Plywood | Blick | 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (6mm) | 12"x24" | $3.63 | 21 E 13th St, 650 6th Ave | The label does not indicate the type of wood. Some pieces are warped but you can look before you buy and pick good ones. | |
Plywood | Woodpeckers, via Amazon.com | 1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (6mm) | 12"x24", or 18"x24" if you remove the extra 1" with the bandsaw | $5.50 | Web only | This is Baltic birch plywood. Some pieces had warping issues, still somewhat usable but not great. |
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.
Maintenance
Lens Cleaning
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 get replaced after 1000 hours.
From top down, they are:
- Screen
- Fiberglass
- Cartridge
- 70 lbs activated charcoal
- Fiberglass
Mirror Cleaning
Beam Alignment
Bed Leveling
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.
Laser Lab Setup
The laser setup is a bit clunky since we're making it so that multiple computers can use a single laser, which is not a normal feature of Trotec JobControl. This section attempts to describe the setup so it can be recreated as necessary,
JobControl uses the "Spool Directory" config to know what jobs to load. JobControls installs its own driver that pretends to be a normal printer,
Essentially, we "trick" the printer driver from the desktops into sending a job to a remote JobControl instance, hosted on the laser laptop.
The lab computers mounts a network drive shared from the computer connected to the laser, at the time of writing is the "X:\\" directory. The laser computer is then accessed by VNC, which should be an icon on the desktop of both computers
The JobControl executable should be renamed to prevent the executable from loading when "printing" a job from Adobe illusttrator.