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 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

Trotec Speedy 300 Specifications

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.

Manufacturer's Manual

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.

Fat Cat Fab Lab Laser Approved Materials

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 Order 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.

Prohibited Materials

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 Material

Wood

Plywood

Source	Thickness options	Largest size usable in Trotec	Cost / sq ft for 1/4" (incl. shipping to FCFL if online)	Notes
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	This is Baltic birch plywood. I ordered 1/4" and some pieces had warping issues, still somewhat usable but not great.
Blick	1/8" (3mm), 1/4" (6mm)	12"x24"	$3.63	The label does not indicate the type of wood. Some pieces are warped but you can look before you buy and pick good ones. I bought from the Blick at 650 6th Ave. The closest to FCFL is 21 E 13th St; I'm not sure what they have.

Basswood

Source	Thickness options	Largest size usable in Trotec	Cost / sq ft for 1/4" (incl. shipping to FCFL if online)	Notes
Blick	1/4" (6mm) (maybe others, unsure)	6"x24"	$10	Not too much issue with warping. Again, you can look before you buy. Note that this is solid wood, not plywood. I bought from the Blick at 650 6th Ave. The closest to FCFL is 21 E 13th St; I'm not sure what they have.

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

Manufacturer Instructions

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.

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.