Laser Cutting Guide

The first thing you will want to do is place the sheet of wood in the top left hand corner of the laser cutter. In most cases, the sheet of wood will be lightly bent around the edges, which is a problem for the laser cutter. To help remedy this issue, we recommend taping down the frame as best you can (see picture).

Check and see if the mirror/magnifier is in the machine. If not, go ask Scott (very politely or he will rip you apart – be sure to be wearing safety glasses). Once you have the piece, place it in the holder and tighten the screws located in the top right and bottom left hand corner.

Check the air flow gauge to make sure there will be air flowing into the laser cutter.

The laser cutter head must be a certain distance from the object it is cutting, which conveniently for us is about the height of the measurement ruler along the frame of the pit of the laser cutter. Take the white stick and place it next to the laser cutter and check to see if the ledge on the stick lines up with the box of the laser head. If the laser head box does not align (especially if the laser head box is too low), use the panel on the laser cutter to move the z axis of the laser head until they are about the same height.

Okay, now onto the computer part. Open up the file called laser template which is part of the program called coraldraw.

Once program starts, a pop up dialogue will prevent the program from opening. Just click “close” and the template will load.

At this point, drag your DXF file of the thing you want to laser cut onto the laser template file. You may get a pop up like the second picture below. Select the units from which you made your DXF file (for us that is mm so metric).

Move the DXF picture into the top left hand corner of the laser template so the part cuts where the wood is located. Then ungroup the design from the watermark in the bottom left corner of the DXF file.

This will make deleting the watermark a lot easier. Once the watermark is removed, you are ready to complete the next step.

Go to file  print and make sure everything looks like the picture shown. Click preferences, go to the manual control tab, select the black color (color wont actual matter, just a name holder for the settings), and change the preferences to what we have shown. The ones you will need to change are boxed in green. It is also important to note that the settings for different materials can be found in the laminated book which is on the table where the computers are between the two laser cutters.

Once all the setting have been set, click "OK" to return to the normal printing menu. Click "Print" and your file will be sent to the laser cutter (make sure you are sending it to the correct printer). The computer part is now complete and we are practically done.

Go back the the controls on the printer, and select the file that was sent to it (should be pretty obvious). At this point, you have two options. You can complete the actual laser cutting process by closing the lid of the laser cutting and pressing the play button, or you can keep the lid open and press the play button. Keeping the lid open will cause the laser to simulate its pattern of how it would run except without the laser on. If you are ever unsure if it was placed correctly on the template, I recommend doing this. Otherwise, close the lid, press play, and watch the magic happen! Thanks everyone!