Using the laser-cutter

The LAser-Cutter

The laser-cutter are a powerful and effective tool for making plates of desired shape in a wide range of materials. The laser-cutter on the Makerspace lab are a medium sized cutter and unfortunately not the freshest peace of equipment. But it is relative in good shape, and perform quite well in most cases. Bellow you will find a guide for zeroing and adjusting the hight of the laser, how to import files and start the cut. At the bottom of the page you wil find a table with profile values for different types of materials, which is a product of a lot of atempts and faliours of former students. So show them some grattitude if you are succsessfull, if not, feel free to propose updated values.

How to use

Make a dxf file

With the laser-cutter you can cut out any 2d shape, that is 800mm x 400mm or smaller. The cutter needs a dxf file to cut. This is made by modeling the part in SolidWorks, then open a new drawing and choose custom sheet size, and type in 800mm on width and 400mm on height. Press the OK button and then press Ctrl+q to update the sheet size. Then apply a view of the part and place it in the upper left corner. The drawing can only contain solid lines, so remove all the centerlines and construction lines from the drawing. Make sure that the view and sheet scale are 1:1 scale. Check over the drawing that it contains all the cuts you want to make, all the solid lines represents a cut. Then press Ctrl+q again and save the drawing as a dxf file.


Prepare the cutter

Before you can start cutting, you need to turn on the ventilation and the cooling to the Laser-cutter. The switch for the ventilation is mounted on the box behind the entry door to Makerspace. Below the laser-cutter, you can find the button for the cooling on a box. Then the cutter can be turned on with the red switch on the control panel of the cutter. Make sure that the laser is turned off, the button is located to the right of the emergency stop. Open the laser-cutter and place the plate you want to cut on the table of the cutter. The table needs to be adjustet with the up and down button on the controllpanel. The edge of the laser should be 50,8mm above the plate you are going to cut. A masuring tool made of acrylic should be find on the topp of the cutter, this tool and the mesuring method is shown in the figure


profile numbers by experience

Experiencenumbers