Lasercutting Tutorial Tufts CEEO

1. Introduction to Laser Cutting
Vector Cutting
Brian O’Connell, Jonathan Dietz
Draft 11/12/14

2. Outline
I. What is Lasercutting?
II. Laser Safety
III. Preparing the File
IV. Starting the System
V. Setting Up Laser
VI. Preparing the file(2)
VII. Set Epilog Preferences
VIII. Printing the Job
IX. Cleanup

3. What is Lasercutting?
Laser cutting uses a focused invisible
infra-red beam to vaporize material
such as wood, paper, and plexiglas to
cut through or etch material, depending
on settings.
The red beam you see when laser
cutting is an aiming laser; the cutting
beam is not visible.

4. How a Laser Cutter Works

5. How a Laser Cutter Works
● 2 stage IR laser tube
− Electricity excites He
− He excites CO2
● One fixed mirror
● Mirror at end of gantry
● 3rd Mirror on cart
● Focusing lens in nozzle

6. Controlling a Laser
● X-Y gantry moves the
mirrors to focus energy at
different points
● Energy delivered to the
material is determined by
the laser power ,speed
and frequency

7. Laser Focus
● The laser beam must be
focused to make accurate cuts
● Focal Length is from the top of
the lens to the surface of the
material
● Use the focusing stick to adjust

8. Cutting vs Etching
● Laser Cutting
○ Heated enough, material will vaporize leaving a void.
● Laser Etching
○ At lower energy levels material will burn, melt or
vaporize less than all the way through.
● Other Lasing Operations
○ Curing, sintering, tempering...

9. What can be cut
 Wood
 Paper
 Plexiglas
 Leather

10. What can’t be cut- makes
chlorine gas!
• PVC
• Vinyl
• Heavy Metal
• Any unapproved material

11. Raster vs Vector
● Laser etching of raster images works like a
dot matrix printer varying pulses across a
line
● The Zing can print in vector, raster(etch),
and combined modes

12. File Format
• For laser cutting, file should be in
SVG ( Scalable Vector Graphics)
format, which defines an image as
a series of points, lines, and fill,
rather than the pixel format used
in programs such as PhotoShop

13. Raster vs Vector
● Raster graphics use an
array of values for
representation
○ Pixels in a picture
● Vector graphics
describe images as a
series of mathematical
points, lines, and
primitive shapes

14. SVG File Format

15. Vector Graphics Programs
• Adobe Illustrator ( part of
Adobe Creative Suite)
• Inkscape( free, open
source)
• CorelDraw

16. Preparing Your File
Before you come to Jumbo’s
Maker Studio, prepare your SVG
file using a vector drawing
program such as Adobe
Illustrator or InkScape

17. Preparing File
The plexiglas sheets available in
the CEEO are 12”high x 24” wide;
you may want to set this as your
artboard size.

18. Laser Safety Rules
• Never let the machine run
unattended!
• If material catches on fire, open
door, hit stop, spray with water
• Do not cut unapproved materials!

19. Starting the System

20. Turn on laser Power
Turn on Laser w/ rocker switch- right side of
laser, bottom right

21. Start the System
2. Turn on Apple iMac- Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape run on
Windows Virtual Machine
Insert USB thumbdrive for images ( or other method, such as email
or GoogleDocs)- Images should be in Vector (SVG) format( Use
Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, or CorelDraw to prepare).

22. Log In to Computer
Choose CEEOstud2 login option
Enter CEEO student password ___________________
Launch VMware Fusion Windows Emulator program

23. L
CLICK THE BIG ARROW
When Windows Virtual Desktop active,
import image files from thumbdrive to
Windows virtual desktop(copy files
(command C )+ paste (Command V)

24. Launch Illustrator
Launch Adobe
Illustrator
(under Virtual
Windows, not
Apple version)

25. Starting the System
In Illustrator,
Open –browse
to file on
Windows virtual
desktop—open
file

26. Setting Up Laser Home
The laser home is normally
at the top left corner of the
workpiece
On Laser Control panel—
Pointer Laser- On
Insert work material in top
left corner of bed
X-Y Off (removes brake), GO

27. Setting Up Laser
SETTING LASER
HOME
Manually move
pointer laser to
top left corner
of
wood/plexiglas,
Go

28. Setting Laser Focus
Hit Focus-drop
doohickey—use
up/down arrows
until doohickey
just grazes sheet

29. Preparing the file( if needed)
Set artboard
to size of
sheet
material

30. Items should fill artboard, and go close
to top left corner

31. Set Stroke to 0.002”

32. Create Compound path(Object-
Compound Path-Make)

33. In text( off to edge)- write your
name, what the item is, actual
dimensions, cut settings

34. 6. Setting Epilog Preferences
File—Print—
Epilog Engrave
Win X64 Zing
Hit SetUp-
Preferences

35. 6. Setting Epilog Preferences
In Epilog
Preferences
window….

36. Set Epilog Preferences
Set Job Type
( vector) and
piece size

37. Set Epilog Preferences
Set laser Speed/Power/Frequency—varies with material and
thickness—check with Brian—Double click on integer to change or
use sliders
Example- for 1/8” plywood 70/50/500
Hit OK

38. Printing the job
Hit Print

39. 8. Printing the job
Hit Print
in
Illustrator

40. Printing the job
On laser control panel,
Job name should be in
Window– Hit Go—job should
Print( cut)

41. 8. Printing the job

42. 7. Printing the job
If fire starts- hit stop,
open door(shuts off
laser), squirt water if
necessary, close door
to let smoke clear.
Wait until finished,
wait a minute for
smoke to clear
system
Remove work piece

43. 8. Shutting Down
Close down
menus—Illustrator
File—close/ close
VM Ware Fusion
Exit
Log Out, Clean Up
Shut Down Laser-
Hurray!