5. Laser cutting#
Goal:
- characterize your lasercutter’s focus, power, speed, kerf and joint clearance
- design, lasercut, and document an original construction kit, accounting for the lasercutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways.
Learning#
Safety Measures#
Note: You can find all this in this manual
- Know with certainty what material to cut!
- Always activate the compressed air (except for the Epilog, it is automatic)
- Always turn on the smoke extractor!
- Know where the emergency stop button and the CO2 fire extinguisher are.
- Wear appropriate protective glasses
- Do not stare at the impact of the laser beam
- Stay near the machine until the end of cutting
- Do not open the machine while there is smoke inside
- Remove residue from cutting (if necessary, use a vacuum cleaner)
Materials#
| Material | Is it safe to use? |
|---|---|
| Acrylic | Yes |
| Plywood/Multi-plex | Yes |
| Textiles | Yes |
| Paper | Yes |
| Cardboard | Yes, but no more than 3 layers |
| MDF | Little, no more than 3mm |
| ABS, Polyester | Little, no more than 3mm |
| PE,PET | Little |
| PP | Little |
| PC,PA,PU | Little |
| Fiber Composite | Little |
| PVC | No |
| PTFE | No |
| Copper | No |
| Phenolic resin, epoxy | No |
| Animal Skin, Vinyl, faux leather | No |
InkScape#
It’s a free and open-source drawing software. It was not easy to draw on it but with time it gets easier. We designed the kerf on inkScape. To help us, we used a grid. To do that, you go to File->Documents Properties->Grids. You click on new and you can choose the spacing of X and Y. It allows us to draw straights lines.
Kerf#
We did a kerf test on Epilog machine. The kerf is width of the cut made by the laser. It changes depending on the material.
We obtained 0.9mm divided by 11 with Acrylic, so there was practically no kerf. The Lasersaur machine had a kerf of 0,3mm.
Types of process#
There are two process types : engrave and vector. Vector is used to cut a material while engrave is used to engrave a drawing on the surface of the material.
Epilog Fusion Pro#
The Epilog Fusion Pro is a laser machine that cut, engrave and marks.
First you need to open your svg file with InkScape. You can then press Ctrl + P to print your model (choose Epilog Engraver). It will open the Epilog Dashboard. The pink dotted lines tell the machine to not cut/engrave this part. You can also activate the video (easier when you need to position).
Project 1#
My first idea was taken from this site. I bought MDF at VUB Fablab 3mm (Note: don’t use too much MDF, it releases toxins in the air) and used the Epilog machine. I put on 80% speed and 80% Power. I measured the kerf who was 0.4mm so I adjusted the slits in my reindeer to 2.6mm.
It was clearly not enough so I ran it a second time. It still wasn’t enough and I tried to remove the deer out of the MDF and I made a big error, I moved it accidentaly.
I didn’t have much time left, so I made my second project.
Project 2#
My idea was to take this box and to engrave a japanase pattern on it called Seigaiha (Blue Ocean Waves) that I have taken on this site. So first we need to do the box: this time I put 20% speed and 90% power with the option “Vector”. I didn’t touch the MDF until I was completely sure that the laser pierced the wood. Then, I made a little test on my MDF with the option engrave with 90% speed and 15% power. It was long and the pattern was not seen enough. I didn’t have a lot of time left so I didn’t make the entire box and made just two faces of the box. I think I should have put more power on the engrave because the result wasn’t very noticeable, but I still liked it.
Result#
