Laser Cutter Manual

Equipment preparation

1. Make sure that the ventilation is turned on. It should go on automatically when turning on the light in the room. If it doesn’t, check the black switch on the ventilator pipe.
2. Turn on the switch on the extension cord mounted on the wall to power the machine and the laptop. It’s placed over the desk where the laptop is.
3. Make sure that the laser tube cooling unit is turned on. It’s the box on the floor next to the laser cutter. Cooling unit is temporary broken, so skip this step.
4. Turn on the 4 switches on the side of the laser cutter to power-up the unit. Starting from the bottom one to the top.

Materials allowed

• Wood. Pay attention with wood that may contain natural resin, which is flammable.
• Methacrylate

NOT ALLOWED:

• Acrylic - it is toxic when burnt
• Any kind of metal

RFID Authorization

We have an RFID system for the payments. If you don’t have the prepaid RFID chip yet, please speak to Octavio or Ugo.

1. To start the session, once the machine is on, put you chip on the reader until it says “STARTING SESSION”.
2. Afterwards you have to put the chip again to actually start the session. The session minimum time is 10 minutes and every chip placement on the reader adds next 10 minutes to the machine.
3. You are ready to laser!

Notes: Machine will start counting the time not from the moment you place the chip, but from the moment of the first cutting. So you don’t have to wait with the session starting until you are just about to hit the burn that shit button. Also important thing is that the machine works with 10 minutes intervals. Every next 10 minutes is started with machine cuts, not the actual time. So for example you can put at the beginning 30-40 minutes (or how much you want), and then you will be cutting only for 5 minutes, you will be only charged for the first 10 minutes.

Laser alignment and calibration

1. Move the plotter head using the arrows on the laser cutter control panel. This position will be the top left corner of the working space which is represented by the green square in the RDWorksV8 application (Homepage).
2. Once you’re happy with the position, press the ORIGIN button on the control panel to save your starting position.
3. To calibrate the focus of the laser, place your material on the working table and use the toggle switch on a side of the machine (just above the power buttons) to move the working table up and down. The correct distance is measured with the focus tool, which should be always close to the machine. Usually it’s an red acrylic block and it’s placed vertically.

Software

1. Open RDWorksV8 application.
2. Make sure that there is nothing already imported to the working space. If there is, just ctrl+A and delete.
3. Import your file. It has to be in a .dxf format (AutoCAD Interchange File) or Adobe Illustrator 3.0 and everything has to be an shape. Objects/polygons are not supported.
4. Hint for the Adobe Illustrator users: export it as a R14/LT98/LT97 AutoCAD version. Otherwise some shapes might not work as expected.
5. In the layers panel select the desired layer (based on colors) and double click it to configure cutting.
6. Choose the speed you need. It should be rather slow for cutting (2-6) and faster for engraving (50 and more). All depends on the material you are working with.
7. Choose the laser mode. Scan for engraving, Cut for cutting.
8. Select the power you need. For engraving 20 or less should be fine. For cutting use around 30-50. Don’t use 100% as it will actually give you less power than 40%. Confusing, right? Don’t ask why, it’s magic.
9. Set "Min Power %" the same value as "Max Power %". Since our machine has only one laser, disable the rest of options and leave enabled only the first one
10. Always enable "If Blowing" unless you know very well what you are doing
11. Once happy with your settings press Print. MAKE SURE THAT THE MACHINE COVER IS CLOSED! SAFETY FIRST :)

Shutting down

1. Turn off the machine in the reverse order that turning on, so from top to bottom. IMPORTANT: LEAVE IT RUNNING FOR 2-5 MINUTES BEFORE TURNING OFF FOR COOLDOWN OF THE LASER TUBE.
2. Turn off the PC.
3. Turn off the switch on the extension cord mounted on the wall.
4. Clean the rests of the cut material
5. Turn the light off in the room.

Congrats. You just become an laser cutter operator! Time to celebrate and cut some more crap!