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LaserCutting.movThe MCX lab has a Trotec 360 CO2 laser cutter with 120 watts of power. It has the capabilities to cut paper, cardboard, wood & acrylic; however, many plastics can give off bad gasses potentially hurting the laser and user alike. Plastic is not cut in a laser. The CO2 laser can mark some metals; yet, the laser isn't able to cut them. The Trotec can also be used to cut and mark leathers or even mark foods!
How does the laser cut? A laser beam is bounced off mirrors onto the item being cut or marked. The beam is moved back and forth, up and down via motors. The actions are called movements in the X, Y and Z directions. Each of the directions corresponds to a specific place on a coordinate plane. So the motors move the beam around in very exact movements to specific places on the item being lasered.
Making a design requires a designer to tell the laser cutter exactly where and how to cut or mark each item. Two capable programs are TinkerCad an online editor and Adobe Illustrator (Ai) located on our lab computers which export designs as .SVG files. The .SVG files are read by the laser cutter to make the desired 2D shapes often connect into 3D products.
Coordinate Plane
How do I cut a design? Design or find a .SVG file, some 2D shapes can be converted also using Convertio. See above. Outline for exporting and uploading of a design from Tinker Cad to the Google Shared Drive. Additionally, many Youtube videos are available for Tinker Cad and laser cutting. Have a go, laser cutting is an exciting skill with a rewording financial income.
Getting a design cut. Upload cut files to the Cut Please Google shared folder or email files to lasercutter@mc.nsw.edu.au. Emailed files are not cut unless you ask the teacher or lab tech to check the mailbox.
Tinker Cad
Grid size up to 900 mm X 500 mm
All lines are cut lines (if you want a marked (etched) line extra editing is required before cutting).
Common problems:
1. View from the top to see the 2D cut view.
2. Export all objects 'Everything in Design'
3. Make sure objects on the blue grid (not above or below)
4. Grouping objects can help with cutting.
Adobe Illustrator guidelines for cutting and marking.
Laser cutter bed size 900 mm X 500 mm, document size should be no larger
Cut lines (hairline) must be Red (RGB 255) and size 0.001.
Marking lines (etched lines) must be Black and any size.
Upload for cutting. SVG files should be labelled with your class, name, description and material choice.
Example: 4TSwaffordBookmarkWOOD.
How do I find cuttable files? Thingiverse and many other sites have files you can download for free; but, beware many sites want your email address and your money! Searching the web you will find sites selling designs; a past high school student designs cuttable files, selling them for $$$ each week. You could do this too! CaseMaker and Gear & More are good sites to explore. CaseMaker is used for boxes and Gear & More has multiple sites.
Case Maker: experiment with the options; the following three need to be set as follows
Material thickness is 3 mm
Line Formating Cut Line Width 0.001
Line Formating Outside Line Colour #FF0000 Red
Cleaning & Maintenance
Risk Assessment: Cleaning Laser Cutter
Trotec Video
Updated: 10 May 2021 MCX Lab 2021 Table of Contents http://bit.ly/2ZgYeQ5
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