Fibre laser light is created by banks of diodes
Light is channeled and amplified through a fibre optic cable (made of glass fibres)
Amplified light is focused through the lens and onto the material to engrave it. We have 15cm and 30cm lenses. The size of the lens determines the maximum size of the engraving.
Focus can be adjusted by turning the wheel at the top
Unlike a CO2 laser, there are no consumables and no maintenance needed on these machines.
This laser is 60W
Laser beam is 1 micron wide
Prints at 7,000mm / sec
Has a lifespan of 100,000 to 200,000 hours.
Is air cooled
Never look at the laser - look through the webcam instead.
Make sure the guard is in place.
Drop-In Rate: $15/30 minutes
Member Rate: $10/30 minutes
The laser can engrave metals with a coating on them, however it may take longer. (ie. water bottles with colored stainless steel)
Marking in Black and White
Metals:
Hot Rolled & Cold Rolled Steel
Stainless Steel
Brass
Aluminum
Anodized Aluminum
Iron
Gold
Silver
Titanium & other metals
Plastics
Copper
Plastics:
ABS
Acrylic
Nylon
PVC
Other:
Ceramics
Marble
Stone
Glass (use a spoil board. Since glass is clear the laser will go through the glass and into the base of the laser)
Marking in Colour
Stainless steel
Titanium
NO WOOD. It will catch fire, and the smoke will damage the lens.
Power button / Emergency stop
Before running make sure the fan is on (switch near the front entrance)
NEVER LEAVE THE LASER CUTTER when it is on.
Clean up! Users are responsible for cleaning up after themselves
The laser is highly reflective, and engraves highly reflective material. Don’t look at it. The webcam is always on so you can see what is going on. If you must look at it, wear the special laser glasses.
Always put up the protective barrier before firing
If you do many passes on your material, the metal can get hot, so be careful not to burn yourself when picking it up.
Fire extinguisher
If you're ever unsure of anything, ask staff
Scratching the lens
Be careful when changing the lens. If dust gets inside, it can get damaged.
Exhaust switch by large laser cutter must be ON
pulls out smoke and fumes
Choose a scrap piece of material to use as a spoil board and place under your material. Spoil board should be made of metal, and not wood.
This is especially important to use a spoil board when engraving glass. Since it is clear, the laser can engrave into the surface below it.
We have two lenses, a 15cm and 30cm lens. The smaller lens has better detail, so it’s better for small things, and has a higher finish.
The bigger the lens, the bigger the design, but it can warp more because it’s coming from the same distance.
When switching the lenses, hold your hand underneath for support and do not drop it. Swap it quickly and put the unused lens in the box to prevent any dust from getting into the lens.
On the side of the laser, flick the switch for the lens that you are using. Turn the wheel to focus it, lining up the two dots so they overlap. You can be out of focus by no more than 4mm, and still get okay results.
The focus should be set once your spoil board and material are in place.
The software we use to run the laser is called LightBurn. Before opening the software, turn the laser on using the key.
You can set up basic vector graphics natively in LightBurn, including text and basic shapes. Vector engraving can take longer to set-up files, and may have more glitches, but is faster when running the engraving. It also gives you deeper and more detailed engravings. You can also place a fill onto your vector outlines by using hatch marks.
Set-up in LightBurn:
Click on the Text tool in the Tools toolbar.
Place the cursor in the workspace and type the text you would like engraved on your dog tag.
Adjust the font and size of the text using the text options toolbar.
Type at least two lines of text - one will be traced, and one will be rastered.
Use the alignment options to adjust alignment.
Select the second line of text, and click on another colour in the bottom color palette toolbar to add the text to a second layer.
The first line of text will be in “Line” mode.
Select the second line of text, and change the settings to “Fill” mode.
Line interval width is calculated automatically from the value for lines per inch. This can be set to 800-1000 (higher values have very little difference in results).
The different parameters that can be adjusted are: Speed, Power, Frequency and Pass Count.
Speed: 1000 is a good place to start.
Power: This is how powerfully the laser will fire, which also relates to how much material is taken off. Start low (for ex. 40), and increase if needed.
Frequency: This relates to how much the material will burn and how deep the cut/raster will go. Like sandpaper grit, the results will be rougher with a lower frequency. Start low (for ex. 20) and increase to “clean up” the result.
Pass Count: Start with 1. Adjust in increments of 10.
The Q Pulse Width is always 200.
Under “Laser Tools”, you can run a test on spare material to see the results of different settings. You can adjust two variables at a time with this test.
Set desired settings for the material. Using default settings is recommended.
Preview the design. This can also be helpful to have an estimate of the time it will take to run the project.
Running the Fiber Laser for the First Time:
Once the spoilboard and the dog tag material are in place, use the wheel at the top of the laser to focus the laser.
Make sure only the switch for the right lens is on. The two dots should be aligned. Use the special laser glasses to help reduce glare.
Frame the project.
Go over different framing options: bounding box, hull/rubber band, contour, and their different applications.
Move the material until the framing is well aligned.
Check safeties.
This includes the vent for the exhaust fan for the fiber laser, as well as the main laser exhaust switch by the front door.
Make sure the vent is open, and the head is positioned by your material.
Hit “Start” and run the project.
“Pause” will allow you to resume the project, but “Stop” will not.
Using an imported graphic, such as files in PNG file format, has a faster and simpler file set-up, but can take longer to run as an engraving. For best results, use files that are in black and white. We can engrave objects that are in grey scale, but it takes much longer to do.
Set-up in LightBurn:
Import the file by clicking on the File menu in the top toolbar, and selecting Import, or by dragging and dropping the file into the workspace.
To import a vector file, the preferred file format is DXF R14. SVG and DXF R12 can also work.
Exports should always be in a high resolution for the best results (1200 dpi).
Resize the file by using the corner handles or entering the dimensions in the top toolbar. Hit Frame to make sure it’s the right size.
Preview the design and re-adjust if needed, based on the time estimate.
Right click on the image and select “Adjust Image” to invert if needed, or adjust contrast, brightness, etc.
Set settings. Images will have different options than Line/Fill layers.
Set the minimum and maximum power. The laser will move between these depending on the image.
Set the Image Mode. The preview for each shows up at the bottom.
Frame, check safeties, and hit “Start” to run the project.
If you want to have different parts of your object engrave with different results, put each object on a different layer and then run the laser. Select the object on the layer you want to run first, then mark. Select the next object on the other layer, and then mark. That way if you want different results on different parts of the material, you won’t need to move your object.
You can also establish a jig of sorts in case you need to move the item but don’t want to deal with having to realigning the item again.
Material can be cleaned with rubbing alcohol.
The alcohol will evaporate.
To avoid rust forming on your project, spray it with a clear coat of polyurethane to seal it.
Members: $10 per half hour of booking time
Non-Members: $15 per half hour of booking time
Fees are paid when booking is made. Monthly member minutes do not count towards use of this machine.
Laser can be booked at https://www.makerlabs.com/tool-booking