Prerequisite: Cage Access

The laser cutter is a fairly easy piece of equipment to learn and use but there are some safety issues and things that can destroy the machine.

The photo is of a hand crafted wood by BBE's own Allen A. He started with a few scraps of birch. Did some cutting, gluing, and sanding and finished it off with the laser engraver. Awesome job Allen!

To get you excited about laser cutting check out this website full of project ideas. Laser cutting is easy to learn and projects don't' take much time.

Read the instructions below before or after you have trained on the machine. If you have a friend that can train you - great. If not, contact David Schmidt (schmi071@umn.edu)

Using the Laser Cutter

The laser cutter we have is a Full Spectrum Laser P Series 48 x 36. It is a 80 watt CO2 laser capable of cutting or etching a variety of materials from paper vinyl and cloth to stainless steel. Click on the link below for the training.

Some really cool stuff you can do. At some point there will be a short tutorial.

Laser Cutter Quick Start.

Lightburn is the software we use with the laser cutter. It is pretty user friendly! Lots of options to play around with. Read the manual if you want or just click around and figure it out. (Here is the Lightburn Manual.)

The only problem is that it does not “home” properly and has no auto stop so if you send it to home it bangs on the side of the machine until it comes out of adjustment and continues to do so until you turn it off. Bottom line NEVER SEND TO HOME!!

For just doing lines or images it is really slick.

Setting up your cuts.

Start computer and log on (3 taps nose)
Open Lightburn (bottom toolbar)
Draw stuff or import a picture
Use color coding for each line or fill type
Go to the top menu to “Windows” and click “Default layout settings” Sometimes they get messed up. (see image below)
Set power and speed for each line color (lots of ways to do this, click around)

Set up Laser Cutter

Turn on laser cutter (Black power strip on wall)
Position material and head using green arrow buttons on machine
Set the Z distance using that 'T' guide for your focal distance. You need to push the Z/U button and then the right and left green arrows to go up and down. Push red “escape” button when done.

z direction.png

Cutting your Part

Start air flow and exhaust (on wall - yellow air valve and wall switch for fan)
Make sure the lightburn software is set to “Current Position” (see image)
Push "Start" (play button) on Lightburn
STOP button if something crazy happens!!

speed power position.png

The following is for the super users or insomniacs.

A bit on Kerf and Offsets for making cool inlays.

Various websites for calibrating speed and power based on material. Note, our laser is an 80W system.

Laser settings from cmu.edu
Laser settings from Purdue
General Machine Settings from Xometry
Creating a template for laser settings customized for a specific machine and gives a good visual of engraving.

Here is some info on lightburn settings with Rudia

Here is the user manual RDC 6442. It is a third party controller so don't look to Full Spectrum for help.