Laser Subcommittee Meeting 2018-11-19
Attendees:
- BlakeS, NickB, FletcherB
Notes:
- Review machine operation checklist
- Accepted by Blake, Nick and Fletcher
Big Red - Start LaserCut on the computer and set up your job - Turn laser power on - Download your job to the laser - Position your material on the bed - Ensure that your material is lower than the z-probe (pink) - Datum the z axis in the center of your material - Test your job to ensure that it fits entirely within your material and has enough clearance for engraving - Check temperature on cooler is below 20C - Open air valve at the rear of the machine and check that air is blowing out the head - Check that air is being extracted from the rear of the laser bed - Begin cutting laser job by pressing Start/Pause - Clean laser bed after any significant use (especially if cutting MDF) and remove all excess scraps of material from the laser area - Close air valve at the rear of the machine and power down the laser Little Red - Start LaserCut on the computer and set up your job - Turn laser power on - Download your job to the laser - Position your material on the bed - Ensure that your material is lower than the z-probe - Reset the z axis in the center of your material - Test your job to ensure that it fits entirely within your material and has enough clearance for engraving - Check temperature on cooler is below 20C - Check that air is blowing out the head - Check that air is being extracted from the rear of the laser bed - Begin cutting laser job by pressing Start/Pause - Clean laser bed after any significant use (especially if cutting MDF) and remove all excess scraps of material from the laser area - Power down the laser
- Review laser trainer checklist
- Draft laser trainer checklist
Laser training - big red vs little red - process for becoming an operator - laser costs Software / design - lasercut vs vcarve etc - vector vs raster - lasercut engrave/cut/speeds/colours - cut vs engrave vs etch - engrave safe zones - immediate vs absolute - cut order Job setup - checklist exists - downloading job - z probe (including emergency stop) - laser button on the machine - squaring material/what is actually square - fine adjustments can be done by moving the material - start/pause/stop/e-stop Post job - how to clean - fire supprression (where and how) - repeating jobs - materials you can cut - who to talk to about new materials - who to contact when something is wrong
- Additions/changes to above:
- Gentle treatment of little red
- More detailed fire suppression
- Add reference to laser safety standard IEC60825 which is described on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety
- Consideration of steve's more thorough training
- Discuss big red x axis slippage
- Discuss occurrence of issues in the past
- Review belt tension, looks ok
- Big red hour meter 426.9 hrs
- 25W table top laser cutter visiting for canning show (little blue)
- Currently borrowing kellogg's compressor
- Kellogg progress
- Interlocks fitted
- Pulleys progressing
- Todo
- Building trolley
- Computer laser
- Finish pulley and z-axis
- Chiller
- Extraction out back - hole in wall
- Little red
- Needs end enclosure
- Cut rates down to 7mm