Tools:lasercutters:start

Laser Cutters

Laser Cutters

Summary

The laser cutters use high intensity collimated infrared light to cut and engrave various materials, the Artifactory has 2 of these machines for member use.

The LG500 and the LC1290 nicknamed “Little Red” and “Big Red” respectively.

The laser cutters are very dangerous tools that are capable of severely damaging both themselves and anyone using them if used improperly, as such they are not to be used until you have completed the safety induction and been trained in their use.

Hazards

< 100% 200px 500px 200px 500px 140px 300px >
	Class 2 Laser Equipment Do not stare directly into aiming beam.		Class 4 Invisible Laser Radiation If panels removed and interlocks defeated.		Potential Fire Hazard Ensure cutting bed is clear of debris and compressed air assist is operating.

Usage Costs

To cover the cost of replacing the laser tubes as well as power and other consumables the Lasercutters have small usage fees

Big Red Usage Costs MEMBER RATE $0.20 per minute of cutting time with a minimum payment of $2. CASUAL USERS must pay the day rate plus $5 per 10 minutes rounded up to the nearest $5. You must be Artifactory Trained to use the laser cutters.

Little Red Usage Costs MEMBER RATE $0.10 per minute of cutting time with a minimum payment of $1. CASUAL USERS must pay the day rate plus $5 per 10 minutes rounded up to the nearest $5. You must be Artifactory Trained to use the laser cutters.

Please pay for laser time via bank deposit.

BSB: 086 366
Account: 16 546 9448
Description: LASER + Your name

The software will give an estimate of the cycle time however the timer on the machine will display the accurate elapsed job time at the completion of the job.

Approved Users

All users must be certified on the lasercutters before using them, below is a list of certified trainers, users and current trainees. Training times and information are listed on the training page.

Name	LG500 “Little”	KH7050 “Middle”	LC1290 “Big”	LSO	Availability
< 100% 20% 10% 10% 10% 50% >
Trainers
Nick Bannon	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Third Tuesday of the month from 6pm
Steve Hodges	Yes	TBC	Yes	Yes	Ask on Slack
Glenn Martin	Yes	TBC	Yes	No
Lemming	Yes	TBC	Yes	Yes
Fletcher Boyd	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Workshop Wednesdays, other times by arrangement
Iain Graham	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Upon request
Beau Daley	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Workshop Wednesdays, General Hacking Saturdays, other times by arrangement

Operators	LG500 “Little”	KH7050 “Middle”	LC1290 “Big”	Currency confirmed
< 100% 20% 10% 10% 10% 50% >
Alastair Waddell	Yes	No	No
DougB	Yes	No	Yes
Jeremy Randall	Yes	No	Yes
Jason Kongchouy	Yes	No	Yes
Hugh Frazer	Yes	No	Yes
Stuart McDonald	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gerard Biles	Yes	No	No
Ewan MacLeod	Yes	No	Yes
Harry King	Yes	No	No
Nathan Thompson	Yes	No	No
Ryan White	Yes	No	No
Shay Telfer	Yes	No	No
Daniel Macnish	Yes	No	No
Ben Harris	Yes	No	No
Stuart McLay	Yes	No	No
Justin Richards	Yes	No	No
Lemming	Yes	No	Yes
Ricki Barnes	Yes	No	No
Steve Hicks	Yes	No	Yes
Sylvain Esclapez	Yes	No	Part1
Renee Kestel	Yes	No	No
Sam Fitzpatrick	Yes	No	No
Jethro Richards	Yes	No	No
Ross Sandrock	Yes	No	No
Adam Crawle	Yes	No	No
Claude Woodward	Yes	No	No
Blake Samuels	Yes	No	Yes
Jamieson Quin	No	No	Yes
Jean-Michel Maujean	Yes	No	Yes	20160806
Kamil Seda	Yes	No	No	20170506 SJH
Mel McCarthy	Yes	No	No	20170714 StM
Lisa McCarthy	Yes	No	No	20170714 StM
John Parry	Yes	No	No	20171103 Lem
Steve Garran	Yes	No	Yes	2018 Nov 21 Lem
Jamie Moir	Yes	No	Yes	2018 March 14 GPM
John Saunders	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
Nathan Munns	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
David Reeve	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
Adam Mellor	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
Fletcher Boyd	Yes	Yes	Yes	20180824
Sean Barry	Yes	No	No	20181003 FB
Peter Hillier	Yes	No	Yes	20181011 FB
Ryan Adine	Yes	No	No	20181012 FB
Ash Williams	Yes	No	Yes	20190717 FB
Andrew Bernsousa	Yes	No	Yes	20190724 FB
Patrick Kent	Yes	No	Yes	20190815 FB
Lauren Amos	Yes	No	Yes	20190824 FB
Iain Graham	Yes	Yes	Yes	20190905 FB
Jayden Saw	Yes	No	Yes	20191009 FB
Mitchell Robertson	Yes	No	Yes	20191009 FB
Adam Mellor	No	Yes	Yes	20201121 NB

Trainees	LG500	LC1290		Trainer
< 100% 20% 10% 10% 10% 50% >
Philip Wijesinghe	Yes	No	No
David Skilton	Yes	No	No
William Tran	No	Yes	No
Sivash Noorbakhsh	Yes	No	No	20170506 SJH
John Hayward	Yes	No	No	20170506 SJH
Ivan Fetwadjieff	Yes	No	No	20170506 SJH
Alex Fetwadjieff	Yes	No	No	20170506 SJH
Joseph Ang	Yes	No	No	20170603 SJH
Andrew Leitch	Yes	No	No	20170530 StM
Gwyneth Jones	Yes	No	No	20170603 StM
Adam Contencin	Yes	No	No	20170603 StM
Simon Haynes	Yes	Yes	No	20170806 NB
Rick Duley	Yes	Yes	No	20170920 NB
Sami Blue Birds	Yes	No	No	20171007 SJH
Tim Cowley	Yes	No	No	20171007 SJH
James Abbott	Yes	No	No	20171104 SJH JK
Caleb Hicks	Yes	Yes	No	20171104 SJH
Loren Hughes	Yes	Yes	No	20171104 JK
James Palmer	Yes	Yes	No	20171104 JK
Mark Finlayson	Yes	Yes	No	20171217 BlakeS
William Skevington	Yes	Yes	No	20171217 NB
Georgina Hall	Yes	No	No	20180203 SJH
Daniel Sargent	Yes	No	No	20180203 SJH
Jack Nyenhuis	Yes	No	No	20180203 SJH
Scott Simons	Yes	No	No	20180203 SJH
Nathan Dunn	Yes	Yes	No	20180210 NB
Caitlin Meara	Yes	Yes	No	20180210 NB
Adam Mellor	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
Samuel Tennent	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
Yoann Roy	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
Yohan Ratnayaka	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
somsuda kunnikorn	Yes	No	No	20180407 JK
Terry Christou	Yes	No	No	20180606 JK
Rodrigo Kendrick	Yes	No	No	20180606 JK
Vincent Dalstra	Yes	Yes	Yes	20191031 FB
Marie Arntzen	Yes	No	No	20180809 NB
Chris Head	Yes	No	No	20180819 FB
Jon Gregory	Yes	No	No	20180830 FB
Hui Shan Lim	Yes	No	No	20181010 FB
Rebecca Howard	Yes	No	No	20181012 FB
Rhys Porter	Part 1	No	No	20181012 FB
Rita Rizzeri	Part 1	No	No	20181020 FB
Ben Jude	Yes	No	No	20181020 FB
Ignasius Krisnanta Setiaputra	Yes	No	No	20181020 Blake Samuels
Sarada Lee	Part 1	No	No	20181103 FB
Sean Driver	Part 1	No	No	20181103 FB
Alexey Korolev	Yes	No	No	20181104 FB
Brett Haywood	Yes	No	No	20190201 SJH
Kassabdra Roderick	Yes	Yes	No	20190302 SJH
Simon Cosgrave	Yes	No	No	20190302 SJH
Lachlan Hutchison	Yes	No	No	20190302 SJH
Constance Titterton	Yes	yes	No	20190406 SJH
Travis Bullock	Yes	yes	No	20190406 SJH
Adriane Dyke	Yes	No	No	20190406 SJH
Gail Wittich	Yes	Yes	No	20190406 SJH
Devahuti Chaliha	Yes	No	No	20190406 SJH
Kym Lim	Yes	No	No	20190406 SJH
Daniel Hart	Yes	No	No	20190406 SJH
Michael O'Connor	Yes	Yes	No	20190623 SJH
Jenny Truong	Yes	Yes	No	20190706 SJH
Tim Telcik	Yes	Yes	No	20190706 SJH
Tania Nicholl	Yes	Yes	No	20190706 SJH
Joseph Orr	Yes	Yes	No	20190706 SJH
Phil Cooper	Yes	Yes	No	20190706 SJH
Damien Tonkin	Yes	Yes	No	20190706 SJH
Luke Tornilla	Yes	Yes	No	20190713 JK
Rouie Roxas	Yes	Yes	No	20191023 NB
Liza Mathews	Yes	Yes	No	20191023 NB
Addam	Yes	Yes	No	20191023 NB
Sam Smith	Yes	Yes	No	20191220 JM

Trainees

Trainees have been inducted into the way of the laser cutter and may use them under supervision of Operators or Trainers. To become a trainee you should approach a Trainer and get some test projects started. Trainees can use the laser cutter they are a trainee for under the supervision of an Operator for that size, or a Trainer. Use of a laser cutter they are not trained for must be done under the supervision of a trainer.

Operators

Operators are users that have completed a number of laser cutter projects and has shown sufficient proficiency to be allowed to work the laser cutter unattended provided they stick to approved materials. Operators can access the laser cutter keys. Operators are initially approved for the small laser cutter only and must still be supervised for the large laser. After an unspecified time they will be approved for both.

Trainers

These are experienced and super experienced laser cutter users, able to clean, calibrate and extinguish the laser cutters. Trainers are the ones that the new users must approach before they are allowed to use the lasers. Trainers must trial and approve cutting of new materials.

Specifications

Machine	Working Area	Description	Power / Feedrate Reference
< 100% 10% 10% 50% 30% >
LG500	500×300 (honeycomb area is 485×285)	http://www.wklaser.com/pro_183.aspx Smaller machine, better for fine engraving and small jobs.	LG500 Parameter Reference
LC1290	1200×900 (honeycomb area is 1165×862)	http://www.wklaser.com/pro_190.aspx Larger machine, more laser power and working area but less capable of fine work.	LC1290 Parameter Reference

Materials are available in pre-cut sheets to fit in the LG500

Instructions for Use

Laser Checklists

These are little checklists operators should be working through as they go about their laser cutting jobs with each machine.

Click images To view Larger Version, then click that image again to get the full resolution version:

LaserCut Software

The software which drives both the LG500 and LC1290 is called “LaserCut” and can be found on the desktop of the computers linked up to their respective cutting machine.

A PDF of the “LaserCut” Manual is available from the Leetro website. It's not a fantastic piece of documentation, but may be useful.

Please don't alter any of the machine settings without checking with a trainer first!

File Format

The LaserCut software accepts only DXF (Drawing eXchange Format) Files.

Which can be created using most CAD programs out there, The most commonly used ones at the Artifactroy are Inkscape and V-Carve which are installed on the CAD machines in the CAD Room which can then saved in the internal network the PC connected to the laser cutters can access.

Relative or Absolute Positioning

The machines can operate in either absolute positioning mode (The machine will cut the vectors in the position they are located on the outline of the bed in the software) or in relative positioning mode (The machine will cut the vectors starting at the current location of the cutting head).

For most jobs it is easier to operate in relative positioning mode as it allows you to manually reposition the cut much faster by simply jogging the head. Absolute positioning mode is however preferable if you are using a jig to cut or engrave multiple parts. To switch between cutting modes you simply need to toggle the Immediate checkbox, if the checkbox is checked then the machine is operating in relative positioning mode, if it is not then the machine is operating in absolute positioning mode.

Note: You will need to re-download your job after changing the positioning setting in order for it to take effect.

Cutting Extra-Large Sheets

The lasercutters are capable of being opened to allow for the cutting of sheets larger than the normal cutting bed however by doing so the machine can no longer be considered a Class 1 laser device, but allowing potential contact between the operator and the cutting beam radiation the machine becomes a Class 4 device.

To operate the cutter when it is classified as a Class 4 device a certified laser safety officers must be present. Access to the keys that unlock the lasercutter external panels is restricted to members holding certification as a Laser Safety Officer (LSO) under the Radiation Safety Act (1975)

Note that when operating as a Class 4 device (in addition to the above), all doors to the space need to be closed, all people present must be wearing appropriate IR laser safety glasses, and warnings need to be posted to warn people against entering the space. The practicalities of this are left as an exercise to the student.