You need to be trained (and pass a test) before using our laser cutters.
Only current, authorized laser trainers can deliver laser training.
¶ Big Red / Middle Red
- Check whether your material can be cut by the laser. Refer to the Material Advice page for specifics.
- Check whether the laser bed is unobstructed. Ensure the bed is free of material/weights/magnets etc. When you turn the laser on the head will first move back to the top right and then to where the last user set the origin.
- Turn the laser on using the green power button.
- Check that the water chiller turned on. It's the white box to the left of Big Red or behind Middle Red. You can tell that it's on because the green light will be on. Don't worry about the temperature just yet.
- Check that the extraction system turned on. The lasers use a large air extractor that is connected to the internals of the machine. Fumes are pulled out of the machine through slots located inside the cutting bay. Put your hand over these slots and check for slight air movement. Extraction is located:
- Big Red: At the back of the bed
- Middle Red: On the front left of the cutting bay underneath the bed
- Check the air assist. Put your hand under the head to confirm that the air is flowing correctly through the head and not through a hole in the air line.
- Set your job up in LightBurn
- Place your material on the bed
- Make sure that your material will fit under the head. Because the laser bed can move up and down it's possible for the bed to be raised to a point where your material will not fit. To lower the bed press the
Z/Ubutton to open the menu and hold the right arrow until the bed is low enough. - Square your material.
- The bed of Big Red is free to slide around and cannot be relied upon to be square. The only horizontal squared surface is the gantry. (The bar that the laser head moves left and right on) An easy way to align material is to use the shadow cast by the gantry when it's over your material.
- The bed of Middle Red is fixed (ie repeatable) but not necessarily square.
- If engraving ensure enough space has been left on both sides of your job. To ensure consistent engraves the laser adds ~30mm speed up/slow down buffers on each side of any engrave. If you haven't left enough space the controller will error with
No enough extend space. (sic)
- Make sure that your material will fit under the head. Because the laser bed can move up and down it's possible for the bed to be raised to a point where your material will not fit. To lower the bed press the
- Focus the laser
- Check whether the material you're cutting is hard or soft. If your material is soft (like foam, leather, fabric, toast etc) find a piece of hard material (wood/acrylic/metal) that is similar in thickness to your material and perform the following steps on the hard material instead. Once the laser is focused you can swap back to your intended material.
- Ensure that the Z probe (the stick on the left hand side of the cutting head) is over the centre of your desired cutting area. Failure to position the probe directly over your material during this step has a high likelihood of damaging the machine.
- Open the menu by pressing the Z/U button
- Navigate to the
Auto focusmenu item using the up or down arrow keys. (Last menu item in the first column) 
Place your hand over the emergency stop button. In the event that the z probe fails to register during the next step the only thing preventing damage to the machine is your reaction time pressing the emergency stop button.- Press the
Enterbutton. The bed will rise until the sensor on the Z probe is depressed. It will then lower the bed a pre-configured amount. - Repeat this process when changing the thickness of the material you're cutting or when you significantly reposition your material on the bed.
- Set the job origin. If your job is set to start from either
User OriginorCurrent Positionyou now need to position your design on your material. Move the head so that the red dot is at the top left of your material and press theOriginbutton. When your job starting position is set toAbsolute Coordsthis step can be ignored. - Check whether your design will fit on your material. The
Framebutton will use the head to trace a rectangular bounding box. You can use this bounding box to estimate whether your design will fit. The only consequence of your design not fitting is the completeness of your final piece, the laser can safely be directed at the laser bed without issue.- If the laser presents a
X Slop overorY Slop overerror your intended cut will cause the machine to go out of bounds in the specified direction. This has four primary causes:- Your design is too big
- The head isn't positioned close enough to the top left to accommodate the size of the design
- There are rogue lines in LightBurn. This can be checked by dragging a selection box around your design and pressing delete. If all of the entries in the layer list fail to disappear you have rogue lines somewhere outside the confines of the bed.
- The laser origin point has been changed. The
Job Originsetting can be used to change the origin back.
- If the laser presents a
- Check the temperature on the chiller. There is a display on the front of the chiller. It is safe to operate when the chiller is displaying 26C or lower. If the temperature is above this limit wait a few minutes and check again.
- Familiarise yourself with the location of your fire suppression equipment. Identify your closest water spray bottle, fire blanket, and fire extinguisher.
- Close the lid
- Cut/Engrave your design. Press
Start-Pauseand your laser job will begin. You must actively supervise the laser cutting for the duration of your job. If need be the laser can be interrupted in several ways:- The
Start-Pausebutton will pause your job. This is good if you need to walk away from the machine. The job can be resumed by pressing the button again. - While the job is paused with the
Start-Pausebutton it can be ended by pressingEsc - The emergency stop will immediately shut down the laser. (but not auxiliary equipment like the extractor, compressor, or chiller)
- The
- Continue to supervise the laser Whenever the laser cutter is running it must be supervised by someone with a
Laser (CO₂)orLaser (Babysitter)induction. - Finish the job and record the job time Once your job is finished the laser will give you a total cut time. Use this in combination with the instructions on the wall to pay for your tool usage. You can add the cut times for the day together and round at the end rather than rounding after each cut.
- Remove your material. Remove your design and discard of any scraps created.
- Turn the laser off using either the green power button or the shortcut button on the side of the monitor.
- Pay for your job using the bank details on the wall.
¶ What do I do if...
¶ The z probe makes contact with the bed during a focus/datum
Carefully read this section in its entirety before doing anything. If at any point during these steps you are not completely sure of what to do, stop and ask for help on Slack rather than guessing.
These instructions assume that you pressed the emergency stop button.
- Do not turn the machine back on until the path back to the top right is free from obstructions in X, Y, and Z.
- Check if there's someone more experienced with laser cutters in the workshop at the time. Don't be afraid to ask for help.
- Check whether the lens tube at the bottom of the head has depth to spare. If it does:
- Move the lens assembly up by loosening the brass screw on the right side of the head (above the air hose). Do not confuse this knob with the knobs on the top of the head that adjust the mirror.
- If this has moved the head up enough to clear the bed:
- Tighten the brass knob.
- Manually move the head back to the top right. Push the head all the way to the right then push the gantry all the way back.
- Turn the machine back on.
- Lower the bed by 5-10cm.
- Move the head to a position that makes it easy to work on.
- Undo the brass knob.
- Lower the lens assemble by 20mm.
- Tighten the brassh knob.
- Inspect the head and probe assembly for damage and report to Slack.
- If no damage is visible you should be safe to use the machine again.
- If the head/probe is still not clear then report the issue to #lasers on Slack and place an out of order sign on the lid of the machine. Out of order signs can be found on the shelf behind Big Red's PC.
¶ A piece drops down into the machine
- If it's a small piece (20mm-20mm or less) and you don't care about it, don't worry about it. It'll be removed during a laser maintenance session.
- Check if there's a laser maintainer or committee member in the space. They can retrieve the piece for you.
- If no one is around to help contact #lasers on Slack.
¶ The bed is visibly tilted
- Report to #lasers on Slack.