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This is one of the laser cutters we have at ChattLab.

Laser cutters are great for cutting and engraving many different types of flat surfaces, to very precise dimensions.

The manual can be found here

• Never cut vinyl plastic on the laser cutter! Vinyl will release chlorine gas, which is fatally dangerous to humans, and will also corrosively destroy the lenses used in the laser cutter. Some plastics are OK to cut, but please ensure they do not contain vinyl. If you have any doubt, please seek guidance.
• Keep the lid shut on the laser cutter whenever it is operating. The laser emits light (some of it non-visible) at an intensity that is damaging to your eyes. The window in the lid will block damaging light from passing through.
• Remain with the laser cutter whenever it is in operation. By design, the laser burns the material it is working on. Fires are not frequent, but they do need to be handled quickly if they do happen. Watch your work as it happens.
• Please make sure that the water cooler and exhaust/air assist are on before operating the laser cutter.

• Do not run the laser at more than 85% power. Doing so significantly shortens the life of the laser tube (which is expensive). Similarly, you wouldn't frequently red-line your car, running the engine at it's max RPM. Likewise, please do not run the laser near its maximum range. Keep it at or below 85% power.

The following instructions are a work in progress, but should be finished soon (as of 2020-09-21).

• This laser cutter can accept designs from many different programs. Inkscape works well for designs containing both vectors and raster images, and is recommended for general use.
• Raster images work best if they are in black and white. The driver for the laser cutter will do only very basic conversion from color to a black and white. Image editing programs (such as Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)) are much better suited to the task and offer many more options.
• Vectors should be solid colors. Different colors will be engrave/cut at different speeds and powers (to be set in the driver). (In inkscape, when an object is selected you can change the stroke color by shift-clicking a color at the bottom. The an empty fill color, gives the best representation of how your image will turn out.)
• Ensure that all vector colors have 100% opaqueness, or they may not be imported into the driver and may cause errors.
• When your work is ready to be engraved and cut, print it to the Full Spectrum Engineering Driver.

• Engraving and cutting should be done in the following order:
  1. Raster engraving
  2. Vector engraving
  3. Inside and living hinge cuts
  4. Outside cuts
  • If outside cuts are done before other operations, your project may shift as it separates from the rest of your material, causing other cuts and engravings to be slightly off.
• Raster images
  • Switch to the raster tab
  • Adjust the “B/W Threshold” slider on the right hand side until the image shows only those parts which you want engraved.
  • Set the “Raster power” setting in the “Control panel” on the right-hand side to your desired setting (and less than 85%). See the recommended settings for suggestions.
• Vectors
  • Vectors can be viewed on the vector tab and are set on a per-color basis. Vectors of the same color will share the same settings, which can be set on the right hand side of the program:
    • Order – Sets the order in which vectors are cut.
    • Speed – Sets the speed at which vectors are cut.
    • Power – Sets the power at which vectors are cut. (Please keep this below 85%.)
    • Passes – Sets the number of passes that will be made on this set of vectors, using the settings above. Set this to 0 if you'd like to skip a set of vectors. Set this to 2 or more for multiple passes. A setting of 1 is appropriate most of the time.
    • Polyline – Number of vector segments that will be cut using these settings. This is informational only and cannot be adjusted.

1. Turn on the water cooler (switch number 1 on the right-hand side near the rear of the machine) and the exhaust/air assist (switch number 2).
   • Because the exhaust/air assist is noisy it's okay to leave it off while you are preparing other things. However, be sure to turn it on before running the laser. Without the air assist there is a greater chance of a fire starting, and without the exhaust toxic fumes will linger in the building.
2. Make sure the key is in the on position (rotated clockwise).
3. Rotate the power switch clockwise to turn the machine on.
4. As the machine boots up, verify that it connects to the network.
   • This particular machine is set up to connect with the IP address 192.168.121.20.
   • After the machine has booted up completely, the second field of the second line should read D19 (for the last number in the IP address).
   • If the machine does not connect to the network, turn it off for 10 seconds, and turn it back on. It usually connects on the first try, but sometimes it might take a couple.
5. Home the laser by pressing the Home/AF button on the machine (3rd from the left).

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