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Week 3. Computer controlled cutting

Week 3 is dedicated to computer controller cutting. For work in FabLab we use vinyl cutter and laser cutter. It is also consist of two assigments, group assigment for lab, and individual assigment.

Laser cutting

  • CO2
  • fiber

  • …

  • diode laser?

Vinyl cutting

Avalable machines

Laser machines in Fablab Zagreb are:

  • Makerblock Laserbox - 40W CO2 laser, max cutting size 500 x 300mm https://www.makeblock.com/laserbox-2

  • GS 9060 laser - 100W CO2 laser, max cutting size 900 x 600 mm,

  • Laserbox XTool software

Fablab also have two vinyl cutters

  • Silhuette Cameo 3 - A3
  • Curio - A4

Group Assigment

Group assigment was to investigation characterstics of the laser cutter machines in the lab. For group assigment we use Makerblock LaserBox, but intention is also to make the same on other laser with stronger 100W laser.

Laser speed power test

Makerblock Laserbox outside

For group assignment we have to characterize lasercutter’s focus, power, speed, rate, kerf, joint clearance and types. The Makeblock LaserBox has auto-focus. To test power, speed and rate I designed squares 20x20 mm in Fusion and saved in dxf format for Laserbox XTool software. For each square we set different parameters of laser speed and power. When importing dxf file in XTool software we need to set units, so I set 1 unit = 1mm.

We adjust the speed and power of the laser for each square separately and when everything is ready we clicked on the play icon in the upper right corner. The material we used was plywood 3 mm thick (the caliper showed 2.87 mm).

The result is visible in the image below. We can conclude that at a speed of 20%, the laser power should be between 40% and 100%. I set it 100% power and 14% speed. This is also the default configuration recommended by the software.

After finish we were able to check how power and speed influence cutting process.

Laser kerf test

Second test was to test kerf of the laser and compare it on two materials plexiglass and plywood.

We prepared simple kerf test in Fusion.

… and cut first plexiglass 3mm thick

… and then did it same on plywood.

To calculate the kerf of the laser, we measured each tooth separately, calculate the mean value and subtracted 10mm (from design) from the mean value and got a kerf of 0.11 (0.22 / 2). The same kerf was got on plywood and plexiglass cut.

Indvidual Assigment

…

Generators
- Stencilfy, makes your text laser-cutter friendly - Makercase, makes simple laser preapred boxes - Templatemaker, make simple templates online - Pepakura, paperfolding templates - LuBan, generativ design for makers and artist - Papermaks tutorial - FlatFab - Cuttle - Slicer for Fusion 360, not supported any more…

Simulators - Origami Simulator - Kerf simulation, Kerf Spacing Calculator for Bending Wood - Halftoning, WIP - Gear Sketch

Nesting - SVGnest - DeepNEST

Joints & bending - 50 digital joints - Laser Origami - Curved Laser Bent Wood - Lattice + Hinges - Bloom Parametric Pendant Lamp

Fab Academy Students links - Eduardo Chamorro - Tiago Fernandes - Adrian Torres, bending acrilic

Last update: February 24, 2021