Week 4
Computer-controlled cutting

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Assignment


Assignment: Group: characterize your lasercutter, making test parts that vary cutting settings and dimensions. Individual: cut something on the vinylcutter. Design, lasercut, and document a parametric press-fit construction kit, accounting for lasercutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways
Learning outcomes:Laser cutter: Demonstrate and describe parametric 2D modelling processes. Identify and explain processes involved in using the laser cutter and develop, evaluate and construct the final prototype. Vinyl cutter: Identify and explain processes involved in using this machine. Design and create final object.
Assessment: Laser cutter: Have you:

  • a) Explained how you parametrically designed your files
  • b) Shown how you made your press-fit kit
  • c) Included your design files and photos of your finished project. Vinyl cutter: Have you:
  • a) Explained how you drew your files
  • b)Shown how you made your vinyl project
  • c)Included your design files and photos of your finished project.

    • Group work

    We have linked our group assignment external you can view it here

    Assignment: Group: characterize your lasercutter, making test parts that vary cutting settings and dimensions.

    Characterizing your Lasercutter

    The laser cutter machine which we are using is the Robotseed laser cutter.It is A Laser Cutting/Engraving machine uses a CO2 laser tube to generate a laser beam, mirrors to reflect it, and motors to precisely control where the beam is focused to remove material from the plate you are machining.It also uses controller system Smoothieboard and user interface.

    We were able to connect to the machine over the network and it had a multitocuh interface on the machine itself where we could use to setup jobs

    The roboseed was also equiped with an internal webcam so we can monitor the work without having to directly expose our eyes to the combustion point and it also recorded timlapses of our jobs so we can have it recorded.

    Model RS-1060L
    Work area 1000 x 600 mm
    Laser power 90 W
    Max laser power ( optional ) 130 W
    Machine dimensions 1.15 x 1.1 x 1.1 cm
    Machine weight 110 kg

    Test One
    As a first characterization test we cutted circles, squares and triangles at different powers and focus.

  • material is mdf-like and around 2.3mm

    • We measured the outside square width and forgot to measure the inside square width. So we had to do another test.
  • focus of 6mm was best
    • .
  • best cut and the best square precision (outside square width=5.0mm) is for 90% at a focus of 6mm.

    • On the second test we cutted only squares at different powers and focus. On the picture below, rows 1, 2 and 3 are the cutted part of rows 4, 5 and 6. The F indicate the focus of the rows and the % indicate the power of the columns. Figures with the double arrow are the measured values of width of inside and outisde parts. Figures underlined in red are the calculated values of the laser kerf. We found the laser kerf to be less than

  • 0.05mm at 60% power with a 6mm focus
    • . We used a caliper to do our measurements and it may have introduce some deviations.

    The software tool which we used to sketch our shapes was libracad. View Below the tutorial on how to creat the shapes

    Third test Our intructor was still puzzled of the results and performances of the machine. By performing the regular maintenance he realized that the curved size of the lens was turned down. By checking the documentation, we realized that it was upside down as we can see on the picture below. Therefore we relaunched our tests and get to the conclusion that the best focus is, as adviced by the manufacturer, at 8mm. Our results about the laserkerf stayed at 0.05mm at 60% power.

    Summary

    • Characterize the Laser Cutter
    • Laser Cutter
      Cut Params power 60 -speed 20 -focus 0
      Marking power 30- speed 80- focus 0
    • Openscad
      Side 40mm
      mateial thickness 2mm
      kerf 0.05
      thickness = material-2*kerf
      fn =120
    • Vinyl Cutter

    Pressfit Construction Kit

    Lasercutter and Pressfit kit

    The first thing which we did was to download Openscad and design our pressfit kit pieces.With just a few lines of code we were able to make our pieces.Openscad makes it easy to make the press fit pieces but it is not really the perfect tool for adding graphics.

    I started off by defining my intitial variables.

  • Variables side = the size of the side of my object
  • Material thickness of the material = mdf 2mm
  • The kerf which is determined by the specific cut dimentions of our laser cutter machine = 0.05
  • Thickness = mateiral - 2 * kerf.

    • I then went ahead and decided to go with using circles so I coded circle and divided its side by 2 to get the diameter.

    For the cuts in my press fit pieces I coded two rectangles which passed throught my circle pieces then I added a square in the center to split the intersected rectangles into 4 seperate sections.

    I started off by making one circle of 20 mm and adding my cuts in it.After playing around with it abit I decided to duplicated the base and reposition the cuts at diffrent angles on my piece to get a few different pieces.

    I then made my press fit pieces with cuts in them of 1,2,3,4, AND 12 the last one I wanted to look like a flower. For the 1 2 3 4 pieces I rotated the angles to 0 90 180 270 degrees and the rest I rotated by 30 degrees

    Since I wanted to add my foundation and project logo to my pressfit kit pieces I had to save the file of my pieces from openscad as svg format and import it into inkskape

    I then broke my pieces apart with

  • Path---> break apart

    • And removed the background of my pieces with fill none and added a flat color and reduced my stroke style to 0.200

    I then went and imported my logo.jpg image and bittrace it with

  • Path --> Bitmap
    • .

    And algn my logo to my initial pressfit piece by first selecting both items and using the align menu tab and center horizontal and vertical button

    I then went and added my second logo going over the same procedure of bitracing it and aligning it to my selected pressfitpiece.

    I then went and giving my pressfit one color and my logo another color so I could decide on visicut how exactly I would want those two objects to be cut.I gave my circle a color of blue and the logo a color of red.

    Finally I duplicated how much and positioned my pieces where I would like it to be and exported the file as in svg format to upload to visicut to prepare it to be used my the laser cutter machine.

    The first thing which I did was to download visicut software to work with the laser cutter. I downloaded visicut for windows os. Visicut converts our file into gcode so our machine can read it.

    I then opened visicut and imported my svg file . Note:I had to add the lazer cutter setting file into

  • Option --> Import settings
    • . I then had the option to adjust the Mapping-Position-Laser Setting Parameters

    We then configure the mapping window drop down to (cut my stroke color) and selected the circle to be cut(blue) and logo to be marked (red)

    On our position window we reposition the object to 0mm,0mm the left bottom corner of the machine in the software.

    For the Laser setting tab-we configure of blue line to laser power

  • 60- speed 20 focus 0 and for the red power 30 and speed 80 focus 0
    • ;

    We then exported our file as .gcode

    We then connected to the local network - enter ip of machine 192.168.1.24- Which is a rpi running a webpage note:You cannot find the page if the power button is off so turn it on

  • Connect and import file
  • Positon the laser machine 0 position manually in the control tab
  • Press the folder icon on your imported file so that it can be pushed to the top of the list
  • After selecting and placing your material and pin it down with the magnet you can click on the test run tab to see a test run of your laser cut
  • After your test run is finished close the laser cutter lid and press final cut to do your actual cut.

    • My press fit pieces came out pretty nicely on the first run with my logos. The Robotseed laser cutter first cut my pieces out and after that it went ahead and made the engraved logos.

    I tried assembling my pieces to look like a tree but instead it looked like some transformer robot lol.

    Lessons Learnt

    We initially tried 80% power to do our initial test cut but it was not enough to cut through the mdf - we should use 95%power

    Keep in mind the secquence of starting the laser cutter

  • 1.Extract Air
  • 2.Water Chiller
  • 3.Power Button
  • 4.User Interphase

    • Make sure to check if your laser cutter lens is on the right side because ours were on the wrong side and it made a big difference with determining the kerf of the laser cutter.

    Maintinanace- if u use the lazer too long it won't be as effective so take a break - clean mirror and lens with alcohol (the lens only work on one side so make sure you put it back properly.

    Calibrat your laser weekly.

    Vinyl Cutting

    Using the vinyl cutter

    The vinylcutter task was quite a straightforward one. When I heard about using the vinyl cutter I was quite excited. The first thing which I wanted to do was to print codettes logo.

    1. I first opened InkScape and imported my logo. I then went to

  • Path --> Bittrace -->
    • and made a bitrace of it.

    2.I then went ahead and deleted my original logo and kept the bittrace version.

    3.After that I remove the fill on my image

  • added a flat color -- and make the stroke fill 0.200

    • 4.I then saved my file to svg formatt.

    I then went and uploaded my svg file into the canvasworkspace.We had to upload our svg files to canvasworkspace to convert our file from svg to fcm so that our vinyl printer could read the file. I then resized my logo to make it abit bigger.I then downloaded the file to my laptop and uplaoded the file to my samung memory stick because the vinyl machine could only read our files from a certain memory stick.

    3. I then went ahead to my vinyl machine and put in my memory stick. The first thing I had to do was to roll out the base sheet from the machine with the pressing the eject sheeet button and align my vinyl paper so it can be read into the machine.

    4.I then press the sheet button (which rolls the sheet in our out of the vinyl machine) and roll it to place in the machine.

    5. I then went through the menu buttons of the vinyl machine. I selected save data so the machine could save the data from my memory stick and then it went ahead and retrieved my data.I then navigated to where my fcm file was on my memory stick and selected it.

    6.I then selected the cut option and press the button to go ahead and confirm the cut.After it was cut I then took off the access sticker material and paste my sticker onto my laptop.

    Lessons Learnt

    When using the vinyl printer make sure you adjust the pressure so that it does not tear the vinyl when cutting.

    I initially had to use tape to tape down the two ends of my vinyl paper so that it does not move on the base.

    On our first testing of the vinyl cutter we did not have vinyl paper so we had to use normal A4 paper and use paper glue to stick it to the base sheet.That was a disaster the A4 kept tearing but finally it did cut my initials out.

    Download Files Here


    Test Shapes
    Test Kerf
    Inkscape Codettes Logo
    Codettes Logo Fcm Canvas Workspace
    Pressfit Openscad
    Pressfit svg
    Pressfit gcode

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