3-Computer-Controlled Cutting¶

Assignments¶

Group Assignment:¶

Identify your lasercutter’s focus, power, speed, rate, kerf, joint clearance and types.
Document your work to the group work page.
Also document what you learned to your individual documentation page.

Individual Assignment¶

Design, lasercut, and document a parametric construction kit(Make sure to include the lasercutter kerf, which should be able to assembled in multiple different ways)
Cut something on the vinyl cutter.(most probably a sticker:)

Learning Objectives¶

Demonstrate and describe parametric 2D modelling processes.
Identify and explain processes involved in using the laser cutter.
Develop, evaluate and construct a parametric construction kit.
Identify and explain processes involved in using the vinyl cutter.

Include in documentation¶

A Link to your group assignment
Process on how you made your parametric design
Explain how you made your press-fit construction kit
Make something with vinyl cutter
Include design files
Include hero shots of your project

Here’s the schedual for this week:

You can view my timetable here

Group Assignment¶

You can view our group assignment here

I got this image from google.

parts

When Laser printing, these are the steps we need to follow:

1- Open your file in inkscape.

2- Make the nessacary requirments like changing the image to black and white, or changing raster to vector.

3- Change fill and stroke depending on weather you want to engrave or vector cut your material. (when engraving,turn off stroke and put strokestyle as 0.05mm.When vector cutting, put strokestyle as hairline)

4- Press Ctrl + p to open the settings. then click on print to go to epilog dashboard

5- After opened, change the speed and power depending on how you want the cut.(lower power makes cut light, low speed makes cut darker)

6- Than, push the pink looking frame aside from the screen and place your image how you like on the material

7- Finally press the print button and then change the settings on the machine itself. 8- On the laser cutter, print the lens close to the material you want to print with the joystick, auto focus and press done. Then look for the file you sent, and press the main button on the laser cutter.

Safety Measures¶

There are many safty measures for this machine of course, but these are the main points I rounded up.

Read the Manual
Each different Laser cutter will have different sets of instructions, so it is important to read the manual to insure your safety.
Check the ventilation systems Laser cutters will produce smoke in the process of cutting or engraving, so it is important to chect the exhaust system is turned on(For the laser cutter we are using, making sure these two machines are turned on is important)

grey red

Inspect the Laser Cutter Make sure to check if all the safty features(ventilation, fire suppression) and make sure the lens of the laser is in good condition. This is the lens of the laser bellow. We can check it by opening it from here.

lens

Attendence Do not leave the laser cutter unattended while it’s running. In case any thing goes wrong, you should be at close distance to stop the disaster.
Ensure a Clean Work Area Clear the workspace of any flammable materials and keep random items away to avoid interference.
Use the Proper Settings Change the required settings for the laser cutter for you to use before printing.
Check the Focus Make sure the laser is properly focused for the material being cut. ( otherwise, it could lead to burning/fire or bad cuts.)
Fire Safety Precautions Be prepared for anything to happen. Keep useful tools like fire extinguisher’s nearby in case in of an accident(make sure you know how to use it)

This was a poster designed by the students of our school on the rules of using the laser cutter:

poster

Individual assignment¶

Vinyl cutter¶

This machine can be considered as a sticker printer in general.(It cuts adhesive vinyl sheets into shapes for crafts, signs, and designs.) These are the parts of this machine

sticker printer

The blade used for the cutting process can also be changed depending on what you want to print.

blades

Safety measruments¶

Protective Equipment : Eye protectionl like glasses and gloves are the most important while working with this machine
Ensure the Cutter is Set Up Properly: Change all the settings according to your requirments and place the vinyl sheet carefuly.
Handling of Materials: Vinyl sheets edges may have sharp parts so be cautious when handling vinyl, as the edges can cause cuts or scrapes.
Electrical Safety: Proper Power Supply and powering off when not in use.
Machine Maintenance: Regular Cleaning of the machine to make sure there are no damages done.
Know how to opperate it: Familiarization with the Manual and learn the instructions needed to use it. If not, have someone who knows how to use the machine with you.
Fire Safety: Fire Extinguisher nearby in case of emergencies.
Do not overload: Make sure not to overload the machine with too many layers of vinyl, as this can cause jams or damage the cutter.

Assignment¶

The assignment was to try out the vinyl cutter and make something yourself. To use this machine, we have to: Step-1: Download the file you want to print. to do this, you can rightclick on the image, and select save as, and chose a name for your file.

download file

This is the file I choose:

sans

Step-2: Open cut studio.

cut studio opened

Step-3: Adjust the size of the sticker material. Go to file, cutting settup, then select get from machine.(will directly send the size of the sticker material from the machine)

get from machine

Step-4: Import the file you want to print:

import

Step-5: Get the outline of the image.(right click on image to get this settings.)

image outline

From here. click on extract contour lines, then click ok.(drag the outline away from the real image, and delate the real image.)

extract lines

This is the finished outline!

outline checkek

Step-6: Lastly, export the outline. Type ctrl + p to access the settings, and press ok at the bottom left corner.

image printing

This is the printing in process:

printing in process

Step-7: Weeding and Transfering yuor sticker!(be careful with this part of the process, espically if you have a lot of small parts/I ended up not doing this part to well)

final sticker

And thats how you use this machine!

Parametric design kit¶

This weeks assignment had the task of designing a parametric kit, which is basicly a set of peices of different shapes that fit together without the need for any extra tools like screws, tape or glue. These sets of pieces should be able to piece together different structures.

Parametric is basicly a designing method where you can change certain parameters to chanf=ge the dimensions of a shapes model. This allows flexibility to the designing process.