Week 2: Laser Cutting

 Laser-cutting

Yeah, you heard that right. I thought there were going to red laser beams cutting through stuff but all I saw was just a bright light and smoking wood. Lame. 

For this practical, we will be cutting and engraving on wood using a laser. Okay maybe not a laser since there was no high-pitched sound and there was no red beam at all. It was just a light that was extremely bright and hot like me.

The fist issue that we have to take on is Safety:

1. Always ensure that the air compressor, air assist and fume extractors are on before turning on the laser-cutting machine.

2. After cutting wait for around a minute before opening the hatch.

3. Ensure the hatch is fully closed by checking the led light

Right below is the operating procedure that me and my teammates had come up with:

Start Up

1. Turn on the air compressor (red switch)

2. Turn on the fume extractor (green button)

3. Turn on the main laser cutter (black switch)

4. Wait for laser cutter to finish initialization 

5. Proceed to workstation for uploading of drawing/design

CorelDraw to Print

1. Use vernier calipers to measure the thickness of the material 

2. Import DXF or SVG file

3. Set line weight, color and fill depending on your needs [cutting, engraving or scoring] (Vector Cutting: Red, hairline, no fill) (Engrave: Green, no weight, Green fill) (Engrave Etch/Score: Green, hairline, no fill)

4. Click print when ready

5. Turn on Auto Focus (thickness)

6. Select drawing and click import material settings and choose the material used for cutting

Note: Under import material settings there are 2 tabs: Engrave and Vector. Use Engrave tab for engraving, Vector tab for cutting

8. Type in the thickness of the cutting material measured in step 1

9. Turn on air assist

10. Click print 

11. On the laser cutting machine, verify the name of the file you are cutting and estimated cutting time

12. Place cutting material into laser cutter.

13. Close fume hood fully. Ensure that the two LEDs at the side are lit up.

14. Press the green button "GO/PLAY"

15. After printing is complete, wait for 1 minute

16. Open the cover fully and remove the cut design

Shutdown

1. Remove any materials in the laser cutter

2. Turn off the main laser cutter (black switch)

3. Turn off fume extractor (green button)

4. Turn off air compressor (red button)

5. Perform housekeeping

Here is the the successful cut of our product after many trial and errors.

One of the main problems, in fact the only problem that we faced was kerf. Kerf is the altering of dimensions to cater to the accuracy of the cut due to the thickness of the laser. Too complicated? The laser is thick, so if we were to cut out a 4x4 mm hole, the laser may cut 4.1 x 4.1. Thus "kerfing" is to make sure that the piece to be inserted into the hole, is more than 4x4.

We had to re-run the practical around 3 times just to get to the correct pieces above. Not to mention the technical issues and difficulties when using Fusion 360.

What do I think of this practical? Honestly I think I am quite scared and hopeful at the same time. Hopeful as I have the opportunity to access laser-cutting equipment and learn how to operate them. This is not an opportunity that can commonly be found outside of campus. 

What scares me is how fast technology advances, not too long ago I had to wear anti-cut gloves in D&T class in secondary school to operate a saw to cut a wood piece. Now I can easily do it without risking physical damage. 

Will machines take over human labor? Is there any limit to machines and technology that humans can overcome? If so, what will be the consequences? Will Skynet create Terminators that will bring about human extinction?