Anyone experienced with laser cutting?

[fog37]

TL;DR

general question about laser cutting

Hello,

Does anyone own a laser cutter and knows how to operate it with some level of experience? I have some questions...

Thanks!

 

[Baluncore]

What material are you cutting ?

 

[fog37]

Hello Baluncore,

I am commonly cutting Plexiglas and balsa wood. My question is general and about graphic software->control software->laser cutter.
We can use any vector graphics software we like (Inkscape, Coreldraw, Adobe Illustrator) to create our design for the laser cutter. But different laser cutters have different proprietary control software and that is where the difference seem to take place. I read that some cutter have print drivers while some don't... What does it mean?

Some say that a vector line must have a thickness of 1pt for that line to be interpreted by the control software as a cut line. Others say the line must be <1pt (like 0.001pt) and lines with stroke larger than that will be interpreted as lines to be engraved. I think the fact that same laser cutters, like mine, have print drivers, makes the stroke width a relevant parameters. Some laser cutters may ignore stroke width...

Line color and fill seem to be ignored by the laser cutter and only play a role once we want to customize the power/speed for different lines...

How does your control software works?

 

[Averagesupernova]

I do not own a laser but had a fair amount of experience with a former employer. The machine I spec'd and set up was from the company Universal.
https://www.ulsinc.com/systems
At the time, their machine used a print driver so when you pulled up the print tab from whatever windows application that was running, you could select the laser as a printer. Different colors could be set to different modes of cutting. One color was for cutting completely through the material, one for scoring through the contact paper on the material. Those were vector cuts. Yet another color was for raster mode. Again, set the speed and power for the desired results. That's just the way we did it. Different thickness and types of material would require more colors. Other manufacturers could do it any way they want I suppose. We cut directly from AutoCAD.

 

[fog37]

Thanks Averagesupernova.
I guess my laser cutter and control software is much more basic and the line color did not play a role as far as identifying either cut lines or raster lines.

The line stroke is instead the parameter that seems critical, with a stroke =<1 pt being for cut lines...

Thanks!

 

[Averagesupernova]

Btw, I watched a couple of lasers sell on auction several years ago. Right around 100 watts I believe. I believe amongst CNC machining equipment including 4 axis milling centers, and etc, the lasers brought the most money. Around $5K. At the time I would have been better off buying a refurbished laser. I still might get one some day. They are becoming more common. But that also means there's a lot more competition in that business. I'd like one more for prototyping and patterns. A 3D printer does not necessarily accomplish the same thing. Both are unique tools.