☢ Group 1 ☢ Group 2 ☢ Group 3 ☢
Determining the settings for the kerf test
Even though we were doing other tests to characterise the laser cutter, we still needed some basic settings to be able to run the kerf test (in the interest of saving time). I read through the laser-cutter log book, which listed Waag Society members' successful and unsuccessful cuts, what the material was, and what the parameters were. I read through until I found some numbers of 3mm-plexi, 3mm-cardboard, and 3mm-MDF. I then created a test template in LaserCut5.3 of a simple 1-cm^2 square, and tested each of the settings for each material.
Each of the tested settings were successful. They were:
- Acrylic, 3mm. Speed: 20. Power: 100.
- MDF, 3mm. Speed: 40. Power: 100.
- Cardboard, 3mm. Speed: 150. Power: 90.
This was my absolute first time using a laser cutter. Some observations:
- Always make sure the ventilation is on until you're done!
- In LaserCute5.3, TAB or click out of fields or else the value doesn't stick. :-/
- Always engrave before cutting, or else things move.
- When you receive the error "read soft-dog error. Please retry." Keep retrying until it works.
- If you redo a cut without touching anything but moving the laser head to a new location, check the depth again, because your material might be bowed in the new location.
Cutting observations
In our 3x3 grid, only the setting of speed: 100 and power: 90 made a cut, but for our kerf test we used speed: 150 and power: 90. The first unsuccessful cut was with speed: 250. So the speed threshold for cutting at power 90 is somewhere in between 150 and 250.
Kerf observations
Our first cardboard kerf test cut the cardboard strips in the direction of the corrugation. This meant that, when pressed up against each other, the edges of the cardboard strips were overlapping. We recut it so that the strips were cut lengthwise perpendicularly to the corrugation, giving that long side a firmer edge. Note: think about what you want your cardboard pieces to do, and cut in the correct orientation!
Engraving observations
Speed 400 power 20 looks just fine.