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  1. Laser Cutting
  2. Laser Cutting Guide

Quick Start Guide

A brief guide introducing the basics of laser cutting and the Fab Lab to start you off in digital fabrication and help you level up your design.

Last updated 1 month ago

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Submission and Machine

Download the Template File here:

Machine Parameters

Material Standard Size: 700 x 1000mm

Material Maximum Size: 900 x 1200mm.

Materials Safety Data Sheet: Students can bring material from other suppliers, but it must be accompanied by a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) which can be obtained from the material supplier.

Line Colours and Types

  • CUT: Black (RGB: 0,0,0) Vector line

  • ETCH: Red (RGB: 255,0,0) Vector line

  • RASTER: Blue (RGB: 0, 0, 255) Hatch

Minimum geometry size and bridges

The bed of the laser cutter consists of a metal tray with a 10x10mm grid of gaps; upon which material sheets are laid. Therefore any geometry with a shortest side ~10mmm or shorter in length will likely fall from through the laser cutter bed and will be lost.

There are two solutions to this:

A) Increase the size of the geometry so that it is large enough to not fall through the laser cutter bed.

B) Include ‘bridges’ or breaks in the linework of small geometry so that it stays attached to the material sheet instead of falling through. These pieces can then be cut out by hand from the sheet.

  1. Bridges can easily be added to your geometry using the “Break” command in Rhino.

  2. Or, if you are familiar with Grasshopper, use this simple script to quickly apply bridges to closed curves:

A) Open 'Bridge maker.gh' with the Laser Cutting Template. Select all the relevant CUT lines, and 'Set Multiple Curves'.

B) Using the 'number slider', select how many bridges you want to generate, and the width of the bridges.

C) Right click on the 'Curves to Bake' container to 'Bake' new curves.

D) Choose the 'CUT' layer to 'Bake' new curves into the Laser Cutting Template. Ensure to delete the original CUT lines.

  1. You can also add an etch line along the bridges to provide a guideline of where to cut out the pieces by hand.

Minimum cut line spacing

Cut line spacing refers to the minimum allowable distance between parallel lines when laser cutting.

As laser cutting requires heat (the laser) materials behave differently when being laser cut. Some materials, such as plastics will distort when too much heat is introduced. The build up of heat can also lead to fires.

The following is a list of materials and their respective MINIMUM distances between CUT lines. These distances do not apply for etching, only CUT operations.

**Please note: These settings are a BETA version and may change as we learn more. Refer back to this list before each Laser Cutting submission. Failure to adhere to these minimums will result in job cancellation.**

Material
Material Thickness
Minimum cut line spacing

MDF

3mm

3mm

Boxboard

3mm

2mm

"

1.8mm

1mm

"

1mm

1mm

Lauan Plywood

2.7mm

2.5mm

Poplar Plywood

3mm

3mm

Perspex (Acrylic)

3mm

4mm

"

2mm

3mm

Polypropylene

0.6mm

2mm

Mountboard

1.5mm

1mm

Optix Card

300gsm

0.5mm

Ivory Card

290gsm

0.5

Cost: $1.00 per minute + material costs

Reducing Cost

3 MINUTES

NOTES

The two important things to reduce the cost of laser cutting is the amount of material you use and the time it takes to process.

Tips include:

  • Efficient nesting of linework onto your sheets to minimise the number of sheets you need.

  • Sharing cut edges to reduce the amount of material used and minimise processing time.

  • Reducing the density of your etching and rastering for visible resolution and reduce processing time.

  • Reuse sheets from previous jobs that still have usable material.

Reducing Material Use

Nesting Geometries Efficiently

Objects that sit outside the internal boundary risk not being read by the laser cutter and may not be cut. Objects sharing the same edge will produce a more accurate cut and finish. It will also save cutting time and reduce material wastage. Unless objects are using the same cut or score line, space objects at least 5mm apart. Jobs which are spread across an excessive number of sheets will not be accepted.

  1. Use the [Move] and [Rotate]commands, or use the Gumball, to nest your objects closer together.

  2. Move the objects towards the top left corner.

  3. Ensure the objects do not extend out of the internal boundary.

  4. Have objects share edges as much as possible; straight lines can be aligned to save material wastage and to reduce cutting time.

    1. Avoid overlapping lines. An easy way to avoid this is to select your overlapping objects and use the[Make2D]command and [SelDup] to select and delete any duplicate lines.

Selecting Material Size

Selecting Material Thickness

Some materials come in multiple different thicknesses; where possible, try using thinner sheets.

Reducing Cutting Time

The quicker a job is to cut, the less it will cost for cutting time. To reduce cutting times, try reducing the amount of lines/curves a Job has.

Reducing Lines

  • Avoid lines of less than 1mm.

Reducing Hatching

  • Hatching can be very time-consuming; limit hatching where possible or replace with Etch outlines instead.

Once you are confident your file is ready, please submit job here:

If you would like to speak to one of our technicians about a specific job or project, please book a consultation here:

Check the Fab Lab to see if your material can be cut on smaller sheets (i.e. 600x600mm instead of 900x600mm). If your chosen material is available on smaller sheets, use [Scale1D] to change the size of your material.

Fab Lab Materials List
Material List
Job Submission
Book a Consultation
Rhinoceros 3D
Laser Cutting YouTube Playlist
19KB
Bridge maker (MSD FabLab).gh
293KB
2024_FabLab Laser Cutter Rhino 5 Template.3dm
General Laser Cutting Template
CUT, ETCH, RASTER
Laser cut example: Truss structures are cut from 1.8mm boxboard
The geometry on the left is small enough to fall through the laser cutter bed
The gaps in linework keep the small pieces attached to the sheet instead of falling through
Set 1: Set Curves
Step 2: Control Variables (No. & Width of Bridges)
Step 3: Bake new curves
Step 3: Ensure you 'bake' into the CUT layer
The etch lines provide a guide for where to cut out the pieces by hand
Poor Nesting (Left) and Better Nesting (Right)
Poor Nesting (Left) and Better Nesting (Right)
Poor Material Size Selection (Left) and Better Material Size Selection (Right)