Equipment/SH-350 Laser Cutter

Basic Safety
This is far from an exhaustive list, but here are some extremely basic and fundamental safety tips:


 * Do not use the laser cutter before attending a safety induction
 * Never fire the laser with the cover open.
 * Never operate the laser without the water pump functioning, and proper ventilation.
 * Never look at the laser directly. Reflections from the laser can permanently blind you. Even reflections off of a wall or material being cut can be incredibly dangerous.
 * Never leave the operating laser unattended.
 * Have a fire extinguisher on hand, and be able to kill power to the unit immediately in case of emergency.

Materials
The laser cutter has been tested with acrylic and laser-safe MDF so far, we've purchased this from Kitronik. If you want to try a new material (and it's not on the dangerous materials list) please let the Trustees know first.

Preparing Files

 * 1) Open the Lightburn software on one of the hackspace computers, or install the free trial on your computer.
 * 2) Open your file in SVG or DXF format.
 * 3) Position your cut in the bed
 * 4) For each layer in your design:
 * 5) Double click the layer in the right hand panel and set the correct speed from the table above.
 * 6) Set both the min and max power to the power in the table above.
 * 7) Once all layers have been set, click the "save to RD file" button and save the file to a USB flash drive

Using the Laser Cutter

 * 1) Ensure the coolant is flowing by checking the spinning flow indicator
 * 2) Ensure the switch marked "laser" on the side of the cutter is turned off
 * 3) Turn the laser cutter on with the top switch
 * 4) Once the homing process is complete, position your material on the bed and close the lid
 * 5) Ensure extraction is running, coolant is flowing, lid is closed, exhaust pipe goes outside and that you are wearing laser goggles
 * 6) Insert your USB flash drive in the port marked "UDisk"
 * 7) Press the "File" button on the control panel
 * 8) Select UDisk and press enter
 * 9) Find your file in the list and press enter
 * 10) Select copy to memory and press enter, press enter again to exit
 * 11) Press escape, then select "memory" and press enter
 * 12) Select your file and press enter
 * 13) Turn on the switch marked laser on the side of the laser cutter
 * 14) Select run and press enter
 * 15) When the job is complete, the laser cutter will beep twice. Turn off the switch marked "laser" and remove your material from the laser bed.
 * 16) Switch off the laser cutter

Troubleshooting
Q: The laser cutter froze part way through a job.

A: Power cycle the laser cutter, it should offer an option to resume from where it stopped.

Q: The display language has changed to Chinese.

A: Press the reset button