Equipment/LaserPro Mercury II
| LaserPro Mercury II | |
|---|---|
| Model | LaserPro Mercury II |
| Sub-category | CNC |
| Status | Working |
| Training requirement | yes |
| Owner | Teesside Hackspace |
| Origin | Pledge drive |
| Location | Garage |
| Maintainers | Jimallanson |
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 Extractor unit (BOFA-AD400TS) running.
- 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 (CO2), and be able to kill power to the unit immediately in case of emergency.
NEVER CUT THESE MATERIALS
| Material | DANGER! | Cause/Consequence |
| PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride)/vinyl/pleather/artificial leather | Emits pure chlorine gas when cut! | Don't ever cut this material as it will ruin the optics, cause the metal of the machine to corrode, and ruin the motion control system. |
| Thick ( >1mm ) Polycarbonate/Lexan | Cut very poorly, discolor, catch fire | Polycarbonate is often found as flat, sheet material. The window of the laser cutter is made of Polycarbonate because polycarbonate strongly absorbs infrared radiation! This is the frequency of light the laser cutter uses to cut materials, so it is very ineffective at cutting polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is a poor choice for laser cutting. |
| ABS | Emits cyanide gas and tends to melt | ABS does not cut well in a laser cutter. It tends to melt rather than vaporize, and has a higher chance of catching on fire and leaving behind melted gooey deposits on the vector cutting grid. It also does not engrave well (again, tends to melt). |
| HDPE/milk bottle plastic | Catches fire and melts | It melts. It gets gooey. Don't use it. |
| PolyStyrene Foam | Catches fire | It catches fire, it melts, and only thin pieces cut. This is the #1 material that causes laser fires!!! |
| PolyPropylene Foam | Catches fire | Like PolyStyrene, it melts, catches fire, and the melted drops continue to burn and turn into rock-hard drips and pebbles. |
| Fiberglass | Emits fumes | It's a mix of two materials that cant' be cut. Glass (etch, no cut) and epoxy resin (fumes) |
| Coated Carbon Fiber | Emits noxious fumes | A mix of two materials. Thin carbon fiber mat can be cut, with some fraying - but not when coated. |
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.
| Material | Thickness | Cut Type | Speed (mm/s) | Power (%) | Passes | Air Assist |
| Acrylic | any | Light Raster Engrave | ? | ? | 1 | Required |
| Acrylic | 3mm | Vector Cut | ? | ? | 1 | Required |
| MDF | 3mm | Vector Cut | ? | ? | ? | Required |
| MDF | 6mm | Vector Cut | ? | ? | ? | Required |
| MDF | any | Raster Engrave | ? | ? | 1 | Required |
| Rubber Stamp | any | Raster Engrave | ? | ? | 1 | Required |
Using the Laser Cutter (WORK IN PROGRESS)
- Turn the laser cutter on with the top switch
- Set the bed height as per training
- Manually home the print head
- Close lid
- Prepare the file as per the section below
- once file is set to the laser, press ???back?? is necessary (ie if still in menu to adjust bed height)
- Turn on the Extractor unit (BOFA-AD400TS)
- Press ???? to run
- When the job is complete, Turn off the laser cutter and remove your material from the laser bed.
Preparing Files (WORK IN PROGRESS)
- Open the ???? software on the Windows XP machine next to the cutter.
- Open your file in JPG or DXF format.
- Position your cut in the bed
- For each layer in your design:
- Double click the layer and set the colour where black is cut first then red (eg use black for internal, that red to cut the outer last)
- File -Print- print preferences
- the default (black white) is good for cuts, set options for rasters/ stamp cutting accordingly??????
- Pen (tab)- Set the power and speed for each layer, note unlike the glass tubed lasers this one can be ran at 100% without damaging the laser.
- Once all layers have been set, click ???print??? to send the file to 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?????