mcgill university school of architecture laser cutter manual

Faculty of Engineering Workshop Services

Laser Cutter Machine Manual

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McGill University

School of Architecture Laser Cutter Manual



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The laser cutter is located in room B10. It is available for use during regular shop

hours, Monday to Friday from 9 am to 12:30 pm and from 2 pm to 5 pm.

After hours use is possible for Arch students by signing out a key. The key must be

returned first thing in the morning. Individuals are limited to three hours use per week

during rush periods. If you do not show up within 5 minutes of your scheduled time,

that time is forfeited to the first person on the scene and ready to cut. During slower

times of the year this rule may be relaxed and use may be available on a first-come,

first-served basis. Check with the workshop technician regarding availability.

Clean up after yourself. There is a garbage can present, please use it! Do not leave

your scraps lying around.

You must remain in the immediate area while the machine is cutting. If anything

appears to be going wrong with the job press “Pause” or open the door immediately!

THE SIZE OF THE WORK BED IS 45cm X 81cm (18” X 32”)

Laser Cutting from an AutoCAD file on the X-660

The laser cutter operates by following the lines of a CAD file and cutting or engraving

lines as it goes. The laser cutter distinguishes between lines that are cut and lines that

are engraved by the colour of those lines in the CAD file. There are no presets for

power and speed and therefore it is up to you to make sure that the laser cutter print

driver is properly configured for you file before you send it to the cutter.

CAD FILE PREPARATION

Colours

The laser cutter can have up to 8 different power and speed settings in one job –

therefore your CAD file can have a maximum of 8 colours in it.

When cutting, the machine will cut in the following order:

Note that Black and White are equivalent in AutoCAD.



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So, it will first look at all the black/white lines in your file and follow them with the laser

power and speed that is set for black in the X-660 driver (in the case above, 10%

power and 70% speed) and then go down the list and do the same for the next

colour.

Therefore, if you wanted to do a job that would be able to cut a material and

engrave three depths of lines on it as well (shallow, medium and deep) you would

have 4 colours on your CAD file: white, red, green and yellow.

Always make sure your colour for cut is lowest on the list. This is especially important

for materials like plywood that often warp after they are cut out. If you cut first,

chances are your engraving lines will not be in the right place and there is a higher

chance they will burn the material.

Also, the colours listed in the print driver cannot just be any shade of that colour. For

example, when the driver says “Blue”, it must be a specific type of blue in AutoCAD.

Use these colours only:

The best method is to keep all lines that you intend to cut/engrave the same way on

the same layer with the same colour. This was it is easy to change the colours later

on without selecting lots of lines manually.



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Overlap

Watch out for collinear, overlapping lines. The laser head will pass over every line

once. If two lines are on top of each other, the laser will cut or engrave that area

twice. This can result in burning of the material or in a cut where only an engraving

was desired.

Avoid this:

Line-weight

Make sure that all of your lineweights are set to 0.00mm. If not, the file will not work.

You can do this as the last step before printing, do select all (Ctrl-A) and then select

0.00mm from the lineweight menu.

Paperspace Setup

If you print from model space it is much more difficult to tell if your job will fall outside

the useable area of the machine – therefore, always use a paperspace layout for

plotting.

Create a layout and choose “X-660” as the plot device. You will only be able to do

this on a computer with the X-660 driver installed (as of time or writing, the computer

in the workshop).



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Power Settings

Still in the plot device tab, select “Properties…”

Then select “Custom Properties…”

To get to the power configuration screen:



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Click on the ‘Engraving Field’ tab and click the ‘Maximum Page Size’ button

Click on the ‘Laser Settings’ tab and:

Set the % Power, % Speed and PPI as appropriate for your colour scheme and the

material you will be using. Refer to the tables later on in this document or to the

samples in the workshop.

Make sure that all of the “pen mode” lines are set to VECT



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All changes to settings must be confirmed by pressing the large “Set” button.

Once you have everything right, press “OK” on the two dialog boxes.



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If prompted, select “OK” to this box also.

Now, your paperspace layout will look something like this:

Note that the dotted border corresponds to the maximum area of the laser cutter.

Adjust your drawing as you would normally, selecting the proper scale, units, etc…

It is very important that you hide the border of the viewport, otherwise it will be

treated as something to cut/engrave by the laser cutter. You can do this by

selecting the viewport border and placing it on it’s own layer, and hiding that layer.



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LASER CUTTING

It is a good idea to do a “plot preview” first to make sure everything will be properly

aligned. This is often a problem with the machine so do not skip this step.

To send your file to the laser cutter, tell it to “plot” as you would with any printer.

Now, walk over to the laser cutter.

1. Make sure your material is aligned to the top-left corner of the cutting surface.

2. If your material warps at all, of if you think it will warp after laser cutting, make

sure it is well fastened to the cutting surface – preferably with lots of double

sided tape. It is very bad if the material is allowed to warp while it is being cut

far enough to touch the laser head. Warping results in unnecessary burning as

well, so keep it flat.

3. Check for air pressure by looking at the gauge on the lower left-hand side of

the machine (should be ~50 psi).

4. Make sure your file is selected using the fast forward and rewind buttons on the

control panel (if no one else has plotted to the machine, your file should be

the last one in memory and will have the name of your layout page in

AutoCAD)

CHECKLIST

All lines set to 0.00mm

No overlapping collinear lines

Line colours set correctly

X-660 print driver selected as plot device

X-660 power settings correct for your file and material you are cutting

Material large enough for job to be cut



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CUTTING

Turn the laser cutter on by pushing the orange button on the bottom back right hand

side.

Also, ensure that the compressed air supply to the cutter is open. The valve should

look like this with the green handle in line with the copper pipe.



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Lastly (but very importantly!!), turn on the fume extractor which is to the immediate

right of the X660.



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It is very important that the exhaust system and the compressed air are used at all

times when the laser cutter is running. It is equally important that you do not leave

the cutter unattended. If anything overheats we will fry the lens which will a) cost lots

of money and b) make everyone after you in line very upset and could potentially

lead to c):



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(a tip of the Stetson to Chris Dewart at MIT)

Place your material to be cut or engraved on the work bed. We usually orient the

material with the upper left corner of the bed. The size of the bed is 18” x 32” or

45cm x 81 cm.

FOCUS!!!

Any time that you change the thickness of the material being cut it is necessary to

refocus the machine. Open the top door and press ‘Z’. The cutter head will go to

the upper left corner of the work bed. Take the focus tool out of it’s hiding place on

the outside of the left side of the table and place it on your material. Orient the

notch on the tool facing the laser head. If the machine is properly focused for your

material the focus tool should appear as in the photo below. If the cutter head (red

part) is higher or lower than in the photo you will need to focus. Push the down arrow

located to the right of the file display window until the notch is slightly below where it

should be then use the up arrow to position it. Fine adjustments are possible by

pushing the ‘Select’ button while the machine is in Z mode.



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Once the machine is focused push the ‘Z’ button again to send the cutter head

back home, replace the focus tool in it’s proper place and close the lid.

Press start.

mcgill university school of architecture laser cutter manual

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