SALA

TROTEC SPEEDY-300 60 WATT LASER CUTTER

 
Trotec Speedy-300 Laser Cutter  
   

Location
Landscape annex – bike room.

Access
Annex key needed to enter the LARC annex.

Materials
We can cut:

  • Any paper or card stock
  • Acrylic
  • Plywood
  • Solid basswood, jelutong etc.

Because of the toxicity of the fumes we don't cut:

  • PVC = polyvinyl chloride (e.g. white plastic plumbing pipe)
  • ABS = Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (e.g. black plastic plumbing pipe)
  • PVA = polyvinyl acetate
  • Polystyrene (e.g. Styrofoam)
  • Polyurethane
  • Polycarbonate (e.g. Lexan)
  • In general, the stuff they sell at Home Depot will not work, even though they will tell you it's acrylic. It will only melt and turn brown.
  • The thin DURALAR sheets they sell at DeSerres with the blue covering will also not work.

Maximum horizontal dimensions of material: 16” x 28” (400mm x 710mm).

Maximum thickness: ¼” (6mm).


Introduction
This device, (a Trotec “Speedy 300”), can quickly and accurately engrave or 2D cut material using energy from a CO2 laser.

  • Etching works by sweeping the laser back and forth and firing it only where it needs to mark the material. Etching can use bitmaps or vectors of any width.
  • When cutting the laser follows the line firing continuously.
  • Material can be scored by following the lines as if to cut, but at a lower power; this is often faster than etching.

To prepare files for the laser:

  1. Bitmaps should be converted to grayscale.
  2. All objects and layers not to be processed should be deleted. There should be nothing in the file that is not necessary for the laser job.
  3. Create a separate file for each job.
  4. Use layers:
    • One layer for all lines to be cut through (coloured RGB=255,0,0).
    • One layer (if necessary) for all lines to be scored (coloured RGB=255,0,0).
    • One layer (if necessary) for all lines (coloured RGB=0,0,0) or bitmaps (grayscale) to be etched.
  5. Vectors (lines) should be either pure red (RGB=255,0,0) if they are to be cut or pure black (RGB=0,0,0) if they are to be etched.
  6. All objects must be in 2D only! Please move them to 0 in the Z axis and close to the origin.
  7. The objects should be scaled to the size they are to be cut. (Vectorworks users this means scaling the actual objects and not the working scale.
  8. Orient job so that it is landscape.
  9. Export as Adobe Illustrator CS (best), pdf (second best) or dwg/dxf.

Note: Because it uses heat to cut the edges of parts created in paper and wood will have a dark, burnt appearance.

Availability
The laser is available 15 periods a week: there are morning, afternoon and evening slots - see online sign-up calendar.

Fee
The cost is $0.30/min with a $5.00 minimum charge.

Online Sign-up
http://booking.sala.ubc.ca/output