There are many types of laser cutters such as Fiber Laser and CO2 Laser Cutters. But the laser cutter that is provided in the lab and which we are going to use is called CO2 Laser Cutter.

As a part of the assignment group, we have to test the Laser Cutting Machine before using it.

We wanted to test how the changing the power and speed will affect the engraving of the material.

To do this test I used RDWorks software, I mentioned the drawing steps before in Computer-Aided Design week/ 2D drawing section.

This is the shape to be generated to test the laser cutter, where the power changes vertically while the speed changes horizontally.

For the outline I used Cut option to be cut, while the small squares I used the Scan option to engrave material, and here is a short video to see how to change from Cut to Scan.

After uploading the drawing, choosing a material with the right size, it should be placed on the working area to operate the laser cutter.

This is the final shape zoomed to show the result clearly.

As shown clearly in the image, increasing the power with low speed will engrave the largest amount of material, while operating with high speed and low power will result in a very small amount of engraving.

As an individual assignment, each student had to do simple parts to be cut using the laser machine, and the parts should have a geometry where it can be joint togather.

To do this, I used Fusion360 software to do a simple sketch. I explained my steps in drawing in the following video.

Notice that I used change parameters option to set the dimensions. This will make it easier to change the dimensions without re-sketching, espacially when I choose the material to be cut, where the slot should have the same thinkness of the material to fit and join.

After choosing the material, I measured it thickness using a vernier caliper which was 1.15 mm. So, I had to change the size of the slot, and I can do this by just changing the parameters rather than changing each slot individualy.

After drawing this shape, I saved it, and then import it to RDWorks. I faced a problem to save in Fusion360 due to the limitations of the package I downloaded, so I saved the sketch as the following.

I then uploaded the file from RDWorks to the machine after specifing the parameters required from the laser machine. The machine has a small monitor with a screen as shown in the following photo.

press on File, then search for th file you saved, and then pressEnter to see your file on the screen.

On the screen you can see a small table containing, file name, speed, and power.

After placing the material on the working area, the bed underneath can be moved either down or up to have the perfect distance far from the laser edge. Which should be 8mm between the edge and the material. This could be done easily by pressing the Z button.

Also, there are some buttons that we will be using to process, such as:

1. Origin: to set the origin of the laser edge, this is done easily by pressing on the arrows and then press on Origin.
2. Frame: to frame the area where the laser cutter will be moving to cut as shown in the following video, this will enable us to know if the material used is enough and place in the right position.
3. St/Pau: when you are done with the pre-cutting process press on this button to start cutting.

The following video shows the machine while it operating and how it is moving smoothly to cut the material according to the input design.

This is the final shape I got after the laser machine stopped operating. As you can see the parts are perfectly cut and ready to be removed.

As you can see in the picture below, I could not remove all the parts perfectly and the is maybe referring to low power or the material needed two passes to be cut. So, I used a blade to cut the edges an make them smooth.

At the end, I was able to assamble these parts and do different shapes such as:

*The 3D file of this design can be downloaded from here.

To practice the laser cutter more, I wanted to do an Acrylic stand. So I searched for an example and I found a Laser Cut Rocket Coaster Template File.

So, I downloaded the files, and then opened them on RDWorks to upload the design to the laser cutter.

When I opened the files, the size of the design changed.So, I had to resize everything according to the Acrylic workpiece provided in the lab, which has a thickness of 3 mm approximatly.

I used different colors to determine where the laser cutter should cut and where it will engrave, where in this design it will cut in the color red while the other colors are to engrave.

For the part be cut, I used the parameter library that has built in parameters for different materials with different thichness. It is written that the laser cutter should go through two passes over the same bath with the give parameters to cut the material perfectly.

For the parts to be engraved I did a small test before to determine which parameters I should use.

*I applied two settings, 25% power and 200 speed and I got the result in the upper circle, while the other setting is having 20% power and 450 speed as in the lower circle.



*I choosed the first setting, as you can see espacially in the seconf circle there is a black color. This is because the laser burnt the protective layer found on the Acrylic, knowing that, I removed this layer before operating the machine to avoid the burning.

I also did a test to check the perfect fit according to the material thickness. As shown in the pictures I tried different slot thicknesses in a small acrylic part.

I repeated the same steps mentioned before to set up the machine, and then I oprated the machine.

The whole process took 1:30 hr to compelete, where the engraving took most of the time.

For the clouds part, I coulf not use engrave because it is a curve, and the engrave can work if there is a space between two curves. So, I used the same settings of the cut but without repeating.

When the machine stopped operating, I removed and seperated each part (6 parts) as the following.

*I wrote my name using a sticker I printed using a Vinyl Cutter which I will be explaining later.

Finally, I placed each part in the right place to have this final shape acrylic stand

*The 3D file of this design can be downloaded from here.

Vinyl Cutter is a type of Computer Controlled Machining that is used to cut shapes and letters from a sheet.
The machine found in the lab called Cricut, it is easy to use and has different tools that will make the cutting process successful.


To make your design and use the machine an app called Cricut should be downloaded.

To practice the Vinyl Cutter, each student should create a design and cut it using the machine

I opened Cricut app and designed a sticker with my name to stick it on the rocket stand I dicussed earlier.

I selected the text option to write as shown in the picture, I had to do the dot again because it was very small.

Afterthat, I pressed on Make it when I was done with the text.

This step is to prepare the Mat, put it in the right place of the machine and select the write size of your mat.

*At this step you can see the projection of your design on the mat.

Press on Continue to go to the next step.

This page is showing the steps to make the design:

1. Base material set to Vinyl: choose the material you want to cut and place it on the mat as the following.




2. Tools and material loaded: make sure that the right tool is loaded which is Fine-point blade.
3. Press Go: press Go button on the machine to start the cutting process.

Once you are done with these steps, the machine will start cutting.

This is the sticker resulted.

As you can see some of the material can not be removed easily so I used this tool to remove any extra material.

Finally, I removed the text and stick it on the stand.