Safety

• Check where the nearest fire extinguisher and fire blanket is (Ideally CO2).
• Only engrave or cut materials that are safe to be used with a laser cutter. Some materials like PVC create dangerous byproducts that can both damage the machine and cause serious personal injury.
• Never lean or apply pressure to the lasercutter's honeycomb bed, it can be easily damaged.
• Ensure the extraction filter is on in the basement before work is started.
• Never leave a running lasercutter unattended.
• In case of fire:
  • Turn off the machine using the black on/off button on the right hand side of the laser below the desk
  • If the fire is small remove the material from the machine and place it on a non-flammable surface (eg. concrete floor) and extinguish the fire.
  • If the fire is larger, or you feel unable to handle the situation, call for assistance from a member of staff, or… retrieve the nearest fire extinguisher, remove the safety pin from the handle. Stand to the side of the laser cutter and open the machines lid. Point the fire extinguisher towards the base of the fire. Squeeze the fire extinguiser's hand trigger and extinguish the fire.

Turning on the lasercutter

Firstly, make sure nothing is on the laser bed. Press the black on/off button on the right side of the machine below the desk. The screen will light up after around 30 seconds, the bed will lower and raise, and the laser head will calibrate in x and y direction by driving to the sensor on the right side of the machine. When it’s done calibrating (around a minute) it will move to the top left corner of the machine and the orange light will flash. Next step is calibrating the height of the bed (focus).

Calibrating the height of the bed

• Put your material on the bed of the machine

• On the touchpad, press the icon with the joystick on (4th from the left) - this will enable ‘jogging’ - moving the laser head around. Move the laser head (where the red dot shows) to above your material using the grey joystick. (Nb: you must be outside the first 20mm of the x and y axes)

  

• Press the “Auto Focus” button on the touchpad. The bed will automatically go up until the plunger for auto-focusing gets pressed. When it reaches the plunger the bed will slightly move down and the Z-height is calibrated. On the touchpad, press ‘Done’ to go back to the job menu.

• Pro-tip - click arrow to expand (only do this if you completely understand what this does)

• You’re now ready to send over your file from the computer.

Turning on extraction

If the filter is on in the basement, then the laser automatically starts the extraction when a job is started