Laser, Rabbit

Rabbit has been retired and donated to our friends at the Amherst Makerspace. Rabbit has been replaced by the newer, upgraded Epilog Fusion Pro 48

The Laser Cutter/Engraver is a 80 Watt QX-1290

Basic specs are:

- Laser-type: Sealed Glass
- Laser power: 80W (special order for other wattages)
- Working area: 47.2 x 35.4 inches (1200 x 900 mm)
- Motorized Worktable with about 9.45 inches (24cm)of usable height
- Engraving speed: 0-60,000mm/min
- Max cutting speed: 0-36,000mm/min
- Location precision: less than 0.01mm
- Highest scanning precision: 50-1000DPI
- Minimum shaping character: English 1.0 x 1.0mm
- Graphic format supported: BMP,JPG,GIF,HPGL,NC,PLT,DST,DXF,AI ...
- Controlling software: LaserCut 5.3 and Leetro 6565 DSP control system.
- Compatible software: TAJIMA , CorelDraw, AutoCAD, Photoshop

Rules and Policies

- See this document for rules and policies of laser use

Help/Contacts

Brad Goodman is the resource manager and can be reached at laser@makeitlabs.com
- Check out the #resource-laser-cutter channel on Slack for real-time conversation
- Won't focus on thin materials? - Read This

Training

Official training is mandatory before you will be allowed to use the laser. For more info see Laser Training Page

Here is the Training Document given out in class.

A video of the comprehensive introduction to LaserCut 5.3, the software which runs the laser can be viewed HERE.

Some supplemental training is available on YouTube. It will be most valuble after taking the in-person basic authorization class above:

Basic Engraving
Rotary Tool
- Full Spectrum (the other laser)

Access Control

As of January 20th, 2019, the Rabbit Laser now uses our home-grown RFID access control platform called "RATT." This video shows how RATT works with the laser cutter.

January 22, 2019: RATT can currently only detect that you've homed the laser once you've badged in and it's telling you to home it. If you power up the laser and home it before you badge in, RATT won't realize the laser has been homed and will still require you to do so when you badge in. Until I can make some changes and test them, the sure-fire way to do things is to follow these steps:

1. Power on laser
2. Badge into RATT with your RFID
3. RATT will tell you to home the gantry - press XY-0
4. Proceed with your cutting/engraving
5. Log out (optional, RATT also detects shutting off laser power as a logout)
6. Home laser
7. Power off laser
8. Clean up!

NOTE: if you log out (or are timed out due to inactivity), but don't shut the laser off, it will not need to be re-homed when you log in again. Basically just pay attention to what the display says when you log in, if you need to home it, it will say so, otherwise you'll be ready to go. This is covered in the video above.

Documentation

The following manuals will give you a better idea about operation of the machine and software, but they are not 100% correct, and official training is MANDATORY before you will be allowed to use the machine.

LaserCut 5.3 Software Manual

Laser machine Operator's Manual

Guide to using the Rotary Attachment.

A full list of manuals and tutorials can be found here

Software

LaserCut 5.3 is the "official" software, which is required to prepare a design for cutting/engraving, and to operate the laser itself. See documentation (above) for more information.

How to install/use a slighty limited version of LaserCut 5.3 on your own machine.

Design Software

Just as there is a big difference between knowing how to operate a typewriter, and knowing how to write the next great novel - there is a big gap between knowing how to operate a laser (and it's software) and designing something cool for it.

Though LaserCut (above) is required to operate the laser, it offers only minimal, "clunky" design abilities.

Operating the laser is just the beginning. To get the most of out it and to unlock your full design potential, you'll need some better design tools and practices. Fortunately, there are plenty of great, free ones available.

Troubleshooting

See new Troubleshooting Page