Laser Cutting is easy.
LASER stands for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” – no “Z”
Basically electricity excites a mixture of gasses in a glass tube between two mirrors, and is directed by mirrors to the cutting head. Lasers get hot and cut things. Different materials require different levels of power and speed to cut. Our lasers can not cut metal, but they can cut flesh, so be careful.
You can “etch” a picture using a laser, which works like an old dot matrix printer, drawing one line at a time. JPEG files with high contrast work fine.
If you want to cut shapes, you need a “vector file”. We use open source cross platform software where ever possible. Inkscape works great with lasers. You can design or convert files using inkscape. You can read how to do that here.
Once you have your file in inkscape you can save it as a DXF which imports into the laser software. NOTE: not all DXF’s are equal. If you design on coral, ai or CAD, chances are your DXF will crash the laser software. Rather import into inkscape and save as DXF, and bring your original as an SVG so we can help worst case.
You are nearly ready to use a laser. Seriously, just a 1 hour orientation class on site and you will be operating the machine all on your own!
Read much more details on laser here:
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