Difference between revisions of "Epilog 30w Mini 24 Laser Engraver"

Epilog 30w Mini 24 Laser Engraver
Owner/Loaner	PS:One
Serial Number	SERIAL NUMBER
Make/Model	Mini 24
Arrival Date	6/29/2011
Usability	yes
Contact	CNC Area Host
Where	Shock Shop
Authorization Needed	yes
Hackable	no
Estimated Value	$15,000
Host Area	{{{hostarea}}}

VisualWikitext

Revision as of 02:29, 14 October 2014

General Info

This machine: http://www.epiloglaser.com/mini24_overview.htm

Manual for this machine: http://www.epiloglaser.com/downloads/pdf/mini_helix_4.22.10.pdf

Settings for various materials

Laser Cutter Instructions and Workflow

Cleaning the optics: http://www.epiloglaser.com/tl_clean_optics.htm

Inkscape for newbies: http://blog.ponoko.com/2008/01/21/how-to-inkscape-for-ponoko-newbies-trace-an-image/

Ventilation

The Previous Ventilation Systems broke after where and tear. After some research, it was insufficient for our needs anyway.

Replacement parts for Air removal
Item	Price	Reference
Standard Heavy Duty Blower	$592.31	http://www.mcmaster.com/#1953k23/=skexxp

NEVER CUT THESE MATERIALS

PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride): Also known as "vinyl" "pleather" or "artificial leather." Most adhesive vinyl shelf paper (e.g. Con-Tact Paper) also is PVC. Emits HCl and nasty chlorinated compounds when cut! Don't ever cut this material as it will ruin the optics, cause the metal of the machine to corrode, and ruin the motion control system.
Polycarbonate: Also known as "Lexan." Polycarbonate is also often found as flat, sheet material. The case cover window on the laser cutter is made of Polycarbonate because polycarbonate strongly absorbs infrared radiation! This is the frequency of light the laser cutter uses to cut materials, so it is very ineffective at cutting polycarbonate. Polycarbonate can also emit flame and chlorine gas when cut, making it a poor choice for laser cutting.
ABS: ABS does not cut well in a laser cutter. It tends to melt rather than vaporize, and has a higher chance of catching on fire and leaving behind melted gooey deposits on the vector cutting grid. It also does not engrave well (again, tends to melt). Finally, ABS emits cyanide when cut.
HDPE: "milk bottle" plastic. It melts. It gets gooey. It catches on fire. Don't use it.
PolyStyrene Foam: It catches fire, it melts, and only thin pieces cut. This is the #1 material that causes laser fires!!!
Fiberglass: It's a mix of two materials that can't be cut. Glass (etch, no cut) and epoxy resin (fumes)
Coated Carbon Fiber: Again, it's a mix of two materials. Thin carbon fiber mat can be cut, with some fraying. However, once coated with epoxy it will emit noxious fumes.
Silhouette magnet paper (sold by Inventables by example): it likely contains chlorine. Emits HCl and nasty chlorinated compounds when cut! Don't ever cut this material as it will ruin the optics, cause the metal of the machine to corrode, and ruin the motion control system.
PTFE:, also known as Teflon or any fluorinated polymer it will releases nasty fluorinated compounds (bad for you) and sublimate then deposit on the lenses (likely destroying them).
Gator foam: foam core gets burned and eaten away compared to the top and bottom hard paper shell. Not a fantastic thing to cut, but it can be cut if watched. And the MSDS sheet says it may produce hydrogen bromide and hydrogen chloride known to degrade the optics and mechanic of the cutter
Any other plastic with "Chlor" or "Fluor" in the name, for the same reasons as PVC and PTFE above.

Test for material

Some people came up with an easy protocol to help identify unknown polymers: Nyc Resistor - how to identify polymers with burnination. We don't know how reliable it is. And we can't but recommend to do that under good ventilation (outside?)

Safe Materials

The laser can cut or etch. The materials that the laser can cut materials like wood, paper, cork, and some kinds of plastics. Etching can be done on almost anything, wood, cardboard, aluminum, stainless steel, plastic, marble, stone, tile, and glass.

Cutting
- Many woods up to 1/4" thick. Composite woods like plywood contain glue, and may not laser cut as well as solid wood. Engineered woods like MDF are okay to use but may experience a higher amount of charring when cut. Be very careful about cutting oily woods, or very resinous woods as they also may catch fire.
- Paper cuts very very well on the laser cutter, and also very quickly. Thin paper and single layer card stock and cardboard are perfectly OK. Thicker cardboard, carton, and other papers also cut very well but need to be watched to make sure they don't catch fire.
- Cork cuts nicely, but the quality of the cut depends on the thickness and quality of the cork. Engineered cork has a lot of glue in it, and may not cut as well. Cork thicker than 1/4" should be avoided.
- Acrylic (also known as Lucite, Plexiglas, PMMA) cuts extremely well on the laser cutter, leaving a beautifully polished edge. With care, acrylic material up to 1/2" thick can be cut on the laser cutter.
- Delrin (POM) in thin sheets does cut. Delrin comes in a number of shore strengths (hardness) and the harder delrin tends to work better. Great for gears!
- Kapton tape (Polyimide) : Works well, in thin sheets and strips like tape. 1/16" thick is about as thick as you can cut reliably.
- Mylar : Works well if it's thin. Once you get too far past 1/16" thick mylar has a tendency to warp, bubble, and curl. Gold coated mylar will not work.
- Solid Styrene : Smokes a lot when cut, but can be cut. Keep it thin (1/16")
- Depron foam: Used a lot for hobby, RC aircraft, architectural models, and toys. 1/4" cuts nicely, with a smooth edge. Must be constantly monitored when cutting.
- Cloth (leather, suede, felt, hemp, cotton, polyester, but NEVER vinyl or pleather-- see above) They all cut well. Leather is very hard to cut, but can be if it's thinner than a belt (call it 1/8")
- Magnetic Sheet material cuts beautifully (make SURE it does NOT contain chlorine, see above)
- NON-CHLORINE containing rubber is fine for cutting.
- Carbon fiber mats/weave that has not yet had epoxy applied can be cut, very slowly. You must not cut carbon fiber that has been coated!!
Etching: all the above can be etched, in some cases very deeply. In addition, you can etch:
- Glass (green seems to work best) .. looks sandblasted. Only FLAT GLASS can be engraved in our cutter. No round or cylindrical items.
- Ceramic tile
- Anodized aluminum ( vaporizes the anodization away )
- Painted/coated metals ( vaporizes the paint away )
- Stone : Marble, Granite, Soapstone, Onyx. Gets a white "textured" look when etched
Marking

There expensive coating called 'cermark'. This marking compound costs $100 for a small bottle, and must be diluted with ethanol and applied to metal (not ceramics or stone) before being etched to leave behind a permanent dark black mark.

Material sources

Inventables for acrylic
Abbey Specialties for acrylic in varied sizes, this company is our landlord. They are in the other half of our building and if you ask they can drop off in our shared loading dock.

Air assist

Air assist is used for vector cutting to have nice traces and avoid your material to burn. However some people like to have it disabled for raster jobs. The best is to use the pressure regulator on the left of the machine to put it on/off. Don't forget to put it off when you've finished and you don't need it while doing your settings, that's just making our air compressor work too much.

If you hear a hiss behind the machine, it's that the valve is closed and that Air assist will not work'… You have to stop the job and then:

Hit config (2)
Left key until "Air assist vector" put On with Up key (You shouldn't have to put Off here as you just have to put the compressor off if you really need that)
Left key until "Air assist raster" put On with Up key.

You should not have to touch these settings, especially because it confuses the users and it can make them destroy their material or cause fire. Default settings should be On and On for both.

General references

incredible box maker, with holes and text: http://www.makercase.com/

parametric pdf box creator: http://boxmaker.rahulbotics.com/

parametric svg box creator: http://www.giplt.nl/svg/ (load > construction category > better box)

Ladyada's info on the proper application of laser beams: http://www.ladyada.net/wiki/laserinfo/equipment

Information on materials that can and can't be cut: http://www.pololu.com/docs/0J24/3

paramateric living hinge generator: http://www.ashanan.com/hinges/ (code at: https://github.com/ashanan/hinges)

python svg library written by Toba: https://github.com/eastein/svgcuts

parametric flexbox generator: http://flexbox.herokuapp.com/

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/08/how-to-lasercut-custom-bo.html - Laser cut boxes

PS:One Logo

Long-ass list of laser designs on Thingiverse

Software Compatability

Note: this indicates success in using this software with the printer driver, not general capabilities about the software itself.

Software type	Manufacturer	File extensions	Raster (engraving)	Vector (cutting)	Other notes
CorelDraw	Corel	cbr	yes	yes	not available on machine
Illustrator CC	Adobe	ai, eps, svg, pdf	yes	yes	available on machine
Photoshop CC	Adobe	psd, eps, pdf	yes	yes	available on machine
Inkscape	Open Source		yes	yes	save as PDF, then print from Acrobat. works for bitmap and vector.

Notes on Software Compatibility

Adobe Illustrator and the epilog drivers don't always work great together. If you're experiencing any of the following, there is a simple fix:

Job runs, but it's an empty run. Laser head moves once then completes, even though raster vs vector is correctly configured and stokes are set to 0.072pt.
Updating the media size in the epilog print driver does not update the size in Illustrator's print dialog, unless you reopen settings and press 'OK' in epilog again another time or two.
Open pressing print in Illustrator, you get a message about "nothing to print in selected layers" or similar.
Media size entered in epilog driver is read as the reverse by Illustrator (e.g. 24x12 is seen as 12x24 by Illustrator)

It seems epilog's driver doesn't play nicely with Illustrator, and Illustrator interfaces with the print driver a lot because it micromanages a lot of things. If your document is saved as a .AI with PDF compatibility, simply right-click your AI file and open with Adobe Reader instead of Adobe Illustrator, and print from there.

Adobe Reader has a much more "dumbed down" print dialog that just works with Epilog's driver. You don't have to resave your .AI as .PDF, as Adobe Reader can read .AI files saved in compatibility mode (that's the default).

Known issues

Can't login

The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed

main page The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed
- Might be fixed now
- Occasional workaround: reboot

I was certified a long time ago

You need to

Be a Current Member
Have a https://members.pumpingstationone.org account
Talk to a recommended certifier, The area host, or email [email protected]

You may be asked to get recertified.

List of Currently Certified Users

This list is hugely incomplete because nobody was doing it. Someone should fix that eventually... for now, new certs should go in here. If you are certified and remember who certified you, go ahead and add yourself. Your non-presence on this list is not intended to insult you or your relatives.

Qualified Member	Trained By	Username on Laser Computer
Nat Zorach	Will McShane	lequis
Anthony Sontag	Elizabeth	anthony
Will McShane	Danger Committee	Will McShane
Eric Stein	Will McShane	Eric Stein
Patrick Schless	Will McShane	Patrick Schless
Laurie Rich	Steve	Laurie Rich
Tom Forajter	Will McShane	Forajter
Colin Parsons	Patrick Swayze (RIP)	colin
Andrew Camardella	Colin Parsons	rtystgeeke
Dan Locks	Colin Parsons	dwlocks
Mahmoud Al-Qudsi	Colin Parsons	mqudsi
Lauren Conroy	Colin Parsons	lconroy
Jesse Seay	Colin Parsons	jesseseay
Sai Yamanoor	Colin Parsons	sai
Hef	Colin Parsons	hef
Adam Talsma	Colin Parsons	atalsma
Josh Cooper	Colin Parsons	thisjosh
Bryan Rosendale	Colin Parsons	bryan
Kevin Caughlin	Colin Parsons	kevin
Nathan Becka	Colin Parsons	nathan
Stephen Kamykowski	Colin Parsons	stephen
Jesse Seay	Colin Parsons	jesseseay
Bart Dring	Colin Parsons	bdring
Mike Morarity	Colin Parsons	morarimj
Tony Dipaolo	Colin Parsons	td3710
Adrew An	Colin Parsons	hyun5942
Dean Anderson	Colin Parsons	dba5950
Francesca Slade	Colin Parsons	theslade
David Fell	Colin Parsons	DavidFell
Jay Pee	Elizabeth	Jaypee
Peter Borah	Elizabeth	peterbb
April	Elizabeth	april
Ray Doeksen	Elizabeth	Ray Doeksen
Jason Shanfield	Will McShane	jason
Elizabeth Koprucki	Will McShane	ekoprucki
George Shaw	Will McShane	ps1george
Andrew Kos	Elizabeth Koprucki	kand
Derek Bever	Elizabeth Koprucki	dbever
Jason Araujo	Derek Bever	lobo
Adam Glick	Ray Doeksen
Nathan Ellis	Jason Shanfield
Rob Riggs (Colorado Rob)	Elizabeth	rob
Arturo Duarte	Elizabeth Koprucki	ad9581
James Porter	Elizabeth Koprucki	jivnyahoo
Ryan Kelly	Elizabeth Koprucki	ryankelly11
Sloan Lavery	William McShane	Sloanieb01
Casey Olson	Jason Shanfield	colson
Spenser Gilliland	Elizabeth Koprucki	spenser
Jeff McBride	Elizabeth Koprucki	lgaboarder
Joseph Prosnitz	Colin Parsons	binaryproof
David Morton	Elizabeth Koprucki	mediumcool
Thomas Wright	Elizabeth Koprucki	fluxx66
Touly Phiachantharath	Elizabeth Koprucki	toolz
Robert Grossman	Elizabeth Koprucki	rgrossman7
Eddie Muela	Elizabeth Koprucki	emuela
Rachel Wallis	Elizabeth Koprucki	rachelw
Nick Halderman	Elizabeth Koprucki	emertonom
Eric Beauchamp	Jason Shanfield	ericbeau
Aaron Mintz	Elizabeth Koprucki
Matt Makris	Elizabeth Koprucki	mlm
Roger Moore	Elizabeth Koprucki	RogerMoore
Michael Leinartas	Elizabeth Koprucki	mleinartas

Certifying users

The laser cutter now has recommended certifiers. A recommended certifier can follow the instructions on Laser Engraver Certification to enable logins to the laser engraver computer.

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 [[Laser Cutter Instructions and Workflow]]
-[[Laser cutter reservation system]]
 Cleaning the optics: http://www.epiloglaser.com/tl_clean_optics.htm