Wiki
Overview
The laser cutting area of denhac is located in the workshop section of denhac, north of the garage. The area contains two denhac-owned laser cutters that are available for member use after members complete denhac’s laser authorization training course. Both laser cutters are CO2 lasers (one 70W and one 80W) and have cutting areas of 600 x 900 mm (23″ x 35″). Each laser cutter has a dedicated PC workstation running LightBurn software and other design tools. The laser cutters are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. As with all areas of denhac, members who use the area are responsible for keeping the area and equipment in good condition. Leave the area better than you found it.
Safety
The laser cutters at denhac use Class 4 lasers which are capable of producing severe injuries and starting fires. Only authorized denhac members are allowed to use the laser cutters. Members who want to become authorized to use the laser cutters must complete the denhac laser cutter authorization training. This training covers the fundamentals of safe usage of the laser cutters, but ultimately it is up to each laser cutter user to take responsibility for using the laser cutting area in a safe and responsible way.
Members can search for upcoming laser cutter authorization trainings and sign-up for them via the Events page. The content covered in the training can be found on the Laser Cutter Authorization Training page.
Equipment
Laser Cutters
The two denhac laser cutters are typically referred to as Blue Laser and White Laser. Both use CO2 laser tubes and have a cutting area of 600 x 900 mm (23″ x 35″). They are capable of cutting and engraving wood, acrylic, leather, and a few other materials. See the Allowed Laser Cutter Materials page for details. They are not capable of cutting or engraving metals, but they can be used to mark some metals by using special purpose coatings.
Blue Laser has an 80W laser and a lens that can cut up to 1/4″ deep into material. It has an adjustable bed height that allows for taller materials to be placed inside the cutter as well as some accessories, such as the rotary engraving tool.
White Laser has a 70W laser and a lens that can cut up to 1/8″ deep into material. It has a smaller spot size and is able to produce finer details than the Blue Laser, but it does not have an adjustable bed height.
Computers
The Laser Cutting Area as two PC workstations: one connected to Blue Laser and one connected to White Laser. Both PCs have dual-monitor setups and have full copies of LightBurn installed as well as a few graphics editing tools. Login to these computers is same as the other computers in denhac. They are also connected to denNAS for convenient file share access.
Accessories
The Blue Laser has a 4-Wheel Rotary Tool accessory which allows it to engrave cylindrical objects such as glassware and tumblers. Since the setup of this accessory requires fully removing the honeycomb bed and swapping internal motor wiring connections, this accessory is only available during dedicated days when the SIG has reserved the Blue Laser for rotary use exclusively.
Maintenance
As with all areas of denhac, leave the space better than you found it. Resources to clean the laser cutter mirrors can be found in the Laser Maintenance Cabinet.
Only authorized Laser Cutter Maintainers are allowed to perform repairs, modifications, and maintenance on the laser cutters. If you have not been authorized to perform maintenance on the laser cutters and you notice a problem with one of the laser cutters, post a message in the #help-laser-pew-pew Slack channel; DO NOT attempt to fix the laser cutters yourself. Maintainers, you can find details and resources specific to our laser cutters on the Laser Maintenance Schedule page.
Resources
Laser Scrap Bins
There are bins of laser scrap materials that are available to laser cutter users to take for their projects. If you have extra pieces of material that are large enough for others to use, consider contributing to the bins. But please (please please please), don’t just use them as your laser scrap trash bins. Only contribute regularly-sized scraps that have enough surface area to be useful. No tiny and/or crazy-shaped offcuts.
LightBurn
Members who would like to prepare their design files at home, or use LightBurn with their personal laser cutters, should check out the LightBurn page on our wiki for information about how denhac members can obtain personal-use copies of LightBurn.
Wiki
Other denhac wiki pages that are particularly useful for laser cutter users are:
Laser Cutting SIG
The Laser Cutting Special Interest Group (SIG) is the group that coordinates activities within the Laser Cutting Area and is responsible for the maintenance, governance, and administration of the laser cutting equipment, resources, and space at denhac. Additional information about the SIG can be found in the Laser Cutting SIG Charter. Members can participate in the SIG by joining the #sig-laser-cutting Slack channel. Agendas for upcoming Laser Cutting SIG meetings and notes from prior meetings can be downloaded from the denhac Google Drive here.