Laser cutting is a great way to make thin sheet metal parts. Tolerances are almost as good as you can get, and it’s super fast. We do not have a metal laser cutter on campus, but will have access to the EXP waterjet eventually. As a temporary solution, Sofia’s co-op (Saturday Robotics) has kindly offered to let us use their laser cutter. Read below for info on the process of using the Saturday laser and instructions on how to prepare files.

What Can be Laser Cut

The laser cutter at Saturday is a FabLight FL4500. Their website shows material types and maximum thicknesses for the laser. If your material is not on their list, Sofia can email them to ask.

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The dimensions of the bed are 25” x 50”. Make sure your part can fit that.

Process of Laser Cutting at Saturday

Material

Saturday is not offering us material, so make sure you purchase sheet metal of the correct specs for your parts and check that all of your parts will fit on it. Also make sure aluminum parts are 6061. Whenever possible, try to share stock with other projects to avoid wasting sheet metal/save money.

Sofia will need to be the one doing the laser cutting since she has Saturday shop training. Sofia however does not have a car, so someone will need to

a. drive her to work in the morning with the stock and pick her up the same day around 6PM from Watertown (PREFFERED)

b. come to Watertown at 5PM with the stock and hang out in the parking lot or drive around nearby until she is done cutting everything and then drive her home

If you yourself do not have a car, reach out to people with cars that also need laser cut parts so your things can all be done in one trip. If you do have your own car, please reach out in #manufacturing and #leads to see if anyone else has stock you can bring in for them.

File Preparation

The FabLight has its own software that will help you create your file to laser cut. It is quite easy to use, and there are instructions for it below. Please have the FabLight files ready and on a USB drive for Sofia before it is time for her to cut the parts.

You will also need to fill out a page on this Google Sheet so Sofia knows the material, quantity, priority, and material for each part.

Getting FabCreator

Installing FabCreator

You will need a Windows computer to run FabCreator. Reach out to Sofia Varner on Slack for her to send you the installer and the database.

1. Download and open the file from Sofia (FabCreator-2.20.41_x64). Your computer may tell you it has blocked the installer; if this is the case, click “more info” then “Run Anyways”.

2. Agree to the license agreement. It is up to you if you want to click “Install for anyone” or “Install for me”.

3. Pick a destination folder; the default one is probably fine. Select both boxes on the “choose components” step and click “Install”. This will run the installer.

Adding in the Database

1. Click the “Edit” tab at the top, then click “Preferences from the dropdown”.

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2. Click the “Material Database” tab at the top of the the General page. Next to FL4500 (the last of the 3), click the 3 dots.

3. In the file browser that pops up, find the second file Sofia sent you that ends in db. It should have the same name as the one in the screenshot above and will likely be in your downloads folder.

4. Click “Apply” then “Okay”. You are now done with FabCreator setup!

Preparing A File to Import to FabCreator

Your FabCreator file is going to be 2D, so anything that is a line of some sort WILL be in the FabCreator file to be cut. Make sure split lines are suppressed.

1. Open the part in SolidWorks.

2. Do a Save As of the part

   1. If you are prompted to save a copy, hit cancel and it will be fine

3. In file explorer, go to the project PDM folder, and make a “Laser Cuts” folder if there is not one already. This is where we will be saving the DXFs and FabCreator files. Set the file type to .dxf and click “save” into the Laser Cuts folder.

4. Click the “Faces / loops / edges” option, then select the face that you would like laser cut. It will be blue. Once you have made the selection you want, click the check mark.

5. Take a look at your part in the Cleanup preview. Make sure there are no lines that you don’t want cut/engraved in your part. Click “Save”.

Getting your File Ready in FabCreator

1. Click the Import icon. Select the dxf file you would like to laser cut.

2. Make sure the units are set to Inches.

3. SolidWorks does this ANNOYING thing where it adds the solidworks to your DXFs. Make sure to delete this by deleting the two tags that auto-populate the Engrave folder.

4. To engrave or raster something, click the lines/polylines you would like as your engraving. In the menu on the left, click and drag the selected lines into the correct folder. They will change color on the preview. Make sure lines you want cut are green, engraves are red, and rasters are blue.

   1. Rasterring takes so long. Please try to engrave instead whenever possible.

   2. Also keep in mind, as easy as engraving is, almost everything on our car ends up getting spray painted black, so engraves are pretty much not visible. (Unless they are used to help with something pre-spray paint, like labeling a welded part)

5. Click the “Edit” tab (next to part, NOT the one next to File) if you need to move or rotate your part. Rotating your part can make it easier to fit more parts on your sheet metal.

6. Click the “Properties” tab. Make sure your Database is FL4500, your material is correct, and your thickness is correct (IN INCHES). If your material thickness is not an option in the drop down, it cannot be laser cut without special permission (talk to Sofia).

7. DOUBLE CHECK STEP 6.

8. Click Accept. This will automatically move you to the “Process” tab.

9. In the process tab, you will want to check your kerf compensation and add tabs. Kerf compensation is how the laser cutter takes into account the material that the laser is burning through (like when you cut something with a hack saw, some material is lost). The white line marks where the center of the laser will go. MAKE SURE THAT ON INTERNAL FEATURES LIKE HOLES THE WHITE IS INSIDE THE GREEN. MAKE SURE THAT ON EXTERNAL FEATURES LIKE THE OUTER EDGE OF THE PART THE WHITE IS OUTSIDE THE GREEN. You will need to zoom in a good bit on your part to check this. When done, click “Tabs”.

10. Tabs are so that when you cut out a feature in your part, it doesn’t twist/stick up and create an obstacle that the laser can hit while moving around. Tabs are just tiny gaps in your cut so that the part stays stuck to your sheet. Make sure you do not add too many tabs on one feature to prevent your part from being really hard to separate from the stock. Here are some tips for adding tabs:

    1. The outline of your part should have 3 tabs on it. Make sure they are spaced out as far from each other as you can get them.

    2. For internal features, if the feature is more than about 1” wide or tall, add 1-2 tabs on it (depending on how large it is). If the feature is smaller than that, it is okay to not put tabs on it (teeny features will just fall through the bed and not cause a risk of the laser hitting them).

11. To add tabs, click on the lines where you want to add them. A pink dot will show up. Click “Done” on the left when you are done.

    1. If you add a tab by accident, click “Delete” and then click the spot where you accidentally added the tab. Make sure to click “Insert” again when you are ready to add more tabs.

12. Lastly, hit the “Job” tab and click “Make and Save”. Save the part to your laser cutting folder.

Adding More Parts

Make sure you are only doing this if you have a designated piece of sheet metal for your project. It is helpful for Sofia if you put multiple parts in one file, just make sure you do not extend past the size of the sheet you gave her (orientation matters) and that there is a blank sheet with space to cut your whole file.

1. Click the Import icon again. In the window that comes up, click “Add”.

2. Select the file. If you are doing a repeat of a part you just put into FabCreator, use the FabCreator file instead of the DXF to save some time.

3. Go to the “Edit” tab. Click “Move” to make your part fit well on the bed. Click on the part you have just added to adjust its position.

4. Click OK, then repeat the steps from before.

   1. If you are adding another FabCreator file to your file, tabs will automatically duplicate.

   2. Make sure to save this file under a different name so you don’t lose the file with just the original part in case you need it.

Getting the File to the Laser Cutter

There is a USB drive in the laser cutter. You can either put your files on a USB and give it to Sofia or send them to her in a zip file.

PLEASE ADD A PAGE TO THIS EXCEL/GOOGLE DOC WITH EACH FILE NAME, THE MATERIAL/THICKNESS IT NEEDS TO BE CUT ON, THE OUTER DIMENSIONS OF THE FILE, AND THE QUANTITY NEEDED. COPY A TAB AT THE BOTTOM FOR EVERYTHING YOU ARE SENDING AT ONCE.