Running the Laser Cutter
Our laser is an Epilog Fusion Maker 24". It does two different things to a material: it engraves by rastering an image across the surface line by line, and it cuts by following vector paths all the way through.
You must be certified before running it on your own. See Machine Certification.
There are instructions posted on the wall next to the laser, along with a separate material settings sheet. The wall is the quick reference while you're standing at the laser; this page is the longer version with the reasons attached. The material settings sheet only exists on paper at the machine — check it before cutting anything new.
Epilog's own documentation for this machine is thorough and current — the Fusion Maker support center is the reference. This page covers our machine, our ventilation, and our sequence.
Startup — every time, in this order
- Filtrabox on first. Never run the laser unvented, not even for a quick test.
- Laser on, and let it finish homing before you do anything else.
- Air assist on, for every job — engraving and cutting.
The order is the point. The extractor is running before anything can be burned, not turned on once you notice smoke.
The Filtrabox
The laser works by burning material, and everything it burns off has to be pulled out of the room rather than into it. That's the ExpandX Filtrabox fume extractor.
- It must be running before the laser fires, for the whole job.
- After every job, keep the lid closed and let the Filtrabox run one more minute. Hot material keeps giving off fumes after the beam stops, and that minute clears them before you open up.
No Filtrabox, no laser job — this isn't a step you skip because the cut is short. If the unit isn't running, is alarming, or sounds different than usual, stop and tell June (jpeters@universityprep.org).
Air assist
Air assist blows a stream of air at the point where the beam meets the material. It's on for every job, engraving and cutting alike.
Where you run it: the makerspace PC
The laser is driven only from the makerspace PC. You can't send a job to it from your own laptop, and there's no queue form for the laser the way there is for the 3D printers. Two Epilog programs do the work:
| Program | What it does |
|---|---|
| Epilog Laser Dashboard | The print driver — where you set speed, power, and raster vs. vector for the job |
| Epilog Job Manager | The queue — holds jobs sent to the laser, and lets you re-run a past job |
Job Manager keeping your past jobs is genuinely useful: when a setting worked on a material, the job is still there with those numbers attached, so the next run starts from something known instead of from a guess.
Step-by-step instructions for getting a job from Illustrator through Job Manager and starting it on the laser are coming soon. Until then, run your jobs with June nearby.
Getting your file to the PC
Laser files are DXF or SVG. From Fusion, that's a DXF of a sketch or of a sheet metal flat pattern; from Illustrator, export SVG or DXF. See Exporting Your Design for how.
- Upload your file to the shared folder.
- Log on to the makerspace PC using the puma@ account.
- In File Explorer, open the "Prints" folder listed in Favorites on the left to find your file.
Name your file with a version number, the same as any other machine file —
box-lid-v3.svg. See
Exporting Your Design.
Printing to the laser happens from Illustrator, and the shared puma@ account doesn't have an Illustrator license. Sign in to Illustrator with your own @universityprep.org account — see Adobe Creative Cloud.
We're still working out the cleanest way to combine the shared folder with your own Illustrator sign-in on the makerspace PC. Ask June if the steps above don't get you there.
Engraving: print the image to the laser
Raster engraving works by printing. Open the image in Illustrator, print it, and choose the laser as the printer — the Epilog Laser Dashboard comes up as the print settings dialog, and you set engrave speed and power there.
That's the whole mental model: the laser is a printer that burns instead of inking. Anything you can print, you can engrave.
Cutting: vector lines at 0.1 pt or smaller
The Dashboard decides whether a line gets cut or engraved by looking at how thick it is.
Vector lines from Illustrator must be 0.1 pt thick or smaller. A line at 0.1 pt or under is treated as a cut path and followed. A line any thicker is treated as artwork and rastered — so a shape you meant to cut out comes back as a burned outline on a piece that's still attached.
Illustrator's default stroke is 1 pt, so any line you draw without changing it will engrave instead of cut. Set the stroke weight on every cut line before you send the job, not after.
Bend lines from a Fusion sheet metal flat pattern stay in the file. They need their own settings on the laser so they score instead of cut.
Instructions for setting up scoring on bend lines are coming soon. Ask June before you run a flat pattern.
Epilog documents the vector setup in Sending Vector Jobs from Adobe Illustrator.
Materials
Never cut
- PVC, vinyl, or any unknown plastic. Burning PVC releases a corrosive gas that damages the machine and is dangerous to breathe. The vinyl cutter exists partly so nobody is tempted.
- Anything that isn't on the material settings sheet at the machine. Check with June (jpeters@universityprep.org) first.
- Anything still carrying tape, staples, or an unknown coating. Take them off before the piece goes on the bed.
"It's just plastic" covers materials that cut beautifully and materials that release something you don't want in the room, and you can't tell which by looking. That's what the settings sheet is for.
At the machine: placement and focus
Put your material near the center of the bed
Place your material as close to the center of the bed as you can, not tucked into the top left corner where the head parks.
The camera that handles alignment sits over the center of the bed. Straight below it, what the camera sees matches where the laser fires. Farther from the center, the camera is looking at your material at more of an angle, and the material's height shifts the image away from where the material really is — the same reason parallel lines seem to converge toward a vanishing point. The thicker the material and the farther from center, the more an engrave lands off target.
Focus the laser — the default setting doesn't
The laser has to be focused at the surface of your material, and the Epilog software defaults to Autofocus "off," which is rarely what you want. It is a default, not a recommendation. Pick one of the other two:
| Setting | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Plunger | The machine measures your material and sets the focus itself | The default choice — let the machine do it |
| Thickness | You type in the material thickness and the machine focuses to it | You know the thickness and the piece sits flat on the bed |
| Off | No focusing happens at all | Almost never — only with a reason you can say out loud |
Thickness assumes your material is sitting directly on the laser bed. If it's raised on anything — a jig, a scrap underneath, a warped board bowing up — the number you typed no longer describes where the surface actually is. Use Plunger instead.
An out-of-focus laser doesn't fail loudly. It cuts with a wider, weaker beam — so cuts don't go all the way through, edges come out rough, and engraves look soft. If a job comes back looking mushy, focus is the first thing to check.
While it's running
- Never leave the laser unattended. Not to grab something, not for a second. Stay in the room, with eyes on the job.
- Watch vector cuts closely. That's when a flare-up is most likely.
- A flame that doesn't go out on its own within a second or two means stop. See Fire response below.
Fire response
- Small flare-up that puts itself out: let the job finish, then tell June afterward.
- Flame that keeps going: hit the emergency stop button on top of the machine, use the extinguisher, and get June immediately.
Which extinguisher
There are two next to the laser, and they are not interchangeable. The one you want first is the one on the floor.
| Extinguisher | Where it is | Reach for it when |
|---|---|---|
| Halotron (clean agent) | On the floor, directly below the wall case | Anything burning in or on the laser — this is the default |
| ABC (dry chemical, powder) | Wall-mounted above it, in a case with a clear door | The fire has spread off the machine, or the Halotron didn't stop it |
Default to the Halotron. It evaporates and leaves no residue, so the machine survives. The ABC is better on burning wood, but its powder is corrosive and will finish off the laser — by the time it's the right call, the machine is already a loss and you're protecting the room instead.
Note that the obvious one is the wrong one. The ABC is at eye level in a case; the Halotron is on the floor. Under stress people grab what they can see, so this is worth looking at once, deliberately, before you ever need it.
The Halotron discharges for about nine seconds, total — two or three aimed bursts at the base of the flame, not a sustained spray. If it isn't out by then, stop fighting it: everyone out, pull the alarm, and let the fire department handle it.
Knowing which extinguisher is which before you need it is part of being certified on this machine, not something to work out during a fire.
After your job
- Keep the lid closed for the one-minute Filtrabox run before you open it.
- Check cut and engraved edges for smoldering before you pick the piece up and walk away with it.
- Don't stack or bag your piece right away. Charred edges hold heat longer than they look like they do.
- Clear your material and scraps off the bed for whoever's next.
Shutdown — end of period
- Laser off.
- Air assist off.
- Filtrabox off last, once the last job's one-minute run is done.
The Filtrabox goes on first and comes off last. It's running at every moment the laser could have put something in the air.
Always
- No touching the machine unless you're certified on it. Not certified yet? Ask June.
- Never open a panel or defeat a door interlock. The interlocks exist because the beam is invisible and does not care what's in its way.
- Don't look into the red pointer beam.
- Something smells wrong, sounds wrong, or looks wrong — stop and get June. Don't try to fix it yourself. Reporting a problem is never the thing that gets you in trouble.