Owner`s manual

d. Move these new vectors in X and Y on your drawing, up .01‖ and to the left by 0.015‖ (add -
0.015 to X and +0.01 in Y in the SIZE-POSITION window). This accounts for this machine‘s
AZ/EL (L/R) offset per 1.0‖ out-of-focus for our printer.
e. Vector-cut only that unique color at 2x to 4x speed, same power or a half to a quarter of total
power.
f. Return the floor back to the normal focus height.
13. Bending acrylic, Delrin or polycarbonate:
This method can produce a near-perfect bend in acrylic or polycarbonate by using the laser to
heat only portions of the plastic. The downside might be a weaker section of plastic at the bend.
Experiment. The following works for 1/16‖ polycarbonate:
a. Cut out the part using regular cutting procedures. Keep the plastic‘s protective layers on when
cutting but remove for bending.
b. Lower the workpiece 2‖ below focus position by using the FOCUS buttons.
c. Draw two lines 1/16‖ apart, slightly longer (~1/8‖ longer on each end) than the place you want
to bend. Draw the first line top down (or right to left) and the second, 1/16‖ away, bottom up
(or left to right). Select these two lines and copy/paste 19 times. Select these 19 copies, place
atop the original 2 lines, and group all 20 copies—40 lines total—together. This will cause the
laser cutter to apply non-cutting heat in the area of the line without having the head retrace. Cut
at 30 percent power and 45 percent speed for 1/16‖ polycarbonate.
d. Immediately remove plastic and bend to desired position.
e. For multiple bends, it‘s best to do one bend at a time (change the color of the other bend places
to a non-cutting color). Make sure the head won‘t hit the piece.
f. It‘s great for making project boxes. Because any bending will consume a portion of the
material, you will have to account for the material used in the bending. Experiment first.
14. Making Lenses: Crude optical lenses can be made by rasterizing shapes in clear acrylic. Describe the
lens‘ Z-shape as a black-and-white gray-scale image—the darker the image, the deeper the
engrave/cut—and engrave in 3-D, out of focus. Use Photoshop to describe a radially symmetric shape.
A radial linear gradient from white to black, with black in the center, will produce a conical concave
shape. Change the gradient profile, using Adjust/Image/Levels, to approximate a circular arc to achieve
a spherical lens output. Try cutting 1‖ (long) out of focus at 150 PPI, with power = 100 percent and
speed=30 percent. Change to 3D in Print Properties. Shift the image by X = -0.015‖ and Y=+0.01‖ to
compensate for the lateral angular shift when 1.0‖ out of focus. This will create a negative lens with a
~0.05‖ Z depth in clear acrylic. Return the Print Properties to Normal.
15. Cutting thin materials: As the part is cut out, it might fly away, making it difficult to find and creating
the potential for interference with subsequent cuts. Install a small ―tag‖ on the lower part of the outer-
most cutout; a ~0.015‖ void in the cutout vector should work. Overlay a 0.015‖ square on the vector
The laser cutter will trace
this path 20 times, applying
out of focus, non-cutting
heat to the area.