CO2 Laser Cutter HL-1060, 100 W

A CO2 laser cuts and engraves flat sheet material by burning a narrow line through it. It is the fastest way to turn a drawing into a physical part: no tooling, no fixtures, and the same file can be run again a year later with identical results. On a bed of 1000 × 600 mm you can cut a whole sheet of 3 mm plywood in one job.

The machine is the workhorse of the hackspace — enclosure panels, gears and mechanisms, signage, stencils, packaging prototypes, gaskets, model kits, and engraved gifts all come off it.

What you can make

• Boxes, enclosures and front panels from plywood and acrylic
• Gears, cams and linkages for mechanical prototypes
• Signs and lettering, engraved or cut through
• Stencils, masks and paint templates
• Gaskets and seals from rubber sheet
• Engraving on wood, leather, anodised aluminium and painted metal

Materials

Works well: plywood and MDF, solid wood, cast and extruded acrylic, paper and cardboard, leather, cork, felt, rubber sheet, some fabrics.

Engraving only, no cutting: glass, ceramic tile, anodised aluminium, painted or coated metal, stone.

Never put in the machine: PVC and vinyl (release chlorine gas — corrodes the machine and harms you), polycarbonate (burns, does not cut, and yellows), ABS (melts and gives off cyanide), fibreglass and carbon fibre (toxic dust), and any material you cannot identify.

If you are not sure what a sheet is made of, ask before cutting it. “Probably acrylic” is not good enough — acrylic and polycarbonate look identical.

There is no ready-made speed table. Power is almost always kept at 100 %; speed depends on the material, so try it on a scrap of the same sheet.

Safety

• The machine is switched on by turning the key; the chiller, the compressor and the exhaust start with it. If any of them did not start — do not cut.
• Do not run a job with the lid open, and do not defeat the lid interlock.
• Do not leave a running machine unattended. A flare-up turns into a fire in under a minute.
• Watch the chiller temperature; the chiller sits under the machine. Above 30–35 °C — stop working.
• A noticeable bad smell while cutting means the exhaust did not start or something else went wrong: stop the job, open a window, tell the staff.
• Emergency stop — the big red button.
• If the material catches fire: the extinguisher is next to the machine; then tell the staff at once.
• When the job is finished, wait a little for the exhaust to clear the smoke before opening the lid.

How to use

1. Next to the machine is a Lenovo laptop with RDWorks V8. If the machine is not connected to it, plug the machine's USB cable into the laptop.
2. In RDWorks: File → Import, open your file and check the dimensions. On the panel on the right set the speed and the power. Power is almost always 100 %; find the speed by testing on a scrap of the material.
3. Turn the key to switch the machine on. Make sure the chiller, the compressor and the exhaust have started.
4. Put the material on the bed. In RDWorks press Download on the right — the job goes to the machine.
5. On the machine's panel move the head with the arrows to the starting point of the cut and press Origin. Then Frame: the machine traces the outline it is going to cut, without the beam. Check that the outline lands on the material.
6. Close the lid and press Start on the machine's panel. Stay nearby.
7. When it is done, wait for the smoke to clear, open the lid, take your parts and the offcuts.

RDWorks can be downloaded from the internet and installed on your own laptop: the machine is then connected to it over USB and driven from there. The machine is not on the network yet.

Access

The laser is in the hackspace room, so a plan that includes hackspace access is required — a coworking-only membership does not open it.

A safety induction is mandatory before your first job. It takes about twenty minutes and covers the interlock, the chiller, the extraction, working in RDWorks and what to do if something catches fire.