MN Laser Cutters
Our laser cutters are one of the most used tools because it's fast and accurate to cut out your designs. In our facility, you will first set up your design in a vector program like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW. If working with the lower power Epilog Helix, you will "print" your design from the attached computer. Our other two 100W lasers use Lightburn to set the carving order and power settings.
Laser Cutters Reference
- Epilog Helix - 45W, 18x24" (450x600 mm); practical size 17x23" (430x590 mm)
- BossLaser LS2440 - 100W, 24x40" (600x1000 mm); practical size 23x39" (590x980 mm)
- Red Laser - 100W, 19.6x27.5" (500x700 mm); practical size 19x27" (480x690 mm)
“Practical” refers mainly to when you're using the full width of the bed for raster engraving To allow for the extra extend space needed for tool head acceleration on either side of a raster scan; you can't use the full width of the useable bed space for your design, since it would require the tool head to do the acceleration on either side out of bounds, which it simply can't do. This is not an issue when vector following in line mode (either cutting or engraving).
Filters
3 BOFA HEPA filters
Air Compressors
Recommended CO2 Laser cutter / Engraver settings
Boss Laser 100W
The following is extracted from a historical page on the Boss Laser for 100W settings.
| Material | Cutting | Engraving | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thickness | Speed (mm/s) | Power % | Speed (mm/s) | Power % | Interval / scan GAP (mm) | |
| Acrylic | 1/4" | 15 | 75 | 350 | 20 | .065 |
| Anodized aluminum | - | - | - | 325 | 20 | |
| Balsa wood | 1/8" | 25 | 55 | 350 | 20 | |
| Bass wood | 1/8" | 25 | 55 | 350 | 25 | |
| Birch wood | 1/4" | 15 | 70 | 350 | 25 | |
| Birch plywood | 1/4" | 15 | 75 | 350 | 25 | |
| Cardboard | 1/4" | 15 | 60 | 350 | 20 | |
| Ceramic | - | - | - | 350 | 40 | |
| Glass | - | - | - | 325 | 25 | |
| Granite | - | - | - | 275 | 25 | |
| Leather | 1/8" | 12 | 75 | 350 | 18 | |
| Powder-coated metal | - | - | - | 325 | 20 | |
| Mirror back-side | - | - | - | 325 | 20 | |
| Paper | 1/100" | 25 | 15 | - | - | |
| Rowmark - multi-colored | - | - | - | 350 | 20 | |
| Rubber | 1/8" | 12 | 75 | 350 | 20 | |
| Foam | 1/4" | 25 | 55 | - | - | |
Member Settings
| Material | Power % | Speed(mm/s) | Interval / scan GAP (mm) |
Thickness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CARDBOARD - C Flute | 45, 35 | 65 | - | 3mm |
| PAPER - Cardstock | 10 | 65 | - | 80 lb |
| PAPER - Linen paper | 15 | 65 | - | Thick |
Software
See Lighburn
