Laser cutters work by burning or vaporizing material to create precise cuts and delivate engravings. Our laser is 100 watts and can cut most materials up to 1/4" thick! We cut most wood and acrylics in flat sheets up to 32 " x 35" in size.
Cost is calculated based on the time, rounded to the nearest minute that it takes to engrave or cut your design. The amount of time needed is determined by the settings necessary for the material and size and complexity of the design. The minimum cost is $3, before tax, which covers the first 5 minutes of laser cutting.
Engraving and Cutting: $3.00 for the first 5 minutes, $0.50 for each additional minute
Material: charged by the sheet, patron provided materials must be staff approved!
Currently, the Makerspace has a variety of materials available for purchase. If you would like to provide a different material, you must provide a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) specific to your material. All materials must be approved by a Makerspace Staff member before being laser cut. There are several materials that we are unable to cut due to safety concerns, such as PVC. If your material is unsuitable for laser cutting/engraving and is under 3/32” thick, the Cricut MakeStation may be a better choice for your project.
When we get your file, we will not see the size of your artboard or canvas, so we use the outside box to properly size your file. It may be helpful to make the box the size of the material you intend to use. If you are purchasing material from the makerspace, we offer 12x10", 12x20", and 23x35" sizes.
Overlapping lines can ruin the way your vector cut works, but even worse, many overlapping cut lines can be a fire hazard if the laser has is constantly cutting in the same spot. Ensure that you have no extra cut lines where they are not necessary. Also make sure that you don't have unintended overlapping lines. Use the view "outline" mode to better preview potential issues.
A path may look okay in in the "Normal" display mode, however, if you look closely in the "Outline" display mode, you can see there are extra paths that are unnecessary.
Be sure to combine any overlapping paths. In Inkscape, these are located under the Path menu. In Illustrator, they are under the "Shape modes" or "Pathfinder" windows. You may need to try a few different modes to get the effect you want. If it doesn't look like a shape mode or pathfinder did anything, still use the undo option as the paths may have been altered in unintended ways.
In Inkscape, select your text object then click the "Object to Path" option under the Path menu. To check that the text has been converted to a path, select the "Edit paths by node" selection tool. When using this tool, you can select your text object and ensure that it has been converted to a path. Keep in mind, you will no longer be able to change font options, or fix any wording or spelling.
See below how a wide stroke is visible in normal mode, but in outline mode you can see that the laser will not be able to see the stroke, just the line it is applied to.
To solve this problem, convert your stroke to a path.
Make sure to check your work in the outline mode.
For example:
Black line is a cut
Red lines are an outline engraving
If you link an image, the image does not get stored inside your file. The file contains a link to where that image lives on your computer. This can be useful for decreasing file sizes, however, we will not be able to view your linked image. Always embed images when you plan to submit your file to the Makerspace.
SVG stands for scalable vector graphic! Make sure to change your export option to SVG. You are now ready to submit your file!
