Introduction to Laser Cutting

Also known as Also known as CNC (Computer Numerical Control), CAD provides the necessary data from design files which Controls cutting as well as marking of material. It is very precise and repeatable. Below are some CNC examples, however we will be focuing on Laser Cutting!

Examples of CNC:

Laser cutting and engraving
Large format routing systems (mill)
Cardboard and paper cutting
Plasma Cutting
Vinyl Cutting

Laser Cutting

Laser is focused on the material - to cut through, or to engrave/ mark ( scratching off the surface - to reveal patterns nad designs )
Laser ionises the material
Air-assist removes the ionised material
Suction removes the material and wastes to a HEPA filter
Movement of the head by motors, controls the cutting operations
LASER - Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation

Assignment: Musical Box

Design a Musical Box piece that :

Must have a movable lid

Must be lasercut (wood 2.5~3.6mm)

Must be able to accommodate “mechanical handcranked music box movement”

Drawn and modelled in Fusion 360

Can be glued together (no nails, hinges etc)

Must be “decorated” in some manner

1) Start with a sketch
 Sketch on paper how your box looks like and the approximate dimensions.
2) Define the parameters
Go to Modify > Change parameters and a table will come up, you can set the length, width, height and thickness of box, as well as no. of tabs along each ___ and the length of each tab. 
3) Base 
I did the base 1st, Extruded the thickness. Draw the 1st length tab to extrude, then pattern it!
4) Finish base
Repeat the steps, and finish up the Base!

5) Side component

New component > Create sketch and start from the origin. Choose EDGE face of base tab.

6) Midplane

Go to Construct > Midplane, select the 2 sides of the component, and a midplane is create between them. This step is to allow to mirror.

7) Mirror

Mirror the front using the midplane, and repeat for left and right sides.

8) Cut and Combine

Use the combine tool to create the tabs. Select Target Body as the body that is being cut, and the Tool Bodies as the bodies that will cut the Target Body.

To Note:

Fusion only allows one target body to be selected while allowing multiple tool bodies, so creating the base from the start was a bad idea haha, i lerant this the hard way. (I should create the parts where u can cut into the target body 1st, like the left, right, front, back bodies, before the base)

Here is the parameters I used for my musical box:

Making the Lid

Design ideas:

1) Extrude thickness
 This is for the the lid to rest flush to the left, right, front and back pieces. 
2) Create the hole
Created new parametirc for the hole dims. Modify > Change Parameters 
3) The Lid 
Ill try to create a cylinder and extrude from the lid. Turned off visibility of right body to see better, Theres dis weird dangling part. 
4) Done!
After much struggling and editing it looks good now.

Designing the Lid

The following are the raw files for my design

(.ai file)

(.dxf file)

5) LibreCAD 
Export individually from fusion -> create sketch > select face> off visibility of other bodies, only the body u wanna export 1st and do it one by one. Open as dxf into libre cad. Note: I had problems exporting the lid into dxf as the pegs at the sides are round, and we cant laser cut round stuff, so I had to change them to squares. 
6) Offset 2mm
After that i brough it to AutoCAD to off set the borders to 2mm, as it was looking abit plain. 
7) Image trace in AI 
Image trace > Expand, ad delete unwanted areas 
8) Done! Finally! (Although idk why are there so many hatch failed notifs)

Print Settings

Here is the print settings I used for engraving.

Auto Focus > Thickness

Split by: Colour, Hairlines

Resolution : 500

Speed : 50%

Power : 50%

Frequency : -

Dithering : None

Cycles : 1

Here is the print settings I used for cutting (vector).

Auto Focus > Thickness

Split by: Colour, Hairlines

Resolution : 500

Speed : 20%

Power : 75%

Frequency : 50%

Dithering : None

Cycles : 1

Print Settings

We split the print job into 2 parts, one test run to see the results of cutting and engraving. Here is the test run.

EP 1000 Laser Cutting

Introduction to Laser Cutting

Assignment: Musical Box

1) Start with a sketch

2) Define the parameters

3) Base

4) Finish base

5) Side component

6) Midplane

7) Mirror

8) Cut and Combine

To Note:

Fusion only allows one target body to be selected while allowing multiple tool bodies, so creating the base from the start was a bad idea haha, i lerant this the hard way. (I should create the parts where u can cut into the target body 1st, like the left, right, front, back bodies, before the base)

Here is the parameters I used for my musical box:

Making the Lid

Design ideas:

1) Extrude thickness

2) Create the hole

3) The Lid

4) Done!

Designing the Lid

The following are the raw files for my design

5) LibreCAD

6) Offset 2mm

7) Image trace in AI

8) Done!

Print Settings

Print Settings

The Assembly

Drilled a 5mm hole using mechanical hand drill

Assembling the parts together with wood glue

Done!

Open configuration