Laser Engraver

GCC Laserpro Spirit LS

The Spirit LS laser engraver from GCC Laserpro is the laser engraver available at _Space.URI. It can engrave a wide variety of materials including glass, acrylic, wood, rock, and various plastics.

Specifications

Work Area: 25 x 18 in. (640 x 460 mm)

Maximum Motor Speed: 80 IPS

Before Using the GCC Laserpro Spirit LS

Safety Precautions

To ensure your safety, and that of others in the makerspace, please obey the _Space.URI rules and guidelines, as well as the specific rules for using the Laser Pro machine.

1. After completing the Laser Pro certification process, you may ask for a small plastic box containing accessories necessary to operate the Laser Pro machine.
2. In the bottom cabinet of the machine itself, are a few pairs of safety goggles. You must wear these before using the Laser Pro Spirit LS.
3. Be aware of your surroundings. Near the laser Pro is a fire extinguisher for use if needed. Before using the machine, make sure you are familiar with where the fire extinguisher is located.
4. The large red button on the Laser Pro is an emergency stop button in the case of a fire or other emergency. (Once pressed, a twist will release the button, allowing for normal operation again)
5. Before engraving, check to ensure that the SafeGuard is Enabled (Func[F4] >> Advanced Option >> SmartGUARD >> Enable/Disable)

Using the Laser Pro Spirit LS

Basic Settings

• CorelDRAW X8 is the software used to design and import files. CorelDRAW is provided on the laptop connected to the Spirit LS laser cutter. The file format used is CDR.

Under Printer Preferences

• Options
  • Black & White
• Pen
  • Speed
  • Power
  • Turn on 'Air'
  • Check off Raster and/or Vector depending on your cut
• Advanced
  • Position Modes (defined)
    • Home - Use the top-left corner of the bed as the starting/orientation point.
    • Center - Laser will etch/cut using the position set manually as the center of the project.
    • Smart Center - Manually select the four corners of the material, the machine will automatically calculate the center.
• Paper
  • Change the dimensions to match the document dimensions (check for units)
• Raster
  • Dithering Matrix: A typical use of dither is converting a grey scale image to black and white, such that the density of black dots in the new image approximates the average grey level in the original.

Pen Settings

Pen settings allow you to change the speed and power of the laser. The power is the percentage of full (100%) power. The more power, the deeper and darker the etch. Too much power may burn your material or etch too deeply. Changing the pen speed changes the time the pen spends in an area. If you can not use a strong power on a delicate material, try lowing the speed so the laser lingers longer as it etches the surface. A table can be found below with some starting pen speeds and powers for various materials.

Vector and Raster

• A raster cut is the default cut the laser uses. This in involves the laser moving back and forth across the surface as it moves from top to bottom. A raster cut will etch anywhere there is color on an image, and is good for thick designs or designs that are filled in.
  • For a raster cut, the image can be converted into any bitmap up to Grayscale (8-bit). A typical use of dither is converting a greyscale image to black and white, such that the density of black dots in the new image approximates the average grey level in the original.
• A vector cut etches the Trace of an image. The pen follows the Trace of the design. This would be used either to cut something out or to etch delicate line work. A vector cut can be done if the design traced in CorelDRAW.
  • If you trace the image and then select raster and vector, the image will do a raster cut, followed by a vector trace.

Steps

1. Use the Dell laptop next to the Laser Pro only
2. Open the program, CorelDRAW, located on the desktop
3. Turn on the Laser Cutter by using the switch on the right side of the machine. Do not turn the laser key until you're prepared to print
4. Create an image or import one into CorelDRAW
5. Measure the materials you will be engraving or cutting to determine the size of the image
6. Change the dimensions of the document to match the dimensions of your working surface
7. Using the guide marks in CorelDRAW scale your image to the size required
8. When your image is completed, click the print dialog
1. Under printer choose the Spirit LS as shown below
2. Choose preferences and set the print settings for your material according to the reference sheet



9. After finalizing the software settings, click the print button
10. Place your material in the bed of the laser cutter, attach the auto-focus attachment, and press the auto-focus button
11. Once this is completed, move the mirror head until the red dot is in the center of your drawing space
12. To ensure that your settings are correct close the lid and press the start button
13. If the mirror head appears to be in the incorrect drawing space, cancel the print, re-center the mirror head, turn the laser key on and press print again to begin engraving or cutting
14. Once your print is complete the laser will recenter itself. If you do not touch your material, you can got over the etch and deepen it by pressing Start again. This can help compensate for lack of power.

Lists Of Engraver Materials

Printer Properties
Job Description	Material	DPI	Pen Speed	Pen Power	PPI	Raster (R) / Vector (V)	Notes
Score	Foam Board (1/4")	500	30	60	400	V
Cut	Foam Board (1/4")	500	20	60	400	V
Cut	Lauan Plywood (5.2 mm or 1/5")	600	10	80	540	V	4 passes may be needed
Cut	Acrylic (3mm)	500	5	85	400	V
Photo	Maple	600	60	85	400	R
Cut	Paper (Black Pen)	500	50	70	400	R
Cut	Paper (Red Pen)	500	15	100	400	R
Engrave	Glass	500	25	85	700	Both
Engrave	Ceramic Cup	500	50	75	1400
Engrave	Acrylic Keychain	500	10	100	1000
Engrave	Wood Pen	500	30	50	1000

DO NOT Engrave with these Materials

• Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
• Poly(methyl methacrylate) (Plexiglass)
• Vinyl
• Most metals (check with _Space employees)
• Carbon fiber
• High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
• Printed Circuit Boards (PCB)

The new "Using the Laser Pro" (In Progress)

Creating a file in Corel

You can make and import a large range of pictures and designs, all of which can be cut or engraved into various materials using the Spirit LS

1. Start by opening up a blank document
   1. The blank page icon with the little green plus (right below the “file” option of the menu bar)
2. Preparing a logo (Pics of examples)
   1. File > Import > Choose File (JPG., PNG., PDF….)
   2. Hit <enter> to place the logo right in the center of the page
   3. Click on your logo and then on “Bitmaps” in the upper menu toolbar
      1. Resolution: 300 dpi
      2. Color mode: Black and White
      3. Dithered unchecked
      4. Anti-aliasing checked
      5. Press “ok”
   4. Click on the new bitmap and the “Trace Bitmap” dropdown on the property toolbar
      1. Choose “Outline Trace”
      2. Choose “Detailed Logo”
      3. In the settings tab on the right experiment with the “Detail,” “Smoothing,” and “Corner smoothness” sliders until you can settle on something you like
      4. Hit “Ok”
   5. Resize and Center (see below)
   6. From here you can add more logos or pictures or move right onto setting up the print settings and Spirit LS.
3. Preparing a picture
   1. File > Import > Choose File (JPG., PNG., PDF….)
   2. Hit <enter> to place the logo right in the center of the page
   3. Click on your logo and then on “Bitmaps” in the upper menu toolbar
      1. Resolution: 300 dpi
      2. Color mode:Grayscale (8-bit)
      3. Dithered unchecked
      4. Anti-aliasing checked
      5. Optional: Transparent background (makes whitespaces of the new bitmap transparent - only noticeable when placed on a background or another image)
      6. Press “ok”
   4. Click on the new bitmap and the “Trace Bitmap” dropdown on the property toolbar
      1. Choose “Outline Trace”
      2. Choose “High Quality Image”
      3. In the settings tab on the right experiment with the “Detail,” “Smoothing,” and “Corner smoothness” sliders until you can settle on something you like. You often don’t need to adjust these settings when working with a picture.
      4. Hit “Ok”
   5. Resize and Center (see below)
   6. From here you can add more logos or pictures or move right onto setting up the print settings and Spirit LS.
4. Adding Text *Can be by itself or added to and on top of logo and picture designs
   1. Select text box option in left-side toolbar
   2. Click and drag to create a box (will be resizeable)
   3. Type what you want
   4. Highlight and edit text properties (font, size, etc.) in object properties panel on right side of screen (if that panel isn’t there look for “object” in the top menu bar and choose “object properties”)

   Note: all of the previous designs are created using the “line-by-line” raster style cutting. For thin-line designs, we use vector cutting. (great for outlined shapes, and especially for cutting through materials)

5. Vector cutting
   1. There are two ways of getting vector cut designs; one is by just using the outline of a logo and the other is by doing a Centerline Trace
   2. Stencil/Logo outline (best for clean, thin-line art)
      1. Follow the steps for “Preparing a logo” as seen above all the way through
      2. Click on the new object and then with the left mouse button click on the Black square in the color panel on the right side of the page and then with your right mouse click on the White square. *This will give you a black outline of your logo with white fill
      3. Highlight the object once more and on the property bar click on the pen-size drop down menu. Select “Hairline”
   3. Centerline Trace (best for cutting out parts of a project)
      1. Convert the drawing to a black and white bitmap (as seen in “Preparing a logo” above)
      2. Select the new bitmap and, in the “Trace Bitmap” drop down menu on the properties bar, select “Centerline.” Choose “Technical Illustration”
      3. In the settings tab on the right experiment with the “Detail,” “Smoothing,” and “Corner smoothness” sliders until you can settle on something you like
      4. Hit “Ok”
      5. Highlight the object and on the property bar click on the pen-size drop down menu. Select “Hairline”
   4. If there is a rectangular border around your image that you don’t want to be etched with it, highlight the image and click the “Ungroup all objects” button on the property bar, then click and delete the unwanted pieces of border (must use the “pick tool” found in toolbar on left of screen)
   5. Resize and Center (see below)
   6. From here you can add more logos or pictures or move right onto setting up the print settings and Spirit LS.
6. Resizing and Centering
   1. Resize:
      1. Click on the object to be resized
      2. Enter width into “width box” on the property bar. Hit <enter> *If the lock symbol is closed then the height will snap to match, keeping the image ratio the same.
      3. Enter height into “height” box. Hit <enter>
   2. Center:
      1. Click “Object” in top menu bar
      2. Go to “Transformations” then “Position”
      3. Relative Position unchecked
      4. Center box of 9x9 box grid selected
      5. Enter the x and y position (in inches) of the center of your document *X = ½ * width of page (usually 4.25”) *Y = ½ * height of page (usually 5.5”)

Print Setting

1. Choose “Spirit LS” as the printer
2. Hit the “Preferences” button
   1. Options
      1. Mode Setting: Black and White
      2. If etching a photo, select “inverted”
   2. Pen
      1. Edit the settings for the Black pen color
      2. Speed, Power, PPI based on material, see table below
      3. Air Selected (must be on for proper ventilation of fumes)
   3. Advanced
      1. Under “Position Mode” select “Center”
   4. Paper
      1. No need to do anything here (can update X and Y sizes to match document size for a better pre-print preview)
   5. Language
      1. English
   6. Raster
      1. Dithering matrix: 2x2
   7. Pro Tip
      1. To skip having to choose all of these settings manually, under the options tab, choose the “history file” for the material you are working with by double clicking it. Double check settings afterward too just to make sure.

Preparing printer

1. Power switches
   1. Start by turning on the Spirit LS
      1. Black power switch on right side of machine.
      2. Let the machine finish initializing (laser head will move around then snap back to back left corner when done)
   2. Turn on the air filter (tall silver box to the left of the Spirit LS)
      1. Power switch on back in rubber sheath
      2. Power button on front to the left of the LCD display (should turn from red to green)
2. Insert metal grid platform through the front hatch of machine (if not already there)
3. Insert the key (don’t turn it yet)
4. Close bottom cabinet and front hatch

Running the printer: Etching and Cutting

1. Open glass panel on top
2. Place in object to be etched, level and oriented neatly
3. Attach the autofocus pin and move the whole laser head so the the pin is over a point with a height that represents the average height of the surface area that will be etched (if surface is perfectly flat, anywhere will do)
4. Press the autofocus button, wait for it to finish focusing, then press F1 button to go back to main menu
5. Remove pin
6. Drag the the red dot to the center of where you want your etch/cut to be
7. Close glass panel
8. With the key in the OFF position, press the Start/Stop button. The printer will do an exact run of the etch/cut except the laser won't fire. This will help you make sure the laser doesn’t go off your workpiece and it also records the time it took to do the print so that when you do the real run you’ll have a countdown timer.
9. Turn the key to the ON position
10. Press the Start/Stop button firmly and watch as your design is etched
11. If at any point you need to stop the print run, press the big red Emergency Stop button to cancel the etch. Twisting it clockwise will release it again.
12. DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE SPIRIT LS WHILE THE LASER IS FIRING (things can go wrong and you need to be there if they do to press the emergency button to avoid damaging the machine)
13. Once your print is complete the laser will recenter itself. If you do not touch your material, you can got over the etch and deepen it by pressing Start again. This can help compensate if the pen power setting was set too low.

Pro Tips

• Why the laser won’t fire
  • Door open
  • Front hatch open
  • Key not in
  • Key in off position
  • Wrong color in drawing (needs to be black)
• Enhanced Vector - Check this box under the [Advanced] tab to get a higher quality vector cut (will increase print time)
• Bridge cutting - Chose this option to have vector cuts be perforations, (must set bridge pen power to 0)
• Find and replace - Great Corel function for converting all of one color into black (e.g. replaced colored lines with dotted black lines)
• Cropping (Toolbox) - Corel function for trimming down an image
• SmartCenter - Great Laser Pro function for finding center of your work-piece. Choose two or four pints with the laser head and the machine will jump to the center of those given points (fantastic way to find the center of big rectangular work-pieces) - Check of "SmartCenter" box under the [Advanced] tab.

Safety Manual

Click Here for Current Safety Manual