Epilog mini 24 Laser cutter

This page intends to explain how to use the Epilog mini 24 laser cutter that we have here at our lab. It is a computer controlled cutting machine used to create two-dimensional shapes out of various materials, from a digital design. It uses a strong laser to cut trough material. It can also be used to engrave an image into the surface of the material instead of cutting through.

The laser can cut and engrave many types of material. Different materials need different settings for laser speed and power. The materials it can cut trough are many plastics and most organic materials, like wood, cloth, leather and paper. For a piece of triplex or acrylic (the most used materials), the maximum thickness to cut through is about 4mm.

Many materials that can not be cut can still be engraved, like ceramic, glass, anodized aluminium, and painted or coated materials.

The laser cannot be used to cut or engrave PVC or vinyl because chemicals are released that will destroy the optics. Some metals can be etched directly, but harder metals such as steel can only be marked by coating them first.

We can supply some materials like triplex wood, acrylic and cardboard in several thicknesses (and colours for acrylic). If we do not have the material you are looking for, you have to bring it yourself.

The machine has a working area of 610 x 305 mm (24 x 12 inch). Most triplex and acrylic plates that we can supply here are 600 x 300 mm.

The bed of the machine is adjustable in height to place the surface of the material at the laser's focus point. The machine can hold items up to 203 mm tall, giving space to for example engrave an image onto your lunchbox.

The laser cutter needs an image file to tell it which lines to cut and where to engrave. It saves a lot of time here if the files are correct, so please prepare them well. We currently use CorelDraw X5 to open the file and send it to the printer. You can bring the files on a usb-stick or laptop or put them online to retreive them here.

The machine has two modes of operation: vector and raster.

Vector mode is mostly used for cutting material. In this mode the laser follows the drawn lines in the image file, therefore the lines should be stored in a vector image file. The lines to be cut must have a width of 0.1mm or less, otherwise the machine will ignore them. Make sure your file does not contain double lines to prevent cutting the same line twice. You can also use vector mode for engraving images that consist only of lines by setting the cutting speed so high that it only scratches the surface, this is usually a lot faster than using raster mode. Usable file types are:

* CDR - CorelDraw native - Use 'hairline' as width for the lines that should be cut.

* AI - Adobe Illustrator format - Make sure to save in Legacy Illustrator format without compression (anything up to version 10 will work perfectly!) Please see saving from illustrator for more info. You can use the example template.

* EPS, PS, PDF - Postscript files - Can be generated by many different applications.

* SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics - Can be generated by many different applications and Open Source software such as Inkscape.

* DWG, DXF - Autocad files - Make sure to explode all polylines and check for double lines.

Raster mode is only used for engraving images into a surface. In raster mode the laser draws the image from top to bottom, back-and-forth (a bit like an inkjet printer), engraving the material where the image is dark. This way any image can be pictured onto the material. Darker colours in the image file are engraved deeper than lighter colours. The file can be of any regular image file type, both bitmap and vector types are good. High quality files (>300 DPI) work best. High contrast (big difference between dark and light) images will produce nicer results. Note that raster mode is relatively quite slow, for example it can take over an hour to picture your face in real size onto a piece of wood (depending on the size of your head, of course). If your image consists of just lines, it might be a good idea to use vector mode instead.

You can also combine a vector and raster part in one image. When set to combined mode, the machine will first go into raster mode and engrave the image except for the cutting (thin) vector lines, then go into vector mode and cut those thin vector lines. Please put the engraving part and the cutting part on seperate image layers if possible, to ease editing.

If you want different parts of your drawing to have different cutting speed/power, for example to engrave some lines (in vector mode) and to cut other lines, you can give them a different colour. Make sure that same colours are exactly the same, for example make all red lines have their RGB values exactly (255,0,0). You can then give the machine different settings for each colour.

Power up the computer next to the machine and open your image files in CorelDraw. Set the page size to 'Laser' (610x305mm), and position the image where you want it to be on the material. Check if all the cutting lines are 'hairlines' or at most 0.1mm wide. If you want to use colour mapping, check if the colours' RGB values are correct. Press 'Print' and check if the print preview looks correct.

In the 'Print' window, press 'Preferences'. Here you configure at what speed and power the laser cuts and engraves. You can set the machine in 'Vector' mode (for cutting) or 'Raster' mode (for engraving), or 'Combined'. If your file is correct the machine should detect automatically which lines are to be done in vector mode and which in raster, so 'Combined' should be okay. In the tab 'Advanced' you can look for your material and click 'Load', or set the speed and power by hand (seperately for vector and raster). Check that 'Autofocus' is disabled.

If you want to use colour mapping, click the 'Colour mapping' tab and configure the speed and power for each colour you use (don't forget to click the arrow button to apply a change). If you do not use colour mapping, make sure that it is disabled.

Turn on the machine by toggling the switch on its left side. Check if the compressor under the table and the ventilation system are turned on. Place your material on the bed.

The focus of the laser should be on the surface of the material. The autofocus feature is broken, so you need to focus manually. On the machine, press “X/Y Aus” and “Start” so you can move the moving laser 'head' by hand. Push it a bit to the right and put the metal jig thingy (which usually hangs on the left side of the machine) on the the head. Move the bed down and up using the arrow buttons until the jig touches the surface of the material. Remove the jig, then press 'Reset' and close the lid.

On the computer, press 'Print'. The laser display should say something like “Job1:blabla”. Wait until it has received all the data (the LED stops blinking), then press 'Start'. Keep watching for a minute to check if everything is positioned correctly, and if the speed and power settings are appropriate. If it does not cut completely through or cuts too deep, press 'Stop' and 'Reset', adjust the settings and try again. When done, remove your piece of art and any small cut-out scraps, and turn off the machine to enjoy the silence again.

For more on laser engraving, see Wikipedia: Laser_engraving.

Voor het snijden en graveren van macquettes van gebouwen hebben we een aparte pagina met uitleg:

Stappenplan lasersnijden macquettes