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2 2D design and laser cutting

Date: November 8th & November 9th, 2016

What we did

2D design involves different types of software, depending whether you are working with pattern or vectors. Both can be input formats for 2D laser cutters.

Let's talk about these two in detail:

Index:

  1. Tasks for this week
  2. 2D design software
  3. Laser cutter
  4. Experiences
  5. Laser cutter settings
  6. References
  1. Tasks for this week
  2. 2D design software
  3. In general, there is a difference between vector graphics and raster graphics.

    Vector: Open source - Inkscape / Commercial: Adobe Illustrator

    Raster: Open source - Gimp / Commercial: Adobe Photoshop

    For this weeks task, I only Inkscape

  4. Laser cutter
  5. There are two different kinds of laser cutters, fiber and CO2. The laser cutters for wood and acrylics are mainly CO2-Laser cutters. Fiber laser are more expensive but therefore enable higher performance to cut metals as well.

    image LaserPrintCut image 2D_cut_assembled image 2D_cut_unassembled
  6. Experiences
  7. Here is the result of my first Inkscape press fit kit. Ok, actually, I did one a few years ago but anyway.

    image tag

    Within Inkscape, there are some import feature you should know about.

  8. Laser cutter settings
  9. For 5 mm MDF material, I set the speed to 4 %, the power to 100 % and the frequency to 20 %. The outside edges were set to red line color. Inner edges will be set to green and will be cut at first.

    image tag

    In order to cut plywood of 3 mm thickness, speed was turned up to 8 %. All other settings were kept the same as above.

    image BendableShap_HelloWorld_1 image BendableShap_HelloWorld_2
  10. References
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