Page 62
Laser Setup Check List
Please refer to this section to aid you in setting up and running a job through the laser.
Step 1.
Carefully place your material onto the laser bed, manouver the auto focus probe (laser head) over the material, either using the direction keys or
by hand and then press the auto focus button. Once the laser has finished auto focusing the display will read
0.0mm
, press
F1
on the control panel
to return to the default laser window.
Step 2.
Step 3.
Step 4.
With your on-screen design ready to send to the laser, make sure that your cut lines are all hairlines 0.003mm (2D = fine line, Illustrator = 0.009pt)
anything other than a hairline will be engraved. Check that the cut and engrave colours are correct, (refer to page 27 for the
Custom Colours
)
then select
File
then
, in the
Destination
names box make sure it says X252 or X380 (depending upon the laser model), then click the
Properties
button.
Enter your specific laser job settings on the four tabs in the print properties window. Choose
Manual Colour Fill
on the
Options
tab if performing
simple cuts and flat engraves, or choose
Black & White
if performing a greyscale photo engrave and cuts. If choosing to perfom a greyscale
engrave, a new tab will appear, entitled
Raster
. This provides a contrast slider to adjust the ‘exposure’ of your image (deep or shallow) along with
a halftone option of
Dithering
or
Error Diffusion
. On the
Pen
tab, select your speed and power settings for each colour, (refer to material
settings at the back of this manual, pages 59-60) remembering to change the
PPI
setting to
X
(all the way across to the right hand side for cutting),
for standard engraving a setting of around
400 PPI
is recommended.
On the
Advanced
tab, either choose the
Relative
or
Home
position mode, relative mode allows you to manually position the laser head so that
the red beam is relative to the 0,0 (datum) of your on-screen design page.
Home
position mode means the laser head will start and usually finish
in the far left corner of the bed. The
Paper
tab requires you to input the materials size in millimeters as the X & Y measurement, this can also be
left at the maximum laser bed size if preferred.
An error warning will be displayed on the Print window if this size is smaller than the page/paper size in your design software Once you are satisfied
with your selected settings, press the ok button which takes you back to the
window, click
Apply
and then
Print.
Enter your specific laser job settings on the four tabs in the print properties window. Choose
Manual Colour Fill
on the
Options
tab if performing
simple cuts and flat engraves, or choose
Black & White
if performing a greyscale photo engrave and cuts. If choosing to perfom a greyscale
engrave, a new tab will appear, entitled
Raster
. This provides a contrast slider to adjust the ‘exposure’ of your image (deep or shallow) along with
a halftone option of
Dithering
or
Error Diffusion
. On the
Pen
tab, select your speed and power settings for each colour, (refer to material
settings at the back of this manual, pages 59-60) remembering to change the
PPI
setting to
X
(all the way across to the right hand side for cutting),
for standard engraving a setting of around
400 PPI
is recommended.
On the
Advanced
tab, either choose the
Relative
or
Home
position mode, relative mode allows you to manually position the laser head so that
the red beam is relative to the 0,0 (datum) of your on-screen design page.
Home
position mode means the laser head will start and usually finish
in the far left corner of the bed. The
Paper
tab requires you to input the materials size in millimeters as the X & Y measurement, this can also be
left at the maximum laser bed size if preferred.
An error warning will be displayed on the Print window if this size is smaller than the page/paper size in your design software Once you are satisfied
with your selected settings, press the ok button which takes you back to the
window, click
Apply
and then
Print.
The file will be sent to the laser machine and the files title should now show on the laser control window. With all the laser doors closed, make sure
your extraction is switched on and wait for the amber door light to go out. You can now press the red Start button on the laser. When the job has
finished you will hear a long beep.
Never leave the laser machine unattended whilst it is running!
