A brief overview of the recent happenings in the laser room for April 2018.

Storage

Unfortunately laser material storage was getting out of hand this month, thankfully a couple members stepped up in slack to get it under control (including Noel and Patrick). If you left materials on the storage shelves check to make sure they have not been red tagged.

New Showcase Shelves

Patrick D. took the time to paint and prepare the wall with Crafty and Tom N. installing the shelves last Thursday. A perfect place to showcase 2.5D creations and leave examples of what the laser is capable of.

New Mirrors 
The three mirrors used to move the beam onto the work surface were replaced, it was a year and a half since the last time they got changed out and somewhat overdue. The mount for the second mirror was also replaced. Patrick and Paolo helped with that, as well as doing a full beam alignment afterwards. The end result is more laser power makes it to your cut by less getting absorbed along the way.

New Measuring Tools

We added some various measuring devices for maintenance and users alike. Since 3d printing moved upstairs we can no longer mooch their calipers… (they’re still looking for their missing calipers BTW). For now they will live in the red tool box, in the future they will get mounted to a wall for easier access. There is also a pair of scissors and a spreader in there that you may find helpful when applying transfer tape for etching.

New Honeycomb Incoming

A new honeycomb for the laser is on the way! It should be flatter and especially help with those jobs that cover the entire usable space. It will look a bit different, with slightly larger holes and some support rods through it that make it more rigid. Lets all take care of it by not slamming the laser head into its pristine surface and not bending it when taking it out. Once it gets here we’ll re-level the Z table.

Software Update

The last update to the lasersoft application (7.21) added .SVG file support. If you’ve been using inkscape for vector creation and dealing with the various .DXF import issues, try it out.

Team Laser
Are you a AMT member interested in helping maintain the laser, or support the education side of things? Ping on the slack laser channel or Ping @crafty – Private classes/lessons for Team Laser are forming now.