Laser Cutting 101: Make a Custom Nitelite

6791 Sebastopol Avenue,Sebastopol CA 95472

22 January, 2021

Description

Make a custom laser-cut nightlight designed by you, and learn how to use the laser cutter! This class is open to everyone, no special skills needed. We’ll cover the fundamentals of using our giant 100 Watt laser and how to safely operate this machine in a manner that will leave it in great working condition for the next member of Chimera to use. We will explore what is possible with lasers beyond the class project. In the end you leave with an understanding of how to use this machine, its potentials, a really cool nite lite that can be customized to your specific preferences. Topics will include: How to operate the laser without breaking it for everyone else to be super bummed. How to not hurt yourself or others with the laser Paths vs Vectors & other CNC terminologyHow to setup your files for burning with the laserHow to send files to the laser using LaserCut 5.3 softwareWorking with Vector Art & TextMaterials included in the course fee: 1 square foot of 3mm birch plywood Colored velum paper (your choice of color) 1 nite lite base with bulb This class meets the sign-off requirement for using the laser cutter. WHAT TO BRING: A laptop, if available (Preferably with Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw installed)A USB thumb drive with a silhouette/stencil design you’re interested in cutting (ideal format: either a DXF or SVG vector, or a B&W image — no grays or color.)Note we can’t guarantee every design can be cut in this class. Sometimes amazing ideas take time to flesh out and it can be tricky to do it in a short timeframe. However, we will give it our best to deliver and worst-case suggest ways to cut your design on your own time.What to expect: This class includes the production of a custom nightlight designed by you! The course is designed as an introduction to laser cutting, and by the end of the night you will have gained the knowledge necessary to operate the laser cutter safely on your own. We will be working with 3mm plywood, rice paper, and a off-the-shelf plug-in night light base. All materials are included, but please bring a laptop with you and install either a trial version of Adobe Illustrator or the free vector editing software Inkscape so you can learn to prepare files for the laser. If you have a specific image in mind, please be sure it is a vector image that will work as a stencil (i.e. no completely encircled shapes, because once cut out they will be unsupported and fall out.) A good, free site for vector images is www.vecteezy.com . One easy way of checking if the image is a vector or bitmap is to zoom in as far as possible: if it’s still 100% crisp with zero distortion, it might be a vector. If you can see any pixels at all, it’s likely a bitmap. Popular vector formats are AI, SVG, and DXF. Popular bitmap formats are BMP, JPG, PNG, and GIF. Please note that there’s no guarantee we’ll be have enough time to convert and cut every vector students bring in: if your design is too difficult, please have a backup in mind or be ready to pick from designs we have pre-made. Cancellation Policy: This class has a minimum attendance of 2, all attendees must register 72 hours in advance. All refunds must be requested at least 72 hours prior to class start. Youth and minor policy: see our About page.