Laser Cutters

What are they?

Laser cutters are perfect for producing accurate cuts or engraving intricate designs onto sheet material. From cutting out simple shapes to engraving whole photos of your pets, laser cutters can do more than you’d expect!

The iForge has 2 types of laser cutter:

The Laserscript Laser Cutter

This is the classic laser cutter of the iForge, good for cutting simple, large shapes. It will only cut from .dxf files and has a  tempremental nature at times but gets the job done.

It has the following capabilities:

    • Cutting area: 900mm x 600mm
    • Max material thickness: 12mm

If you are interested and want to learn more you can check out the Laser website here.

The Denford Laser Cutter

This is the laser cutter to use for engraving. It can cut from AutoCAD files and is therefore prefered by many for more complex designs.

It has the following capabilities:

  • Cutting area: 800mm x 450mm
  • Max material thickness: 12mm

If you are interested and want to learn more you can check out the Denford website here.

Yhe lasers capable of cutting a range of materials including: Acrylic, Cardboard, MDF, Paper and Plywood.Of these, the iForge sells Acrylic, MDF and Plywood. If you are interested in buying from us just ask a rep on shift! But, if you prefer freebees you can have a hunt through our recycled material baskets.

Basics of use

Follow this step by step instruction and you’ll have your own design laser cut in no time:

    1. Complete the laser cutter training available here and the compulsary training available here.
    2. Make a CAD drawing of your design. You can use AutoCAD, Solidworks, or Fusion 360 or even on a vector graphics programs like Inkscape or Inventor.
    3. Save your design on AutoCAD or export it to a .dxf file and save it on a USB to be cut from!
    4. Bring your USB into the iForge, choose your material, and follow the guidance provided in the training to get your finished product!

If you need help creating files for laser cutting have a search online or come and talk to a rep for help! We can’t promise to be able to help with CAD design but we will always be able to help with laser cutter use!

For materials you’re not sure about laser cutting, check out our approved material list here!

 

iForge Reps taking care of machinery

The Hardware team is responsible for understanding and maintaining the various pieces of machinery we have at the iForge. If there is an unusual issue with a piece of equipment, the Hardware team is the first to be notified. Find out more about them and the other teams that keep the iForge running on our Meet Our Team page!

If you want to be a part of the Hardware team or any other iForge team you can register your interest here.

If you want to see what other teams you can be a part of by volunteering with the iForge click here.