Hands down, my favourite machine in the Design fabrication lab is the laser cutter. It truly amazes me how such a simple looking machine can produce such beautiful intricate pieces of work. The laser cutter works by directly outputting a high power laser at different intensities to either vector cutting, vector etching, and raster engraving. The design is created through a vector cutting software from your computer—crazy right. I was given the opportunity to experiment on the laser cutter, which has now inspired me to design and create many new things. The laser cutter is quite a remarkable machine as it has changed how designers in society prototype and produce new objects. The machine has changed the way designers create model making, branding and marketing, art and sculpture, and fashion and textiles (Lawley, 2020). As a result, manufacturing has become easier for groups and individuals. Laser cutting can cut diverse range materials such as plastic, metal, wood, fabrics, stone, tile, glass, stainless steel, and marble. The laser cutter responds to the different methods of vector cutting, vector etching, and raster engraving by the colours of red, blue, and black displayed on vector cutting software, such as Adobe Illustrator (Lawely & Coombe, 2020). During the laser cutting workshop, I had the opportunity to learn and interact with the laser cutter for the first time. This process was fascinating for me as I had never seen a laser cutter, let alone print out the physical design. After a quick demo of how the laser cutter worked, we had a few minutes to design a personalised keyring made, with clear plastic. I made sure to adjust the stroke to 0.001 as well as adapting the colours to the different forms of cutting, etching and sketching. This step was surprisingly straight forward to me as I previously had experience with illustrator at high school, which gave me the confidence in creating a design that I was happy with. About 20 minutes later, the laser had worked its magic, and my keyring turned out exactly as I had envisioned. Overall, the laser cutter is my favourite machine in the fabrication lab as it can effectively and precisely produce beautiful objects. The workshop I undertook has now given me the confidence to independently create designs on the laser cutter through the knowledge of cutting, etching, and engraving specifications on illustrator. The laser cutter has also inspired me to create many new designs for a sustainable future.
Works sited
Crease, A. (2020, April 09). Laser Cutting Basics. Retrieved from Instructables workshop: https://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-Cutting-Basics/
Lawely, T., & Coombe, J. (2020, April 04). Laser cutting troubleshoot. Retrieved from Google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TWq_00vWTTBabQXXNb8x3WO7Ow_SUxan
Lawley, T. (2020, April 03). Laser cutting training slides, powerepoint presentation.
Sculpteo, & Van Zeijderveld, J. (2020, April 04). Laser Cut Wood: The Best 10 Projects! Retrieved from Sculpteo: https://www.sculpteo.com/en/3d-learning-hub/laser-cutting/best-laser-cut-wood-projects/
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