Welcome to Laser cutting & CNC
Diode lasers, CO2 lasers, fibre lasers, desktop CNC routers, small kit mills, bigger machines and the projects you make with them. Engraving, cutting acrylic and plywood, milling aluminium, making enclosures, panels, signs, inlays and parts for your other builds.
What belongs here
• Machines, upgrades, air assist, enclosures and extraction
• Software: LightBurn, LaserGRBL, GRBL, CAM tools such as Fusion, and similar
• Materials, settings and test grids
• Feeds, speeds, bits and workholding for CNC
• Finished projects and workshop setups
What goes elsewhere
• 3D printers and prints: 3D printing
• Cases for portable computers: Cyberdecks
• Finished gadgets with cut parts: Custom tech & builds
• Designing circuit boards: Electronics & PCB design (milling them on your CNC fits here)
How to ask so people can help
1. Machine make and model, laser type and power, or spindle type
2. Software, firmware and versions
3. Material and thickness
4. Settings: power, speed, passes and focus, or feeds, speeds and bit
5. Photos of the result
6. Expected versus actual result
Safety is part of the rules
These machines can blind you, start fires and fill a room with toxic smoke.
• Never cut PVC, vinyl or anything containing chlorine. It releases corrosive, toxic gas that harms you and ruins the machine. If you do not know what a material is, do not cut it.
• Never leave a laser running unattended, even for a moment.
• Wear eye protection rated for your laser's wavelength and power. Ordinary sunglasses or the wrong coloured lens give no protection. Everyone else in the room needs it too, especially with open-frame diode lasers.
• Keep a suitable fire extinguisher nearby and know how to use it.
• Vent fumes outside or through proper filtration.
• For CNC: wear eye and hearing protection, tie back hair and loose clothing, clamp work securely, keep hands clear of the spindle and collect dust, especially from MDF.
• Mains wiring inside machines belongs with qualified people.
Board rules
• Respect design licences: no reuploading paid or non-commercial files, and credit designers.
• No selling cut goods or files, and no paid services.
• Nothing piracy-friendly and no malware.
House rules apply: be kind, English only (other languages are translated automatically), no spam, no keyboard mashing and no self-promotion spam. Use Report when needed. This thread is locked, so start your own thread to ask or show your work.
Dexter
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