For this assignment, we had to laser cut the Rice War Owl logo, which looks like this
One of the tricks of this assignment is somehow representing 4 different colors using a laser cutter and wood, which can only create colors between charred and not charred. We solved this problem by using another variable, depth of engraving. The 4 settings we used included:
No pass, for natural wood color
speed 500, power 19 for slightly singed color
speed 500, power 24 for darker singed color
speed 500, power 35 for a deeper cut
We determined these settings by engraving small circles with different setting until we arrived at colors we liked. The test circles are seen on this board
The next part we had trouble with is setting the file up properly. The AI file had some hidden layer that was causing import problems, our engraving settings were not being set up correctly because the directions on the wall do not mention to click the save button in the pop up window when cut and engrave settings are changed, and the laser cutter behaves very erratically when it is fed a shape that is colored pure white.
We finally got the file sent over correctly and we cut out a small owl as a proof of concept.
Our final problems occurred during the final cutting of our larger owl. First, engraving takes an absurdly long time on the laser cutter for 2 reasons. First, it has to pass over the owl multiple times because the laser is narrow, and the laser overshoots the shape by an inch or so on each side, resulting in a lot of wasted travel time. Additionally, the software is not very smart, and the laser cutter has to engrave each shape separately. So for something like this owl with lots of small details, the laser cutter wastes time by traveling between each shape and not engraving different colors at the same time.
Second, it is hard to tell if the laser cut through the entire wood plank. Our first large owl was ruined because it appeared to have cut through the wood, and the same settings worked for the small owl, but just enough wood stuck to the owl so it splintered when we poked it out. We may have used excess power on our second owl and produced some charring, but when each owl takes a long time to cut and other students need to use the cutter, we did not want to risk a poor cut ruining our otherwise good owl. Here is our final cut.
