05 – Our First Program- RDWorks Software Tutorial (46:31)

The Lightblade Learning Lab with Russ Sadler

The Lightblade Learning Lab is a series of videos that Russ did for Thinklaser Limited based on using the Lightblade 4060 Laser Cutting and Engraving Machine. Thinklasers Lightblade 4060 has a 400 x 600mm bed size and was supplied with a 60W EFR laser tube. In this video, Russ gives an RDWorks Software Tutorial and shows you how to get started with your first laser cutting program.

Rdworks software tutorial - our first program
RDWorks Software Tutorial – Screenshot of Cutting File

Contents for Our First Program- RDWorks Software Tutorial

  • This video uses the Beam Target as an example. (See Video 12 for additional notes on this design)
  • Working with vector files, e.g. DXF, AI, etc.
  • Importing a vector file
  • Placing parts onto layers
  • Setting speeds and power
  • Checking and setting the air assist
  • Cutting mode: Pen, dot, Cut and Scan
  • Power and how much to use
  • Cutting order of layers
  • Preview (of cut)
  • Path optimise
  • Save As and saving ‘U’ files
  • Cutting speeds
  • Start-up procedure
  • Vendor setting for Z direction
  • Frame and Origin functions
  • Cutting from file on a USB stick
  • Extruded versus Cast acrylic
  • Changing the power setting on a job
  • The properties of different papers
  • Assembling an acrylic model
  • PETG and Acrylic Weld cement

My thanks go out to Tom at Thinklaser for giving permission to embed these videos on this site. If you are looking for a new laser machine from a quality supplier, then I would suggest you check out their website: www.thinklaser.com.

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Video Resource Files for Our First Program- RDWorks Software Tutorial

Beam Checker

Align Kit for Beam

Beam Target Discs

MK2 Beam Target Disks

There are no more resource files associated with this video.

External Resource Links for Our First Program- RDWorks Software Tutorial

www.thinklaser.com

www.rdworkslab.com

https://laseruser.com/lightblade-learning-lab-12

There are no more external resource links associated with this video.

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial

Our First Program

Use the search function at the top of the page to find specific sections of interest.

00:09

welcome to this session of lightblade

00:15

learning lab. Now we’ve already tackled

00:18

all the main tools umm but to be honest

00:23

today we’re not going to really be using

00:25

many of those toolsl because we’re not

00:27

going to do any drawing here in RDWorks

00:31

as i mentioned to you before this is not

00:34

a CAD program this is an interface

00:36

program and any photographs or bitmaps

00:39

that you need to prepare you should do

00:42

that outside this program and import

00:44

them as bitmaps or pings or something

00:46

like that

00:47

today we’re going to work with vector

00:50

files now most of my work is done in a

00:53

CAD system where I export as dxf that’s

00:58

just because I’ve got an engineering

01:00

background I’m not an artist if I was an

01:02

artist i would be working probably in

01:05

adobe illustrator or something like that

01:06

but this system also handles adobe

01:11

illustrator files which affect the

01:12

drawing files so I’ve already prepared

01:14

some files and today i’m going to import

01:18

them because we can’t open them because

01:22

they’re not in this system already in

01:24

the right format so if you want to bring

01:26

files in from external system you always

01:29

import them and i’m going to be

01:32

importing this thing called beam target

01:35

now it’s imported full-size but it’s

01:39

not necessarily the page size if we look

01:41

at the table there we can see we can see

01:43

these items on the table now we can see

01:46

from this look we’ve got two millimeter

01:48

critic that were using for these parts

01:50

and yet we’re using white card for these

01:53

parts now we can’t cut those both

01:55

together so although I’ve got them on

01:58

the same dxf file what would have to

01:59

happen we shall have to import the same

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

02:01

dxf file twice the first time we’re

02:04

going to import it we’re going to be

02:06

ruthless and we’re gonna delete that

02:10

section we don’t want the text so we’re

02:13

going to delete that we’ve got to

02:16

remember that it’s two millimeter

02:17

acrylic and to be honest what that is

02:20

that is a frame of the piece of material

02:23

that I’m going to use to cut these items

02:26

from now going to move this job into the

02:28

middle of the screen but of course that

02:30

isn’t necessarily where we’re going to

02:31

put it on the table when we actually cut

02:34

it this is just convenience for drawing

02:37

and programming purposes now the bits

02:43

that we want these bits in the middle

02:45

here the background the outside which

02:48

I’ve just highlighted is in rate and

02:53

I could possibly put that onto a

02:56

different layer and for convenience

02:59

purposes i will do that at the moment

03:01

normally I would just delete it because

03:03

it’s not necessary but I want to show

03:05

you another feature function here while

03:07

we’re programming so I popped onto a

03:10

blue layer at the moment and that blue

03:14

layer I’m going to put it up here and

03:17

we’re going to have a double clicked on

03:19

that blue layer to open up this

03:21

parameter window and it says is output

03:25

yes or what no well if I want an output

03:31

and I want this to cut then I would have

03:33

to say yes but because this is the

03:36

outside shape of the material that i’m

03:38

going to be using I don’t want it to cut

03:41

so in this particular instance I would

03:43

answer that question

03:45

no and now everything else down here is

03:50

just unimportant because I’ve said I

03:52

don’t want an output so you can hide

03:54

certain parts of the program if you wish

03:56

by putting them on a different layer and

03:58

then using this function here is output

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

04:01

so we’re happy with that so we say ok

04:05

and now we’ll go to the black layer

04:07

double click on it and it will open up

04:10

the parameter window

04:13

okay now this is where we really started

04:16

programming we’ve got to decide what

04:20

speed and feed we’re going to cut these

04:22

parts out from now there’s two

04:23

millimeter acrylic now I’ve got 18

04:26

months of experience of cutting these

04:28

materials but it is on a different

04:29

machine with a different lens and that

04:32

makes a big difference and i will

04:34

explain that to you later on in the

04:35

series so for the moment just go with me

04:39

I think I’m probably going to have to

04:41

use around about 20 millimeters a second

04:44

i might be able to get away with 25 I

04:47

can’t say because I don’t know what

04:49

lenses in this machine so the next

04:53

question the first question there was is

04:55

this output

04:56

well we’ve already seen that yes we do

04:58

need to cut so we’ve got definitely got

05:00

to answer that question yes

05:02

now there’s a question here which says

05:03

is it says if blowing yes or no

05:08

well it’s a bit of a silly question and

05:11

it’s a bit of a super first question in

05:13

a way because this is blowing or if

05:16

blowing yes or no is all to do with the

05:19

air assist now if you remember when we

05:24

did our introduction i said to you

05:26

please please please do not turn your

05:29

air assist off make sure that your air

05:32

assistance on every time you are doing

05:34

cutting and that’s because we don’t want

05:36

the smoke to go up in the lens and

05:38

disrupt the efficiency of the lens we

05:43

have the option here to turn this off

05:45

with a solenoid in the Machine and that

05:47

solenoid is not in my machine and it’s

05:49

unlikely to be in your machine either

05:50

because I don’t think think later would

05:53

put that function in here so instead of

05:56

blowing read era cyst and generally

05:59

leave the air assist on

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

06:03

I would never advise you to turn it off

06:05

now we’re going to go down here to the

06:08

cutting processing mode i’m not going to

06:12

go into this involved window here then

06:14

we’ll just keep it simple and we’ve got

06:18

several options in here we’ve got Penn

06:20

dot cut and scan or scanning is for

06:24

engraving and for bitmaps dotting is for

06:28

some rather interesting cutting

06:31

facilities and pen

06:33

I’m honest I’ve got a clue but we should

06:37

find out before we get down to teach you

06:39

about that so we’re going to use cut

06:43

because that’s what we want to do cut

06:44

these parts power

06:47

well I’ve used a fairly fairly high

06:50

speed here because i’m anticipating

06:53

using a fairly high power now i’m going

06:56

to be using 65-percent and sixty-five

07:00

percent now first of all when you cut

07:04

things in general you always use the

07:07

same max or the same mean and a max

07:10

power there are exceptions but i’m not

07:15

going to cover those at the moment we’ll

07:16

keep it simple

07:18

sixty-five percent is maximum power but

07:23

I can hear you asking but the Machine

07:24

goes up to a hundred percent why can’t i

07:26

use a hundred percent you may remember

07:29

back to the first session as well are

07:31

highlighted you have an ammeter on the

07:33

machine and the ammeter basically gives

07:37

you an idea of what power you’re putting

07:39

through your laser tube now we’ll go and

07:41

explain a lot more about the laser tube

07:43

in another session but at the moment

07:45

just trust me that 65-percent is

07:49

probably the maximum power that i can

07:51

use and at that point in time I would

07:54

have reached the 22 milliamp limit for

07:58

the tube i mentioned to you before don’t

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

08:01

take the default if for any reason we

08:05

get down here and we find this through

08:07

powers ticked on ticket we don’t need it

08:11

so what we set on there we’ve answered a

08:14

few simple questions and we said okay

08:18

now you might not believe it but we’ve

08:20

virtually programmed the job

08:24

the only thing that we haven’t

08:26

programmed is the order in which we want

08:29

these things to be cut there are many

08:31

ways of ordering things on this

08:34

particular piece of software one of the

08:38

ways in which you can order them as you

08:40

come up here to this layer and you can

08:42

swap the layers over so look I pulled

08:45

the black up all the black layer

08:46

underneath then there is no preferential

08:49

treatment therefore these layers what

08:51

will happen is the blue light will cut

08:52

first and then the backlight will cut

08:54

second if the black client had scan on

08:58

it regardless of whether the blue layer

09:00

is a cut the black layer will be cut

09:03

first because it’s a scan layer and

09:05

scans always take precedence over cuts

09:08

the layer order is absolutely used if

09:11

you’ve got scanning taking place but

09:13

because we only get two cuts they’re

09:15

technically the blue liar if it was a

09:17

cutting layer would cut first

09:19

because it’s not cutting it doesn’t

09:21

matter i want to go to handle and we’re

09:25

going to open handle up and I want you

09:28

to come down here to cut optimized and

09:33

there’s a little window here which we

09:36

could take order of layer i mentioned

09:39

that just now we don’t want order of

09:41

layer we could have it so that the parts

09:45

cut from the inside to the outside

09:48

hey now that makes sense because we do

09:51

want the holes cut before we on the

09:53

outside cut only the on for a minute

09:57

because i want to show you something

09:58

else start point optimized doesn’t

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

10:00

matter whether that’s on off this block

10:06

handle and I cannot see question because

10:10

I’ve got no idea what it is and then we

10:14

get these directions which allows us to

10:17

cut up from bottom to up left to right

10:21

right to left different ways of

10:24

processing job I tell you what let’s do

10:26

bottom to jump

10:29

so we’ve made the selection at the

10:31

moment and I’ve done nothing to these

10:33

parts would you like to have a preview

10:36

of how these parts are going to be cut

10:40

let’s do that up at the top here we’ve

10:43

got a little television screen and if i

10:45

click that preview screen we’ve got

10:49

something here called a simulation know

10:51

what i would do is i would put these

10:52

sliders down in the first instance

10:54

towards the bottom maybe not very far

10:57

down the top 10 i would put that

10:59

probably about halfway along and the

11:01

bottom one I take it towards the start

11:05

otherwise things will happen very

11:06

quickly so we’re going to do a

11:08

simulation and let’s have a look what

11:10

this simulation does press the simulate

11:13

button and then move your move across to

11:16

the slider so that you can change the

11:18

speed

11:23

now look at the Blue Cross going down

11:26

from the right-hand side there and it’s

11:30

cutting the inside and now it’s doing

11:32

the outside we could speed it up a

11:34

little bit and it’s doing the holes on

11:37

the inside and is doing the outside

11:39

holes on the inside and then the outside

11:44

so everything’s working well

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

12:02

and there we go

12:04

we’ve just proved that this job will run

12:07

perfectly and I’ve had to do no more

12:10

programming than that so i can close

12:11

this down with those settings which are

12:14

not my favorite settings but with those

12:16

settings and you would notice that it

12:19

started from the bottom and worked its

12:21

way along and up and it worked from the

12:23

inside and did the outside second on

12:26

every one of these parts

12:28

that’s almost as difficult as it gets to

12:32

program these simple parts the programs

12:34

written the only thing that we haven’t

12:36

done now is to get it into the Machine I

12:40

need to plug in a memory state to this

12:41

pc which I’ve just done we need to come

12:45

down here as i mentioned before and

12:47

check that the device is on USB

12:50

automatic the one thing that we don’t

12:53

want on is something down here which

12:55

could be on tipped pass optimized leave

12:58

the path optimized off my advice and

13:02

then this position here leave the

13:04

current position on don’t choose another

13:07

one and then we’re going to save this

13:11

the two things that you could do now the

13:13

first thing is if you like to use this

13:15

file again which is possible we need to

13:19

save it so we can save as

13:23

now you’ll note that down here it says

13:25

it’s an rld file now in rld file is

13:29

something you can save and you can open

13:31

again and again and again the file will

13:36

be saved with all these parameters the

13:38

cut parameters and so it’s a

13:41

preservation of exactly all the work

13:43

that you’ve done so i’m going to call

13:46

this beam targets

13:52

and now i’m going to come down here to

13:55

the save you file button to my removable

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

14:00

disk and we’ll save it as the same again

14:05

head2 they are good and that happy sign

14:13

there i think i might have mentioned to

14:15

you before and Chinese that stands for

14:19

have a nice day ok now we need to tackle

14:24

the other item on this project we will

14:28

import the dxf file again and this time

14:33

we will be brutal and we would delete

14:36

this part of the children

14:39

and then we’ll take the top now just

14:41

remember that this is not a correct is

14:44

white card now before we delete the

14:47

border I just want you to note how

14:49

relatively tight

14:51

the job is to the material that’s

14:53

available i should mention that again

14:55

when we come to set the job up on the

14:57

machine just move this to a slightly

14:59

more central position and I said it’s

15:02

for no particular reason other than just

15:04

visual appearance and convenience

15:07

it’s got nothing to do with how we going

15:09

to set up on the machine itself here

15:13

we’ve got some lightweight card targets

15:15

that we should be firing the laser beam

15:17

at their couple of things I want you to

15:19

note about this design first of all

15:23

everything has got round corners on it

15:27

on this target

15:28

although these are ellipses for very

15:32

good reason i will explain that later on

15:35

they’re not round targets even though

15:36

the mirrors around the targets are not

15:38

round when it comes to writing the

15:41

programs we trying to achieve burn lines

15:43

only scorch lines on the surface of the

15:45

material and then we’re trying to cut

15:47

around the outside shape the outside

15:49

shape if we look carefully right at the

15:51

very top here you’ll see that it’s not

15:53

complete the line does not go all the

15:56

way around that’s purposely done so that

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

15:58

these pieces stay attached to the sheet

16:01

of paper they remain in there so that

16:03

you can pull them off as you need them

16:05

so how we going to achieve these two

16:07

different power levels one for cutting

16:09

and 14 scorching the simple way is to

16:12

put the mounted two different layers so

16:14

what I’m going to do is put a marquee

16:16

and watch carefully what I’m doing with

16:18

this marquee I’m just covering all the

16:21

targets on line one

16:24

and I’m not going to let the Marquis go

16:27

you’ll notice all the targets of turned

16:30

rate I didn’t turn the outside shapes

16:33

read because the Marquis only covered

16:35

part of the shape the outside shape to

16:38

collect the shape you need to cover it

16:40

completely

16:42

ok so we’ve collected all that line of

16:44

targets what I’m now going to do is to

16:47

hold the shift key down and I’m now

16:50

going to collect the second line of

16:51

targets you’ll notice that they joined

16:56

the first line of targets now still got

16:58

my shift key held down and I’m going to

17:01

do the same thing with the third line of

17:03

targets

17:04

ok so now I’ve actually highlighted

17:07

collected whatever term you want all the

17:11

targets now I’m going to come down to

17:13

the bottom here and i’m going to click

17:14

the blue layer and watch what happens

17:17

first of all your note up here that

17:19

we’ve created a blue layer the top

17:20

right-hand corner so what I’m going to

17:23

do a double click on that blue layer

17:24

click and that will open up the cutting

17:28

parameters when I said cutting

17:30

parameters in this case they’re going to

17:32

be scorching parameters

17:33

it’s a bit of a difficult decision as to

17:36

what speed we should run at because I

17:38

could put 500 millimeters a second in

17:41

there but it wouldn’t change the speed

17:43

of the head now let me just give you a

17:45

little explanation that might help i own

17:48

a Ferrari i wish i did and and I live on

17:52

a block that is about 200 meters square

17:55

and I’d like to go racing around the

17:59

block every time I come to a corner i

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

18:01

had to put the brakes on slow right down

18:03

and go around the corner then I could

18:05

put my foot down likely accelerate like

18:07

billy-o and off I go again but no sooner

18:11

had got up to about 50 miles an hour and

18:12

I’ve got to put the brakes on for the

18:14

next corner so only a hundred fifty

18:16

miles an hour

18:17

Ferrari has no benefit to me as i’m

18:21

racing around this very very small sharp

18:23

corner block

18:25

now things would be slightly better if i

18:29

lived on a 200-meter circular block

18:32

because at least I could get up to speed

18:34

and I wouldn’t have to keep slowing down

18:36

every time I got to a corner so that’s

18:41

the basic analogy that I want you to

18:42

remember when you’re doing laser cutting

18:44

every time you get to a sharp corner

18:47

the machine has to slow down stop and

18:51

change direction if you put radius

18:54

corners on your design wherever you can

18:56

and it’s not always practical then the

18:59

laser will release it will move smoothly

19:02

around the corner without slowing down

19:04

as much so that’s a very simple design

19:07

principle which I’d like you to

19:08

understand from the start and hence the

19:10

reason why I’ve got round corners on all

19:12

these targets

19:13

I don’t want the beam to slow down and

19:15

burn through in places i want the speed

19:17

to be kept as high as I possibly can

19:20

running it 500 millimeters a second is a

19:22

waste of effort because it just is never

19:24

going to get to 500 millimeters a second

19:26

so I’m choosing a number of 200 and I

19:28

think that will be fast enough to 22 not

19:31

to burn through well the first question

19:33

is always is output well yes we want

19:36

some output and so we’ve set the speed

19:38

now we go into these if blowing will

19:40

ignore that because that should be set

19:41

to yes processing mode

19:43

well we’ve got two choices we can either

19:46

scan or cut we don’t want to scan that

19:49

because i will show you how a port scan

19:52

is doing that particular job in later

19:55

episodes this is what we need to do we

19:57

need to have it on a cut

19:59

bear in mind we’re trying to only

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

20:00

scratched the surface we need to have

20:03

the power as low as we can possibly get

20:05

it now I don’t know

20:07

on this particular 60 watt tube what the

20:09

minimum power is I can use in 0% because

20:13

if 0% is programmed in the later won’t

20:16

fire at all the later probably won’t

20:18

fire until about maybe a

20:20

nine ten percent somewhere in that sort

20:24

of region so i’m going to set the power

20:26

down to about ten percent and we’ll see

20:30

whether or not that’s enough we can

20:32

always edit these values on the machine

20:34

and we’ll go through that if we need to

20:37

so i’m going to set my max and min power

20:39

to ten percent later through mode is one

20:43

ticked and that’s it

20:45

we’ve only got two parameters to really

20:47

set speed and power

20:49

ok now we’ve got to work out how we’re

20:51

going to cut the outside shape and to do

20:53

that we’re gonna have to bring up double

20:55

click click the back liar again is

20:58

output this question is really asking do

21:00

you want me to include this item when i

21:02

write a program the answer is yes we do

21:05

want in the program speed

21:07

I think I’ll go for something like about

21:09

80 millimeters a second and i’m going to

21:12

probably use a power of maybe 20

21:15

possibly 25-percent there’s not it’s not

21:19

an exact science so what we got to do

21:21

now is make sure we get these things in

21:23

the right order

21:24

we want to make sure that we scorch the

21:25

target’s first and then week at the

21:27

outside shapes second now I’m going to

21:30

take you back up here to the handles and

21:35

we going to go to this cut optimized

21:38

now we’re going to have to adopt a

21:41

slightly different strategy this time

21:42

there are different ways in which we

21:44

could tackle this problem how we’re

21:46

going to cut these but let’s stay with

21:48

the cut optimized handle facilities at

21:50

the moment and this time we’re going to

21:52

use the order property we can take this

21:56

inside the outside because we’ve got two

21:59

different powers that we are using if we

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

22:02

use the layer order we could ask for all

22:06

the blue layer to be done first and then

22:08

for the black layer to be cut afterwards

22:11

and that’s the sensible thing to do it

22:14

doesn’t really matter how we have this

22:16

set with we run top to bottom left to

22:18

right up to down it really just doesn’t

22:21

matter and then again the start position

22:23

to start point optimized doesn’t really

22:26

matter either but we’ll leave it ticked

22:27

we’ve decided to go for order of layer

22:31

ok and now we’ve got to look up here at

22:35

the black and the blue layer now i

22:38

mentioned to you before that the order

22:41

of these layers is the order in which

22:43

they will be cut

22:45

especially now that we’ve chosen the

22:47

layer order as the option cutting option

22:49

so we don’t want the outside cut first

22:53

we want the target to be scorched first

22:55

so we need to click on the black layer

22:59

and drag down below the blue layer so we

23:03

promote the blue layer to the top of the

23:04

list so that it will cut first and we

23:07

can check what’s happening by going up

23:09

here to the little preview screen

23:11

now my first question is why don’t we

23:15

have the targets on here

23:17

well let’s go back and have a look let’s

23:22

check the blue layer is output no yes it

23:27

is

23:29

ok

23:31

now we fix the problem let’s go and have

23:33

a look

23:36

and there we go so you can see how

23:39

useful this preview feature is and we do

23:43

the simulation and know what we’ve got

23:46

it running we can start to speed up to

23:47

see where it’s going watch the Blue

23:49

Cross going down to the bottom left-hand

23:50

corner and there we go look at is

23:53

creating all across this week speed it

23:55

up now quite considerably and is doing

23:59

all the targets and now we’re slow it

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

24:01

down again and if we watch again for the

24:05

bottom right-hand corner it’s busy

24:07

cutting the targets out so we’ll just

24:10

want the simulation up again speed it

24:12

all up

24:19

there we go hundred percent success and

24:22

now all we’ve got to do is first of all

24:24

we’ve got to save this to a file which

24:26

i’m not going to do because you’ve

24:27

already seen me do that and then we’ve

24:29

got to save it to a you file again I’m

24:32

not going to demonstrate that because

24:33

you see me doing it so we’ll finish up

24:35

at the machine to see if we can start

24:38

cutting these items so here’s the piece

24:41

of material parts from now they probably

24:45

just about enough material to the job so

24:47

i don’t really want to experiment with

24:49

that I have a piece of material here at

24:53

the same time which i’ve used for

24:54

another purpose and into the machine

24:58

here i have put already a 40-millimeter

25:02

test square which i’m going to use to

25:05

get checked the cutting parameters

25:07

before we start doing the real job

25:10

ok so we’ve got our 40 millimeter square

25:13

and in-memory already so I’ll just press

25:17

enter and you’ll note here that the

25:22

moment I’ve got the speed set to 20

25:24

millimeters a second 65-percent power

25:27

now that will be my first attempt

25:29

now i’m going to drag the hay very

25:32

slightly towards zero not that 40

25:36

millimeter square is going to worry me

25:38

we’re now going to show you the startup

25:40

procedure using the autofocus which

25:42

should automatically set the focus of

25:43

whatever lens I’ve got in here to the

25:46

right position

25:47

first of all we need to press the suzuki

25:49

and that gives us all these options down

25:52

here now right at the bottom of the list

25:55

we’ve got auto focus now sorry before we start

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

25:59

what I’ve got is something there called

26:01

as it move at the top you would

26:04

naturally think that if you want the

26:05

table to go up and down you would press

26:07

the up key to send it up and the down

26:10

key to send it down

26:11

no it doesn’t work like that

26:13

because as you can see the up key in the

26:15

down key rotating around the menu

26:19

let’s get back to the move to get the

26:21

table to drop down you’ll need to press

26:24

the left hand arrow key and if we just

26:27

watch with the left hand arrow key

26:29

buying what

26:32

that’s a little bit strange they seem to

26:33

be the wrong way around intuitively I

26:35

would have thought the left is a minus

26:37

key and the right there is a plus key

26:39

doesn’t do that or an interesting point

26:41

so we’re doing the table down and we can

26:45

drive it up and down manually now we’re

26:47

well clear of the the nozzle plenty room

26:50

underneath there

26:51

so now what we’re going to do is use

26:52

these down arrow keys to get to write

26:55

the bottom of the list there there’s

26:56

something called autofocus ok i’m now

26:59

going to press the enter button and

27:01

we’ll see your to focus working touches

27:07

the switch stops

27:09

backs off

27:11

that it carries forward again

27:20

manufacturer up a little bit more

27:23

and that’s the correct autofocus

27:26

position the autofocus switch is

27:29

actually about six millimeters above the

27:31

surface so we’re ready to run my 40

27:33

millimeter test square now i can either

27:36

drive to hate around or in this

27:37

particular instance because I’ve got

27:39

because I’ve got the cover open i can

27:41

actually set my material where I wanted

27:43

to be no remember and I keep stressing

27:46

this point that we’re working from this

27:48

top left-hand corner here and we should

27:51

draw a 40 mile square out here so just

27:55

to prove the point more than anything

27:56

else what I’ll do I’ll put my material

27:58

on that corner there right now I could

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

28:03

have driven the mature i could have

28:04

driven the hate to that corner but I’ve

28:06

moved the material to that corner so let

28:09

me know press something on the machine

28:11

called the frame button and what it will

28:13

do it will just tell me where the hate

28:15

is going to move

28:18

yeah well just went away because i

28:22

forgot to set the origin point so let me

28:25

drive it back again to get that point

28:28

just there

28:31

and now I’ll press the origin button and

28:34

do it properly now we’ll press frame and

28:39

there we go there’s my 40 millimeter

28:40

square the sort of things i do

28:44

instinctively have got to come to you

28:46

slowly so the first thing you need to

28:49

just think about is how i got my air

28:51

assist on

28:52

yes is everything clear yes whatever

28:56

what am I missing

28:58

well there is one big thing that are

29:00

missing and that’s the extract system

29:07

but he got very protective

29:17

that did I cut through

29:19

yes I did

29:22

this frame is here this aluminium frame

29:25

is reasonable point i can actually use

29:29

that almost like a reference square in

29:31

the corner there and to make sure that

29:34

it is square because the whole table can

29:37

move around

29:38

push it to that back corner over there

29:39

and then we should know that the frame

29:41

is square with the machine basically and

29:43

then we can slide this piece of material

29:45

into that corner there then we can drive

29:48

the head

29:50

towards the corner from the cherry

29:52

so I’ve got my memory stick plugged into

29:54

the Machine and now i’m going to press

29:56

the fire button

29:59

and that will enable me to get to the

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

30:03

second menu there that’s our press this

30:05

button and we get across to the unis are

30:08

compressed the enter button

30:11

and I get you just menu and I need to

30:14

read you this to start with

30:17

and on here i should find big dog and

30:21

card talk later the two files i need to

30:24

transfer into this machine so we’ll do

30:27

that while we’re here we’re going to

30:28

head tog and move within move across

30:31

popular memory

30:35

copy successful enter

30:39

card dog

30:43

copy the memory

30:47

well being

30:50

eh

30:52

escape

30:56

okay and there’s my car targets in

30:58

machine memory

31:00

so now i’m going to go back to file its

31:03

escape back to file

31:06

and now we’re going to find

31:09

on the memory

31:12

hey talk and there is in time

31:17

and we’re ready to go

31:21

so we can know press the Go button shop

31:24

wasting materi

31:54

let’s see how well let’s cut its cut

31:58

well I should be able to just lift this

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

32:00

off

32:01

well that is superb

32:04

now my fear with this honeycomb paid is

32:09

that it would mark the back of these

32:11

products let me just have a look across

32:14

this age here and we’ll see whether or

32:17

not my fears are in any way

32:22

founded well vary slightly but i don’t

32:28

think anything there’s certainly no

32:30

marks on the back of the product there

32:32

and if we look along the agent I catch

32:36

in the light right let’s just see if we

32:39

can catch in the light right yeah maybe

32:41

like that you probably just can see some

32:43

little marks on the age of the material

32:46

there where you’ve got little

32:47

reflections off the honeycomb age but if

32:51

that’s as bad as it gets

32:53

then I should be very pleased what my

32:55

concern was that it would be along the

32:57

back of the product here this particular

32:59

material is two millimeter extruded

33:02

acrylic now extruded a critic has got

33:04

slightly different cutting properties to

33:08

cast acrylic cast acrylic tends to

33:12

produce a really lovely clean eh with no

33:16

birds

33:17

this has got a protective film on it and

33:19

you still having a bit of trouble

33:20

getting the protective film off but

33:23

protective film is the thing that I

33:24

think is stopping it from being damaged

33:27

and by reflections off of this surface

33:30

and it’s done a pretty good job actually

33:33

I can’t see any i can see when I hold it

33:37

up to the light and catch the light on it

33:39

I can’t see any marks on there at all

33:43

from the honeycomb one one or two just

33:48

round here there are definite marks

33:51

around the age but that’s nothing

33:54

absolutely nothing

33:56

there’s a little sharp age all the way

33:57

around the bottom each there which

33:59

happens with too much technical birth

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

34:02

which happens with extruded acrylic and

34:05

you tend not to get that with cast

34:07

acrylic

34:07

the next part of the job involves a for

34:09

white card and that’s the website that i

34:13

got it from its 300 gram craft card i

34:17

bought this card for manufacturing and

34:21

christmas cards and birthday cards and

34:23

to be honest it’s not very good for

34:24

doing that sort of work to lovely card a

34:27

lovely skip card but it’s got so much

34:29

china clay in it that it actually smokes

34:31

on the surface and it produces not very

34:34

good so i use this for all sorts of

34:36

tests work and particularly what we’re

34:38

going to use it for now which is to make

34:41

these targets so gain we can tap it up

34:43

in the corner there so we’ve got a nice

34:45

reference to work with no you don’t need

34:48

to see me loading the program again

34:49

because you’ve already seen I’ve got my

34:51

programming and road now and technically

34:53

I’m sitting right in the corner of the

34:56

shape here but first this is not two

34:58

millimeter thick material this is only

35:00

probably about half a millimeter thick

35:02

so I really want to go away and do the

35:06

autofocus again so we’ll drive ahead

35:12

adding to the work area and then we’ll

35:15

use the sig Dukey and I’ll carry out

35:18

your can focus procedure

35:22

ok

35:24

I’ve got my origin still sit in the

35:27

corner there so technically I don’t need

35:29

to go back and reset my origin so what

35:31

do I will know just do spraying test and

35:35

the first thing that should happen is

35:36

the hatred drive towards the corner to

35:39

find the origin and then it will run

35:41

around and we’ve got to check that it

35:43

doesn’t run off with the paper anywhere

35:47

little bit tight there Thank You room

35:49

there

35:50

little bit of room there so really we

35:52

can do and is tight along the back there

35:55

so what we do is drive to hate forward

35:57

slightly and in slightly too much about

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

36:00

there

36:02

depress the origin button there

36:05

and then we do afraid again to check

36:07

again

36:09

that’s good that’s good

36:13

that looks very tight Medicare know so

36:17

we need to come back just a shade

36:19

like that maybe one more

36:24

right there is good origin

36:26

I’m happy with that so we’re just gonna

36:28

go for it

36:29

we’ll see what happens

36:36

you had too much outlook my tobe flowing

36:40

out

36:42

that’s not good at it

36:46

press the pause button press escape

36:48

button

36:51

disaster really let’s go and have a look

36:53

at how we can edit the program

36:54

administrator

36:56

right well we need to press the escape

36:58

button to start with I think because

37:00

we’re part way through the program let’s

37:02

just check

37:10

enter again

37:13

and one more time

37:15

and all of a sudden we get the editing

37:17

menu down here for the blue layer if you

37:22

remember the blue layer was the target

37:24

itself

37:27

so we need to edit the blue layer

37:32

you come down here to the speed and I

37:34

don’t think the speed is the issue

37:36

to be honest I think it’s really the

37:38

power now I don’t know what minimum

37:40

powers i said to you I can actually

37:42

operate this machine on let’s take it

37:45

down to as low as ordered this me is the

37:49

reason

37:52

mistake on my part somewhere 65-percent

37:56

no wonder it cut

37:58

but while we’re here we will edit his

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

38:00

power down to

38:05

we’ll take it down to ten percent and

38:08

we’ll see what happens and then we press

38:10

the musée du Bac Ninh game and come

38:12

down here and we correct my obvious

38:14

mistake

38:26

ten percent

38:29

setup success in time

38:32

that makes your face

38:40

parking here

38:42

he had pc that certainties

38:52

that tells me i’m using a sony of

38:55

operations between possesses

38:59

high-frequency impacting baby

39:03

now I will explain to you in another

39:05

session what that’s all about

39:09

but it makes a lot of noise as you can

39:12

hear not bad at all

39:16

and this is why would never want to use

39:17

this metric table 2 doing card work if

39:22

we look down here you’ll see clearly

39:24

where the theme has passed over one of

39:28

these and it’s giving reflections on the

39:31

back

39:32

they’re all over the price these

39:33

reflections

39:36

for high-quality card that would be

39:39

totally unacceptable

39:41

you can probably see on the frontier

39:42

what I mean about the smoky effect this

39:45

is definitely got a brown change to it

39:47

where it’s blown out and across the

39:51

surface that’s high china clay content

39:53

in here which is blowing up if we get

39:56

the different sort of paper we won’t

39:58

have this problem and in fact what i

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

40:00

would do is immediately show you the

40:02

difference between different types of

40:04

paper here we have a paper that i

40:06

absolutely loved use the card work as

40:09

you can see it’s a watercolor paper and

40:12

it comes in a thick pad of a hand roots

40:18

and it’s just got a lovely sort of a

40:20

texture on the surface now I would just

40:24

take a piece of already used

40:33

I think you can probably see that this

40:35

is a much cleaner cut there’s virtually

40:37

no drowning at all around this cut here

40:44

but this would get even better this cut

40:47

if i was to use this high-impact

40:49

engraving phase which I’ve got to

40:52

investigate to find out where it’s

40:54

limited I like to run card cutting right

40:58

at the top limit of that particular

40:59

operating phase for the tube you heard

41:03

operating here at ten percent well it

41:05

may well be that i can get it up to

41:06

maybe thirteen fourteen percent and it

41:10

will still exist in which case i can use

41:12

it for cutting as well

41:16

ok well the time has come to start doing

41:18

something with these pieces now the

41:20

thing that we got to do with these is to

41:22

assemble them and we’ve actually got to

41:24

glue them together is a blue them

41:26

together we should need a special

41:29

adhesive for bonding creek now I’ve got

41:33

the material here from a company called

41:35

bond right and it is actually petg will

41:41

cement now technically I should have a

41:45

creek world cement but I know that

41:47

petg world’s men will do the job

41:51

acrylic cement won’t won’t meet etg but

41:55

it will work the other way around for

41:57

some strange chemical reason now this

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

42:00

stuff will evaporate very very quickly

42:02

so you need to make sure that you always

42:04

keep the lid on they don’t want to give

42:07

you a little bubble what I do is I just

42:10

squeeze the bottle very slowly release

42:13

it so that time suck some of the fluid

42:16

which is just like water

42:18

I think probably see I’ve only got a

42:19

very small amount in the bottom there so

42:21

we put the needle on the top there like

42:23

that and now we’re going to begin the

42:26

assembly to this four pieces to this one

42:28

and four pieces to that one

42:30

now it is actually pretty obvious how

42:32

these go together so soon as that but

42:36

now what we’ve got to do is to bond it

42:38

together the way we do that is we will

42:42

try and keep my fingers away from the

42:44

actual little 10 joints will lay this in

42:48

a horizontal plane and then I don’t know

42:51

whether we can get close enough to see

42:52

it but when i took this up very gently

42:55

the fluid that’s in here which is very

42:58

watery will just flow out and it will

43:01

actually buy a capillary action flow

43:04

into the joint there is as simple as

43:08

that it produces a really neat little

43:10

joint now going to hold that for

43:11

something like about 10 seconds 15

43:14

seconds just to get it to bond and dry

43:16

off again I’m gonna run this joe gently

43:19

turn it just turn it off horizontal and

43:22

then when the bit when it runs just go

43:24

straight

43:25

after about 15 or 20 seconds that will

43:29

have fixed now i can run along this

43:33

joint as well there and they’re now I

43:42

don’t with you could say in this line

43:44

but here’s the marks that i was talking

43:46

about on the back edge there on the h

43:48

those marks haven’t affected surface

43:50

material but they have actually just

43:52

impacted along the edge there that’s the

43:54

reflections off of the Calico section

43:57

it’s not a major issue it’s just

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

44:01

interesting that I can see them

44:03

well there’s our first target holder

44:05

made and will pop out target on their

44:10

the target locates here so its reach

44:14

repeatedly sitting in the same position

44:17

so that we can fire a laser beam at it

44:19

but I’m afraid you’re gonna have to be

44:21

patient to see that because we’ve got a

44:23

few more sessions before we get to doing

44:25

anything with this this next item is an

44:29

interesting item as well now i put these

44:31

two pieces together like this and i

44:35

produced up basically what looks like a

44:37

pocket here now you would normally make

44:40

that one thick piece of material and you

44:43

would Miller pocket it or you could make

44:45

this a piece of six millimeter say a

44:48

critical five-millimeter critic and you

44:49

could try engraving a sort of a pocket

44:54

in there but it wouldn’t be all that

44:56

accurate

44:57

this is a much more accurate way of

44:59

making that pocket with two pieces but

45:02

then you have the problem of how do I

45:03

stick it together

45:05

well we have got this stuff remember but

45:09

I’m not gonna be using that for main

45:11

location what we’re using we using these

45:15

bases now these pieces if you look

45:17

carefully

45:18

we’ve got tons on the end which are

45:22

twice the thickness of the material

45:23

gonna pop those through those slots it

45:28

all locates locks together nicely along

45:31

message

45:32

captain like that run along message here

45:35

like this as quickly as that and to be

45:39

honest it’s nicely held together if I

45:41

can manipulate my hand over far enough

45:43

that i might be able to rely on his work

45:50

which will save me waiting too many

45:53

seconds now the only other thing that

45:55

we’ve got to do is this piece here is a

45:57

little but only a little bit on the

Transcript For This RDWorks Software Tutorial (Cont….)

46:00

flimsy side so what I’m going to do I’m

46:02

going to run a bead of glue along that

46:04

joint there

46:05

well that’s the end of that first

46:07

programming and production project now

46:11

these items will be used at a future

46:13

date and we’ve got a couple more that we

46:16

going to manufacture that will be used

46:18

in conjunction with these during one

46:21

long session for checking the

46:23

performance of the machine so that we

46:25

benchmarked the machine

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The Site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. Our affiliates include the following:

  • makeCNC who provide Downloadable Patterns, Software, Hardware and other content for Laser Cutters, CNC Routers, Plasma, WaterJets, CNC Milling Machines, and other Robotic Tools. They also provide Pattern Files in PDF format for Scroll Saw Users. They are known for their Friendly and Efficient Customer Service and have a comprehensive back catalogue as well as continually providing New Patterns and Content.
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