• Laptop
• Inkscape

• Lasercutter

• FoamCore

• This machine can cause fire! A lot of little cuts that are close together, especially on foam core, can cause fire. Never leave the laser cutter while it is running. In the case of fire, stop the cut immediately and use the flame shield located on the laser cutter bed to suffocate the flame.

For this example, we will be laser cutting a coaster with a laser engraved designed.

Guide

First, lets get the design we are going to be laser engraving on the coaster.	Open Inkscape and upload your file! If you don't have a design, the noun project is a great resource to download free PNGs.	Once you upload your file, we are going to trace the bitmap! go to the little picture icon on the top left. You can slide the threshold if the preview looks wonky.
When you hit apply, it will create 2 versions of the deign. when you zoom in, one will start to look grainy and one will look clear. The one that looks clear no matter how far you zoom in is the correct one! You can delete the other one!	Now we can set the stroke and fill. Right click on the black color at the bottom left and click set stroke. Right click on the white square with the red X and click set fill.
Now we will create the circle that we will cut out to make the coaster. Use the circle tool on the left to create the rough shape. go to the top right and change the width and height.	you can change the stroke thickness if it is too thick.	Next, save as a DXF 14 with a unique name an upload it to hackberrylab.com/files
Now, move to the computer near the laser cutter. Download you file from the file server.	open up the red and black icon at the bottom of the screen. Go to file→ import and choose your file.	turn on the laser cutter.
You will have to put different colors for different actions on the laser cutter. For this example we will say that Red is for cutting and black is for engraving. Select everything you want the machine to cut out and make it red by finding the red icon at the bottom. Do the same for black with everything you want engraved.	Next, go to the top right of the screen and double click the black rectangle.	It will bring you to this screen. Double click Parameter Library.
It will bring you to this screen. then you can choose the type of material you will be using and whether you want to cut or etch. When laser cutting, its always good to start with foam core as a way to rapidly prototype and make sure the design works before cutting it on more expensive material like wood or acrylic. For this example, select “foamcore - etch”for the black color. Then click the load button and then ok. Do the same steps for the red rectangle but select “foamcore - cut”.	Now you are ready to set up the actual laser cutter! Go ahead and carefully open the top and grab a piece of scrap foam core that your design will fit on.	align the top left corner of foamcore with the nozzle. if you need to move the nozzle, use theses buttons to move it. It is important to try and get the nozzle as close to the edge of the sheet of foamcore as possible to conserve materials
Now we will adjust the height of the bed. Take the piece of acrylic hanging on the red string and use it as a height Reference. With one end touching the foamcore and the other touching the tip of the nozzle, you should be able to move the piece of acrylic back an forth, while still having some resistance. You should hear the air flow being interrupted from the nozzle.	If the nozzle is either too high or too low, you can use these buttons on the raise an lower the bed. The top button will raise the bed, bringing it closer to the nozzle and vise versa.	Once you have the right height an everything looks good, you can close the top of the laser cutter. Make sure to keep two hands on it as you close it because it gets very heavy and slamming it shut can cause significant damage to the laser cutter.
You can now go to the monitor and press start.Make sure to keep an eye on the laser cutter the whole time you are printing. Don't stare directly at the laser for extended periods of time, because that can cause damage to your eyes, but it is important to watch the cut and make sure nothing catches on fire.	Once the cut is done, check to make sure the laser cut all the way through the material before moving it.	Once you are sure it cut all the way though, you can take it out of the laser cutter and now you have a super cool lasercut coaster!!