Well, it’s not mine.  Just the one that I am able to use while at ITP.  Nonetheless – it is AMAZING!

Here are some tips that I have learned from others and from experience.  I hope you find something useful in here.

Learn Illustrator!! You can work in any version of Illustrator – but you need to save your file as a 5.0 version for the system to print.  Draw so you can see things, but prior to printing set your vector lines to (stroke color) to 255, 0, 0  (ff0000), .01 point in thickness.

You can bring your files to the work station on a USB, email them over, etc.

Follow the ITP materials cutting guidelines for speed (rate of mirror travel), power (strength of laser), and frequency (firing time per second of laser). Do not get creative with these settings.

NEVER leave the laser when running!!! It can and has jammed resulting in fire.

I use my own eyewear as a rule (No telling what was crawling around the previous wearer’s eyebrows/eyelashes!).
(not my eyelid!)

It is always good to drill/cut a test hole before cutting your material.  Had I remembered to do that today, I wouldn’t have had to run the machine for three passes.

On a separate file just make  small circle or other shape in area which you have reserved for testing.  Running your test will let you know if you have the settings correct for your material (thank you, John Duane!).

After the laser returns to its home position, allow the system to exhaust the fumes for at least two minutes before opening the hood.

Use sticky tape to pick up your cut parts from their matrix. If they haven’t cut all the way through, you can re-run your cut without moving your material any more than you necessary.

Cut a stack of material for prototyping and have it at the ready.

I use the material at Dick Blick Art Supplies which is a couple of blocks away from 721 Broadway.  Paper is located downstairs back left side (South East corner) of the store. I use the material which as of October 2013 costs $3.99 a sheet.  Every once in a while, I buy a few sheets, store them flat, and am ready to go.

It can take me over an hour to go out of my way to the store, pull the material, stand in line, pay for it, wait for someone who isn’t busy to go to the register where I paid for material, wait for them to take the material downstairs, cut it, then walk upstairs again to hand over the  paper.  Yes, I keep the cut-offs/scrap to use as well.

Blick charges .50 per cut after the first cut.  For less than twenty-five dollars I save myself aggravation, stress, and time: variables which will only increase as the holidays and project deadlines approach.

The good thing about working this way is that once you dial in how you want your material to be cut, the settings should be the same for all your pro to-typing (no three time cutting!).

Should/when you purchase acrylic for cutting, there is a difference in the material’s behavior between cast and extruded.  Cast acrylic cuts/machines  cleaner on both the CNC and the laser.