Wall Plant Pots Production Using Laser Cutting

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Easy

This project is a Plant Pots – Wall Art, produced at the fab lab.

Design was downloaded for free from free-dxf.com and Laser Cut using 3 mm MDF Boards on a Laser Cutter. Parts were then painted , and stuck on a wall after its dry to form the nice 2D wall art.

SOFTWARE 

CorelDraw

HARDWARE 

None

MACHINES

Epilog Fusion M2 – 120 Watts

MATERIALS

3 MDF Boards – 3 mm

PRODUCTION TIME

25 mins

Production Steps

This section describes the different steps followed to produce a simple Laser Cut Wall Art at the Fab Lab.

Step – 1 : Download the Design

In order to Laser Engrave and Cut any object, you need to have its digital design. This is to be done using any Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. In this example, the design was shared for free on https://free-dxf.com/, a website contains many open-source designs that can be downloaded and produced directly. You can find the design file on the links above.

Step – 2: Import Design & Prepare Your File for Laser Job

To prepare the Laser Cutting job, you should open the digital design file in a preparation software and choose the best settings that would achieve the best final result. In this example, we used Corel Draw as a preparation software.

  • Import the digital design file into CorelDraw by selecting “File” > “Import” > Choose you file from location.
  • Choose Your Material: Typically you may have an idea about what kind of material you will use before you laser cut. This is very important to choose the best settings required for the chosen material. Preferred settings for different material can be found in the Machine’s Catalogue. Best settings are usually chosen based on experience and previous tests done. In this example we will be using 3mm Plywood.
  • Select the outline as “Hair Line”:  We select “hair line” for the lines that we want to be cut, in our case the outline circles, and we select “ none “ for the objects that we want to engrave.
  • Choose Your Cutting Parameters: The next step is then deciding on the different parameters for cutting (Vector Settings). We have to choose the best settings we need to have the best result. There are different variables that affect the final product coming out of the Laser Cutter. Among those variables are the Power, Speed, and Frequency. In this example the following settings were used:
    • Vector Settings: Speed: 10%, Power: 100%, Frequency: 10
  • Forward the Job: After choosing all the variables, send the order to the laser cutter. But before pressing Play on the Laser cutter, we have to manually set it up the printer with respect to the material we intend to use.

Step – 3: Setting Up The Laser Cutter

After preparing the file and the relative settings we need, the next step is to place the material we want in the laser cutter and set it up according to the thickness of the material.
To cut and engrave on our laser cutter, the following procedure was followed:

  • Set the focus of the laser using the V shaped Gauge.
  • Set the zero position of the laser on the top left corner of the MDF sheet.
  • Turn On the Air compressor and ventilators .

Step-4: Perform The Cut

Press the play button on the laser cutter, and voila, it starts cutting.

Step-5: Remove Your Parts

Remove the laser parts from the cutting bed after it cools down and all the fumes are sucked out of the machine.

Step-6: Paint your parts

Additional post-processing steps are performed after cutting, such as brushing off powder, cleaning burnt sides, and painting.

The image above shows the new parts after removing from laser cutting and cleaning.

The painting process is shown in the video below. Please make sure to paint in an open and well-ventilated area.

The image below shows the new wall art pieces after painting.

Step-8: Stick the wall art to the wall.

Once all parts are clean and paint is dry, stick the wall art at your favorite spot using double tape.

 

SHARE PROJECT