I am trying to make a gasket for an old motor I have. I have drawn up the gasket in Fusion 360 I have installed the snapmaker post processor/tools but luban does not recognize .nc files in the laser portion. So, I figured I would convert the file to SVG in fusion to import into Luban. 'Cept I can’t figure out how to export the file to and SVG in Fusion. Can’t get fusion to export to DXF correctly either!
So, what do I have to do to get my gasket cut out with the laser on my A350? Am I using the wrong software? Is there an easier way? How can I configure Fusion to work??
OK…thanks brent,slynold. I got Fusion make the DXF file. I loaded into Luban. I attached a picture of my settings. The gasket material is 1.1mm thick. The laser is set at 100% and after 2 passes it only cut down about 0.1 mm. This is my first time using the laser after I set it up and calibrated it as the book said (no guarantee I got that right either).
What am I doing wrong that it will not cut through a piece of basically card stock?
You should just make a file (or use luban to draw a circle) the size of one of your holes.
(I assume you have plenty of gasket material to play with.) . You can do lines too, but I’ve found sometimes when it’s doing curves it reacts differently.
Try slowing down to 100mm/m. Then use that hole and duplicate it a few times and set different settings for each. You can try 50mm/m. Try a different amount of passes on each.
Your pass depth is too much. For a 1.2mm piece with two passes I’d do half the material step down or .6. For 3 .4, for 4 .3 and so on. Divide by # of passes.
Figure out which setting works and then with that knowledge you can set it for the actual gasket.
It’ll save you a lot of time doing some quick tests.
-S
hmmm, not sure what mateial it is. I just took the first sheet off the top of the pile of gasket materials. it was the thickest sheet I have. I tried again to cut it out but this time I slowed it from 300 to 140. Then set the depth to 0.6 It cut deeper but still did not even get half way through the material. Guess I will just have to experiment like -S suggested!
So if it’s getting a third of the way through the material it sounds like you can do it. Just more passes.
Some stuff takes a lot of passes. Some people have reported up to 18 for some stuff.
At that point I’d personally just use a .8mm cnc bit.
-S
So far, I am up to 8 passes at 75mm/m. It worked but I am going to try 8 passes @ 100mm/m.
I did try my “other” cnc to cut the gaskets via a 3.2 mm flat end mill, but it would often shred the edges a little and I had a hard time “fixing” the material to the bed. Too much glue/tape and the material would tear when trying to remove it from the bed. Not enough glue and the material would separate and get destroyed during the process.
The laser, although slower and smelly, gives a much cleaner edge and I can just lay the material flat on the bed with a couple of clamps and it holds fine.
I never would’ve tried past 15. Would’ve moved on to cnc. Hoping that was just a “how many licks” type exercise.
8 passes isn’t bad.
For affixing I’d try the blue tape/CA trick. Tape on a piece of wood. Tape on work piece. CA tape together.
If I was trying to cnc I’d use a flat piece of thin plywood clamped on top of it and then cnc through plywood and gasket material.
Exactly. I’d read so many things that it can’t be done but I was determined to do it. A 10 mm square test cut took 15 minutes to cut. Would never actually do that, it was extremely charred.
If your application for the gasket would work with cork, that will easily laser cut. Cork is a wood product (renewable, processed bark from cork oak trees). It’s low density and wholly cellulosic.
that is some smart stuff on the plywood over top the gasket.
is there a “slicer” for CNC paths as well? i kinda thought that would all be manual coding, at least it is in my primitive world haha
upload the DXF and then assign which tool is going to be cutting for a particular line or something?
i really need to play with the other modules… 3d printing has all ive played with.
edit i guess it would make more sense if you used different dxf files for different operations / paths. it seems like so much hassle to change tables out so i didnt think id do it too often…
It’s called a toolpath and it’s essentially the same as a 3D printed “sliced” stl. (Other than that most 3D printers start at the bottom and work up and CNC generally starts at the top and works down
You can often generate the toolpath from within the CAD tool. It’s subject to the same parameter limitations as the 3D printer, in that you need to provide boundaries, heights, offsets, tool library details and the like for a CNC in the same way that you need to define nozzle parameters, temperatures, etc. for the 3D printer.
Essentially the SM is a 3D controlled G-code processing device with (currently) 3 interchangeable tools, the 3D print head, the CNC head and the Laser Head.
