Production
Connection: USB or Ethernet, whichever is currently working. DO NOT connect both simultaneously, it causes both to fail. Once the laser has a working connection, do not touch the cables.
You must have completed laser checkout training with F2 staff before using this machine unsupervised.
Never leave the laser running unattended. CO2 lasers can ignite material. You must be present and watching the entire job.
Know your fire safety equipment:
The exhaust system must be running before you fire the laser (see Section 2).
Approved materials: wood, acrylic, paper/cardstock, leather, anodized aluminum, glass (engraving only). There is a material reference book that may be at the workstation, check with staff if you're unsure about a material. Never cut PVC, vinyl, polycarbonate, or ABS, they release toxic gases that damage the machine and are dangerous to breathe.
CorelDRAW: Create or open your file. Set your page size to match the dimensions of the piece you're cutting/engraving. This must match the Piece Size in the print driver (Step 4) or your job will be misaligned.
Inkscape also works. The key concepts are the same.
The critical rule for cutting: Vector cut lines must be set to hairline width in CorelDRAW (or the decimal equivalent in Inkscape, ask staff for the exact value if you're unsure). If your lines have any visible thickness, the driver will treat them as raster (engraving) objects instead of vector (cut) objects. This is the single most common mistake in laser cutting.
All text should be converted to curves/outlines before printing to avoid font substitution issues. In CorelDRAW: select text, then Ctrl+Q.
Color mapping: The print driver supports assigning different speed/power/frequency settings to different colored lines, so you can have one color score and another color cut through in the same job. This is covered in the Level 2 class, not in basic checkout.
Job Type — Choose based on your design:
Resolution (DPI) — Controls engraving detail. Does not affect vector cutting.
Raster Settings (for engraving):
Vector Settings (for cutting):
Piece Size — Must match your page size in your design software exactly.
Auto Focus — Check this box to have the machine set the table height automatically. See Section 5 for when to use auto vs. manual.
| Material | Job Type | Raster Speed | Raster Power | Vector Speed | Vector Power | Vector Freq |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wood — engrave only | Raster | 70% | 75% | — | — | — |
| 1/8" wood — cut | Vector | — | — | 12% | 90% | 500 Hz |
| 1/4" wood — cut | Vector | — | — | 7% | 90% | 500 Hz |
| 1/8" wood — engrave + cut | Combined | 70% | 75% | 12% | 90% | 500 Hz |
The laser must be focused to the correct distance from your material. Out-of-focus = wider beam = weaker cuts, blurry engraving, more charring.
Auto focus works well for flat materials of uniform thickness, which is most of what F2 runs.
Use manual focus when your material is warped, uneven, or when you need to position the laser head over a specific area of your workpiece.
Procedure:
If auto focus is consistently producing poor results (blurry engraving, incomplete cuts on material that should work), the calibration may have drifted. Notify staff — do not attempt to recalibrate it yourself.
The laser beam is invisible. The Red Dot Pointer projects a visible red dot showing where the laser will fire. Before running your job, you can use it to verify that your artwork will land where you expect on the material. This is a visual reference only, it does not affect the job.
Before moving your material off the bed, try to press out small cut pieces with your thumbnail first — especially interior/middle pieces. If they don't pop free, the cut didn't go all the way through.
If pieces don't release: You can resend the job as a Vector-only job at double the original speed. This gives the stubborn spots a second pass without the full dwell time of the original cut, which reduces the chance of fire flare-ups. This is much safer than rerunning at the original slow speed.
Fires in the laser are not common but they do happen, especially when cutting thicker wood at slow speeds. Know this sequence before you run your first job.
Step 1: Open the lid. This is the single most important action. Opening the lid does two things: it kills the laser beam immediately (safety interlock), and it keeps the carriage moving so the laser head doesn't park over the fire and melt. Open the lid first, always.
Step 2: If the fire does not go out on its own: Turn off the exhaust fans using the black power strip on the upper-right side of the machine. The exhaust draws outside air through the machine — turning it off starves the fire of airflow. Yes, this lets smoke into the building. That's fine. Smoke in the building is preferable to a fire in the laser.
Step 3: If the fire is still going: Turn off the machine using the black rocker switch on the left rear. Once the machine is powered off, use the fire blanket (mounted on the wall to the right of the laser). The machine must be off before using the blanket.
Step 4: Chemical fire extinguisher: LAST RESORT ONLY. The extinguisher is behind you, about 20 feet back and to the right. Using it will cause more damage to the laser than almost any fire you'd encounter in normal operation. The only scenario where the chemical extinguisher makes sense is if the material has spread fire beyond the cutting bed, or if there's a risk of electrical/wiring fire.
Summary: Lid, Exhaust off, Machine off + Blanket, Extinguisher (wiring fires only)
The CO2 laser tube is a sealed gas tube. Running it at 100% power pushes the gas discharge harder, generates more heat, and accelerates degradation of the gas mixture. Backing off to a hard 90% keeps the tube in a significantly more sustainable operating range with minimal loss in cutting performance. Consider it the difference between driving at redline vs. 500 RPM below it.
The cost to refill (exchange) the CO2 tube on this machine is approximately $3,200. F2 provides this equipment for member use at no additional charge. Respecting the power cap helps keep it that way.