A laser cutter is a manufacturing tool that uses a focused laser beam to cut, kiss cut or etch a vector design or raster image into flat sheet materials. The Art House laser cutter is an accessible and affordable facility to hire with the support from a technician, regardless of your experience levels.
What's Possible
| Cutting | Following a vector path, our laser can cut straight through a variety of materials. The laser will leave a burnt edge if it’s cutting wood but this can be sanded off. |
| Kiss Cutting | Using the same process as regular cutting, our laser will follow a vector path to cut the material but will use less power so it doesn’t go all the way through. This allows shallow cuts to be added the surface of the material and is great method for line work and detailed etching. |
| Engraving | Tracing a raster image, our laser will burn an image into the surface of a variety of materials. The laser head moves side to side (much like a printer) to burn the image line by line into the surface of the material. High levels of detail can be achieved with etching and we can vary the depth of the etch also. |
Technical Information
| Bed Size | Our laser bed is 680mm x 400mm so it can accommodate sheet materials of this size. Although the bed is that size, the laser will not be able to cut or etch right to the edge of the bed so please bear this in mind when you’re drafting your designs. We recommend leaving a 10mm border if you’re drafting designs to fit the bed. |
| Cutting Width | The cutting width of the laser cutter can vary depending on the material being cut, so we recommend you plan for a 1mm cutting width in your designs. |
| Cutting Depth | The maximum depth we can cut on most materials is 10mm. The thinner the better! |
Materials
You will need to bring your own sheet materials to use on the laser cutter, see below for a list of materials that are acceptable on our machine. Please make sure you have checked that any materials you are bringing are safe to use on a laser cutter as some materials may have been coated with something toxic.
We recommend ordering sheet materials for laser cutters from Hobarts or Hindleys.
| Cutting & Engraving | Cutting Only |
|---|---|
| MDF | Fabric |
| Birch/Laser Plywood | Leather |
| Hardwoods | Latex |
| Acrylic/Non PVC plastics | Paper |
| Carboard/Greyboard | |
| Lino |
Preparing Files
We recommend creating your files using Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, Corel Draw or 2D design, using the following settings:
- Artboard needs to be set to millimetres
- Line width needs to be set to 0.01mm
- Design files with a combination of cutting, kiss cutting and engraving details need to be separated into layers
- Design files with a combination of the cutting and engraving details can be saved as a vector file
- Design files that need to be engraved only can be provided as a B&W jpeg
Please provide your files on a memory stick, or email them in advance of your session, and our technician will convert the files to DXF and transfer them to the laser cutter software.
Pricing
We charge £30 per hour to use our laser cutting facilities.
This hourly charge includes converting files, setting up the laser software, using the laser cutter and cleaning the bed after use. We recommend arriving fully prepared for your session to avoid extra time and costs.
To book time on the laser cutter or to find out more information about our facilities, please contact our print studio technician:
ellie@the-arthouse.org.uk
Workshops
& Courses
Discover a range of printmaking workshops and courses at The Art House, suitable for beginners to pros, and everyone in between.
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