I cut a rosebud from my Mother's Christmas Day Rose drawing in Gimp, converted it to gray scale, and rescaled it down to be 1 1/8 by 1 3/8 inches. The exported png file was loaded into RDWorks. Several cycles of previewing in RDWorks and erasing in Gimp were performed to check for and further clean up random backgrounds specks and blemishes. A cut framing rectangle (slightly larger than the rosebud object) was added and both objects were snapped to the upper right corner before exporting to a g-code .rd file for the laser. Before exporting to rd, remember to select both objects.

parameters are rosebud: scan 250 mm/sec, laser freq 10 kHz, 0.035 interval and power min 11/max 25%

Frame box: cut 15 mm/sec min 50/max 50% power laser freq 125 kHz.

The rd file is only 2 Mb and simulation indicates a run time of under a minute.

I am a Scientist using my technical and software skills and experience to explore creative ways to use carbon dioxide gas lasers to cut and etch a variety of materials to produce artwork.

The makerspace laboratory facility I belong to that maintains an pair of Boss Laser LS-2436 CO2 lasers is Build, RVA.

This blog will serve the following purposes:

1. Display photos and videos of both the laser in action and the finished products.
2. Document my progress in the Makerspace Lab.
3. Provide lessons learned and relevant resources for the software required to produce designs that the laser can cut or etch.
4. Provide lessons learned and relevant resources for running the lasers.
5. List and comment on the similar work of other artists.