Laser Lab

LASER CUTTING AT THE SCHOOL OF ART

Yale School of Art Laser Lab, 36 Edgewood (B20, basement level)

M / by appointment only, 10:00am to 1:00pm

T / by appointment only, 10:00am to 1:00pm

W / by appointment only, 10:00am to 1:00pm

Th / by appointment only, 10:00am to 1:00pm

F / by appointment only, 10:00am to 1:00pm

Currently the laser cutter is only available to Graduate School of Art Students and Undergraduate Art Majors who complete the training.

There must be graduate laser lab monitors or the lab manager present in order to use the laser cutter. YOU CAN NOT WORK IN THE LAB ALONE and you can not work after hours or on the weekends. Please plan accordingly.

To use the laser cutter, you must complete the following five steps:

1) Contact art.help@yale.edu to be added to the Yale Health and Safety School of Art list

2) Online health and safety training

Once you are added to the Yale Health and Safety School of Art list you will get a link to watch a training video. You can also CLICK HERE to watch the video and take the quiz. Please wait for the quiz portion to load. After passing the quiz you will get an email from Yale Health and Safety saying you are approved to move onto in-person training.

3) Read through and watch training below “HOW TO SET UP YOUR FILE FOR LASER CUTTING” on how to set up a laser cutter file for our machine.

4) In-person training

a) Review Fire / Safety Procedures

b) Review Laser Cutter Rules / Approved materials overview / Space Overview

5) Sign a training completion form and return to the Laser Lab Manager

TRAINING COMPLETION FORM

This form will be submitted to Yale Health and Safety and will officially enroll you into the Yale Health and Safety system, making you certified to use the SoA Laser Cutter.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR FILE FOR LASER CUTTING

Here is a sample Illustrator file that has lines and shapes for cut, engraved and etched text plus registration / size lines.

SAMPLE ILLUSTRATOR FILE

Take a look at it and read through the specs and watch the video below to get a sense of what a file that one would use for a laser cutter would look like (for our machine).

https://yale.box.com/s/6lm2g1pxx9yfe898xwtn04rmgaq6bjx5

Size

Art board should be 24x48” which is the same size as the laser cutter bed. There should also be a .125 bleed. (This is setup in the sample file if you want to use it as a template).

Color Space

The file should be made in the RGB color space and not CMYK. Sometimes if it is made in CMYK the laser cutter software won’t read it. Also, if it was made in RGB you still need to check each color to make sure it is true RGB. (Also setup in the sample file if you want to use it as a template).

RED (cut) - Red 255, Green 0, Blue 0 BLUE (engrave) - Red 0, Green 0, Blue 255 BLACK (etch) - Red 0, Green 0, Blue 0 GREEN (registration) - Red 0, Green 255, Blue 0

Note on registration lines: This line should be the size of the material. It doesn’t matter where on the artboard you make the green shape that corresponds to your material shape as long as it is the exact size of your material)

Lines and Strokes

Also all lines / strokes need to be .001” (inches) or it won’t show up in the laser cutting software.

NOTES:

You’ll want to separate blue and red and anything else into separate layers so they can be easily edited / turned on and off and more. The more organized the layers are the easier it is to make changes if there are issues during cutting. This is also in the sample file and I suggest starting with the sample file and modifying it to make your file.

Please contact the Digital Media Office at art.help@yale.edu or at 203-432-9120 for more information