CRAFTING WITH LASERS By David Hansen
One of the most powerful and versatile tools in the modeler’s arsenal is the laser cutter—and the BAC has two that are available for students, faculty, and staff to use. We have Universal Laser Systems VLS 6.6 free-standing models, and they live on the fourth floor of the 320 Newbury Street building in the deceptively named Laser Lab. They are available by appointment only, and each user must have taken the training course prior to using the laser cutters. The laser cutters can etch, score, and cut onto or through any non-toxic, approved materials using a 60-watt air-cooled free-space gas slab laser. Knowing that last bit isn’t as important as knowing that it means the VLS laser cutters have much longer laser-life and less fall-off when being heavily used than the cheaper water-cooled glass-tube laser cutters you may find online.
David Hansen trains students how to use the BAC’s laser cutter
Even more important than knowing what they can do is knowing what you can do with them. The laser cutters offer an incredible level of precision and speed. In capable hands, a student can cut out a site model, the context buildings, a massing model with a detailed façade, and even a fair amount of entourage in one two-hour appointment. If planned well, everything will come together and fit just right when gluing it all together. However, that two hours does not include the time necessary to layout the plans in software, modify those plans to account for material thickness, and then double-check all the adjoining edges to make sure it will all come together correctly at the end. The old rule of measuring twice and cutting once is doubly true for laser cutting when you’re using expensive materials. How does a student with a full-time job, three nights of classes, and 40 hours of homework get the most out of the laser cutters? How do the busy professionals with clients, kids, and other commitments do it? First, always plan ahead. Know what materials you are going to use before you start laying out your drawings for the laser cutter. Know how much material you have to work with. Put rectangles the size of the laser cutter bed in your drawings so that you can arrange all the pieces most efficiently. Most importantly for three dimensional constructs, always know the thickness of the material so that adjoining edges will have the right amount of overlap.
Second, destroy your drawings. One of the best things about laser cutting is that you get to ignore all the CAD conventions you have to follow at work or in class. Name them whatever you want, give everything zero line thickness, turn off plot styles and line weights, and put everything on just two or three layers. Refine your cutting and etching line work from largest to smallest, so that if you don’t happen to get everything drawn, it will still look consistent. (It’s better to have a flat plain mass that represents your design, than one highly detailed piece and empty space where the rest should be!) Third, practice, a lot. There’s no rule that says you have to wait until a project is due to work on the laser cutters. If you have just taken the training, sign up for a Sunday morning spot, come in with some spare cardboard, and play with the settings and try to make some things. Test out etching with different patterns. Try scoring and folding some chipboard to make unique shapes. Try cutting cardboard in different directions to learn what effect the corrugations create at different angles. It may take 10,000 hours to become an expert in your craft, but it won’t even take 100 hours to get really good at using laser cutters. P
ABOUT DAVID HANSEN David Hansen is the manager of education applications & support at The Boston Architectural College, where he manages the computer labs, 3D printing, and laser cutting. He developed his skills with those same tools as a professional architectural model maker in Union Square prior to joining the BAC in 2012. David is also teaching the occasional workshop on photogrammetry, and he studied photogrammetry and laser scanning at the Preservation Institute: Nantucket.