Do not leave laser unattended

A fire on a laser can quickly get out of control, at the very least damaging the lens. In more extreme cases, burning the machine or the building. For this reason it is important that you DO NOT leave a running laser unattended. Sitting in the lobby outside of the laser room is not considered attending your laser. If you must leave the room, either pause your job or wait until it has completed it’s print. Asking someone to watch your job is not acceptable as they are busy with their own project and not likely to devote the necessary attention to your project. Thank you.

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Shortly after posting this, we had ACRYLIC catch on fire. Fortunately it was caught in time and extinguished. For those of you who might have thought acrylic as not a fire danger, please be aware it too will catch fire under the right conditions.

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I hope I’m not prying, but do we know if there was an inadvisable setting used, like too slow of a speed at too high power?

Also was it the kind of acrylic that’s coated in paper to protect its surfaces?

Of course the moral of this story is unattended lasers are a huge safety concern!
I’m just hoping to learn from someone else’s mistake if possible.

Be safe y’all! We’re vaporizing stuff with light!

And with great power comes… really cool projects and fire, or however that saying goes, I’m not a Superman fan :wink:

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Good question. Knowing what the cause was be a lesson learned.

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