Learn the machine, one picture at a time

Cut a sprocket that the chain sits in rather than climbs over.

Let a square tab seat all the way into a square pocket.

Turn a panel edge into teeth so two parts lock together.

Draw a real gear, so two of them turn smoothly instead of nodding through every tooth.

Keep small parts from dropping through the bed before the job ends.

Cut a board that holds the same parts in the same place every time.

Measure how much material your beam takes away.

Make a flat sheet bend without breaking it.

Let the camera read what a sheet is, instead of anybody typing it.

Cut a hole at the size the hardware actually is, instead of the size you remembered.

Cut a slot another panel presses into and stays in.

Cut a sheet into jigsaw pieces that hold together.

Get every panel of a box, finger-jointed and laid out ready to cut.

Four flat panels give you four square corners.

A case with drawers is a lot of panels to keep straight, and they only work if they were all worked out from the same numbers.

A lid that lives in a drawer is a lid you lose.

A six sided box is not a four sided box with two more walls.

Get a compartment tray that slots together without glue.

A row of parts bins is only worth having if you can reach into one without lifting it down, and only safe if a knock does not put the stack on the floor.

Fit more parts on the sheet so less of it goes in the bin.

Fix cuts that come out slightly bigger or smaller than the size you typed.

Decide the order the parts cut in, and where each cut starts.

Find the height that puts the beam at its sharpest on this material.

Find out how wide your beam cuts, so parts come out the size you asked for.

Stop the laser cutting the same line twice where two parts touch.

Turn a path around so the laser runs it the other way.

Two parts edge to edge share a cut.

Find the power and speed that cut this material cleanly.

Turn a part number into a barcode a scanner can read off the part.

Cut a batch where every piece carries different text.

Get one clean outline that follows the parts at a set distance.

Tidy the points inside every path, and be told how far the paths moved.

Lays out a clock face: the twelve numbers evenly round the dial, the sixty minute marks, and the hole the movement bolts through.

Join the loose ends of a path so it cuts as a closed part.

Repeat parts along a line or a curve instead of placing them one by one.

Space copies evenly round a circle.

Repeat a part in a straight run at a set spacing.

Trims a design down to a piece of stock, so the artwork stops at the edge of the material instead of running off it.

The family ornament where everyone's name crosses everyone else's, on lettered tiles.

Makes a hole in a part using another shape as the cutter, so a handle slot or a keyhole comes out exactly the shape you drew.

Find parts sitting exactly on top of each other, so nothing gets cut twice.

Cuts crossing shapes apart into separate pieces, which is how an inlay is made: each piece is cut from a different material and they drop back together.

Grow or shrink a part by an exact amount so it fits.

Fill the sheet with copies of one part instead of placing them by hand.

Keeps only the piece two shapes share, which is how artwork gets trimmed down to a window, a badge or a rounded end.

The rim round a keychain hole carries the keys.

Lettering for cutting.

Gives a line a width and turns it into a shape the machine cuts round.

Get a set number of copies laid out in rows and columns.

Family ornaments and name tags.

Draw a new outline a set distance outside or inside the one you have.

Draws one line around everything selected and changes nothing else.

Wrap one outline round everything you selected.

Put a link or a serial number on a part as a code a phone can read.

Prove a code will still scan at the size you plan to engrave it.

A QR code needs a clear border round it, and that border has to be material.

Cut out the points that sit on a straight run and do nothing.

Drops the piece two shapes share and keeps the rest, leaving a clean gap where they crossed.

Tile a part across the sheet in rows and columns.

Number a batch of parts without typing every number.

Move or turn a part by a number instead of dragging it.

Thin out a path that carries far more points than its shape needs.

Clean up an imported drawing before it goes to the machine.

Round off sharp corners in a path.

A snowflake cut without care falls apart.

Split one path that holds several loops into separate shapes.

A pet tag, a keyring, a gift label and a door sign are the same object: a blank, some words inside it, and a hole.

Join overlapping shapes into one solid part.

Fill a shape with dots instead of solid burn.

Fill a shape with sweep lines so the laser engraves it solid.

Burn the background instead of the shape, so the shape stands up.

Shade a shape with engrave lines instead of leaving it an outline.

Fill a shape with rings that follow its own outline.

Find the power and speed for a material you have not used before.

Get a photo onto a part as something the laser can actually burn.

Put words on a part as single lines the laser can follow.

Run words along a curve instead of a straight line.

Make lines thinner than the beam wide enough to survive the burn.

Measure how wide the burnt dot is, so engraved edges land where you drew them.

Put the head in the middle of a part that is not square to the bed.

Check the real distance between two points you marked on the bed.

Remember a spot on the bed so you can send the head back to it later.

See how a design will look once it is wrapped round a round part.

Removes the piece of a line that runs between two crossings.

Cuts a part into pieces along a line you draw.

Opens a closed outline at the point you pick, so the beam starts and stops there.

Joins or removes the pieces overlapping shapes make of each other by pointing at them.