Read alongside the official safety documentation — this is the community's practical checklist, not a replacement for the manual.
Before the first job
- Glasses on, and the right ones. The LP5 has both diode (~455nm) and fiber (1064nm) sources. Glasses that protect against one may be transparent to the other. Check the OD rating printed on the frame covers the wavelength you're running.
- Extraction sorted. Ducted outside, or a filter with genuine activated carbon. An open window is not extraction.
- Fire kit within arm's reach. CO2 extinguisher or a fire blanket, in the room, not in the garage.
- Clear the area of anything flammable — offcuts, paper towel, IPA bottles, aerosols.
- Know where the emergency stop is without looking for it.
Every job
- Material identified and confirmed laser-safe. No PVC, no polycarbonate, no ABS, nothing unlabelled.
- Material flat and secured. Bowed stock is the single most common cause of a failed cut and a flare-up.
- Machine attended for the entire run. Every fire anyone here has had started in the two minutes they stepped out.
Fiber-specific
1064nm is invisible and your blink reflex does nothing to protect you. Reflections off shiny metal go wherever geometry sends them. Run enclosed whenever you can, and never with the lid open on a mirror-finish part.
LaserPecker publish their own documentation on this topic — worth reading alongside these community notes.
Official article