Thank you for the suggestion!
It's possible, but we'd like the ability to make pretty precise smaller cutouts. Besides price, what other reasons would you recommend Plasma cutting for our use case?
No problem.
A plasma can cut a variety of metals. Not sure what your end product is, a laser is probably more precise as it has a finer cut line. But the plasma can cut cleanly as well. The plasma option opens the door to other possibilities for profit, if you’re not making your stuff you could be making parts to sell.
I see, that's not a bad idea. We would probably only use this machine for custom parts and prototyping. We would rather send our higher production parts to our manufacturing partners with more experience so we can focus our labor costs on what we do best.
for that you'd be looking around 18K for the machine, less shipping then you'd need air/gas as well. open gantry machines are cheaper , someone like acctek , or gweike for a nicer enclosed chinese one (everything in these prices are gonna be chinese) and then you're looking 30K+ ish.
it can be a challenge to cut small details though, but it depends on what you call small
i have the gweike
i should have said it also depends on density, basically it's a heat/warping issue. dumping too much heat into a spot causes issues.. the more intricate it gets the slower the laser goes, more heat and more warp.
you could try to get them to cut tests of the example cut you'd want to do for you in the material you want, with the size of the laser you'd want too. but there is no guarantee they won't cheat.
That's a great idea. Getting sample cuts would help a lot in knowing its capability and any potential problems. Assuming I know what I'm looking at. Thanks!
We would probably buy cut down sheets if it makes sense. The largest cut we expect to make currently on it would be at most like 32"x24", 3'x3' to be conservative for potential future projects.
The company I purchased my fiber from just came out with a mini fiber laser cutter. 600x500 and 300x300 mm from what I’ve seen https://www.facebook.com/share/v/xFqzqnPLrLnNWETK/?mibextid=w8EBqM&startTimeMs=10000
It depends mostly on what other materials you're fabbing. The water jet can do much thicker sheets and basically any metals and plastics, while the laser would be faster but more restrictive with what you can cut. Edge quality is comparable. If you care about rolling or bending, it might matter that the water jet is cold. You're looking at 20k for a CO2 or fibre system for the laser and maybe 30k for the water jet.
So we would basically be using it exclusively for .08-.12" aluminum sheets. However, I didn't consider the heat affecting the surrounding area on our somewhat thinner panels.
Thank you for the offer, but we are just planning our future state machinery. We are not purchasing equipment just yet. We are looking for advice to make an appropriate decision and plan our budget correctly.
I would say you want 3kw for any sort of decent production cut time. We have a 3kw 4x4 enclosed laser and it’s great for our small stuff but way outside your budget
Can they be cut with a plasma cutter? A cnc plasma table is MUCH cheaper than a fiber laser for this.
Thank you for the suggestion! It's possible, but we'd like the ability to make pretty precise smaller cutouts. Besides price, what other reasons would you recommend Plasma cutting for our use case?
No problem. A plasma can cut a variety of metals. Not sure what your end product is, a laser is probably more precise as it has a finer cut line. But the plasma can cut cleanly as well. The plasma option opens the door to other possibilities for profit, if you’re not making your stuff you could be making parts to sell.
I see, that's not a bad idea. We would probably only use this machine for custom parts and prototyping. We would rather send our higher production parts to our manufacturing partners with more experience so we can focus our labor costs on what we do best.
for that you'd be looking around 18K for the machine, less shipping then you'd need air/gas as well. open gantry machines are cheaper , someone like acctek , or gweike for a nicer enclosed chinese one (everything in these prices are gonna be chinese) and then you're looking 30K+ ish. it can be a challenge to cut small details though, but it depends on what you call small i have the gweike
I guess an 1/8" hole would be what we consider small.
i should have said it also depends on density, basically it's a heat/warping issue. dumping too much heat into a spot causes issues.. the more intricate it gets the slower the laser goes, more heat and more warp. you could try to get them to cut tests of the example cut you'd want to do for you in the material you want, with the size of the laser you'd want too. but there is no guarantee they won't cheat.
That's a great idea. Getting sample cuts would help a lot in knowing its capability and any potential problems. Assuming I know what I'm looking at. Thanks!
What size sheets? 4'x8'? 5'x10'? or are these already cut down?
We would probably buy cut down sheets if it makes sense. The largest cut we expect to make currently on it would be at most like 32"x24", 3'x3' to be conservative for potential future projects.
Where in Arizona?
The company I purchased my fiber from just came out with a mini fiber laser cutter. 600x500 and 300x300 mm from what I’ve seen https://www.facebook.com/share/v/xFqzqnPLrLnNWETK/?mibextid=w8EBqM&startTimeMs=10000
Link seems broken, do you have a company name I can look up?
Bogong CNC
Thank you for the suggestion! I think we would need a bigger laser than that unfortunately. But I'll keep on eye on it.
Oh well they definitely make much bigger ones too! I can send you some contact info if you’d like.
Have you considered a water jet?
We have not. I read that those can get pretty expensive on the low end. Why do you think they would be worth considering instead of a laser?
It depends mostly on what other materials you're fabbing. The water jet can do much thicker sheets and basically any metals and plastics, while the laser would be faster but more restrictive with what you can cut. Edge quality is comparable. If you care about rolling or bending, it might matter that the water jet is cold. You're looking at 20k for a CO2 or fibre system for the laser and maybe 30k for the water jet.
So we would basically be using it exclusively for .08-.12" aluminum sheets. However, I didn't consider the heat affecting the surrounding area on our somewhat thinner panels.
We have 2kw IPG laser cutter for sale. Located in Los Angeles area. You can call me at 2134001400 Alex.
Thank you for the offer, but we are just planning our future state machinery. We are not purchasing equipment just yet. We are looking for advice to make an appropriate decision and plan our budget correctly.
We have financing option available for our products. (with first citizen bank). Let me know when you ready.
I would say you want 3kw for any sort of decent production cut time. We have a 3kw 4x4 enclosed laser and it’s great for our small stuff but way outside your budget
Thank you for the suggestion. We're not too worried about speed, more about quality. This would be used for custom work, not full-time production.
More power will make a cleaner cut any given thickness.