Alternatives to Laser Cutting - Waterjet, Plasma, Oxy-fuel?

[Rob Smith]

Manjeet said here (http://www.mechmate.com/Forum/show.cgi?tpc=329&post=2010#POST2010): "I going to get done on plasma cutting." and then Rob posted .....

I thought I read somewhere in this forum that plasma wasn't a clean enough cut for the allignment tabs for this machine I could be wrong I hope I am because I have access to alot of plasma machines in my area??

[Manjeet Singh]

Yes the plasma is not that much clean as laser so if I dont have any laser around me I will have to settle down with plasma.

Manjeet

[Gerald_D]

Manjeet, the plasma will only allow you to cut the outer shapes, it will not be accurate enough for any joints such as the tabs and the many round holes.

You can consider printing those dxf drawings full size, glueing them to plates, and then using a saw (band & jig) and drill-press to shape the plates. I use to do this before laser cutting arrived in Cape Town 13 years ago.

[Manjeet Singh]

Thanks Gerald, Yes I can understand this. The plasma will cut the outer as well as hole but other precission work I will do manually. I have lot of machines in my factory i.e. Lathes, Shapers, Grinder Surface and cylinderical, Milling Machines,Power presses,Jigsaw etc.etc.

[Gerald_D]

Manjeet, you are in a very fortunate situation.

Can you take your dimensions via CAD from the dxf drawings, or do you want some more dimensions from me?

[Manjeet Singh]

Hi Gerald, Its holiday today, I will try to take a full size print on some plotter if needed. otherwise I am printing all the .pdf file which I downloaded.

Moreover I had visited today ez router site which resembles the design of Mechmate. My brother was also watching we will see if some thing is done to simplify accordinggly.

Manjeet

[Yuriy Kholodov]

I think waterjet cutting is better idea than plazma cutting
check www.waterjets.org (http://www.waterjets.org) .....

[Hugo Carradini]

Hello friends.
I have all ready some time checking an archiving the different process of construction and I was concern how to cut the precision areas. Laser is something impossible in my area; sow plasma will have to be my choice and extra manual work of course. Using the DFX drawings as a guide is a simple and good alternative for those that can?t have access to laser. Definitely this is the best forum and you guys are real honest and open people. Thanks to Gerald an all you.
Hugo Carradini

[soulvoid]

Are there any cons to water jet cutting, will it give the same accuracy as the laser cut? Also there is a company here that do CNC oxygen cutting, but from the little I could find on the net about it, it seems to be similar to plasma cutting in accuracy, anyone know for sure?

[Gerald D]

Water jet cutting is comparable to, or better than, laser cutting. The oxygen process is similar to plasma.

Have you tried to contact Kim Mortensen in Denmark?

[soulvoid]

Hi,

tried PM to Kim, but it didn't work. We have a handful companies that offer cutting with laser or water jet in the nearby area, the real question is price. We'll see.

[domino11]

Gerald,
I would be interested on your views on water jet cutting for this application. I have never seen or used water jet cutting before.

[Gerald D]

Water jet cutting is not taking off in this country like laser cutting is doing. Tried it once and price vs quality was too high. Of course it should be technically okay with cutting our simple little profiles, but then a bandsaw and a drill-press would also be okay for us.

Let's not de-rail Travis' thread - if he decides to go water jet cutting, most people won't notice the difference.

[kaartman]

Hi Travis
Water jet cutting is tip-top, I had mine done this past week and it is 100% perfect, I could not believe the finish, the drawback is that it did not have engraving marking done they just couldnt , then I made the suggestion to make a nip cut at the engraving locations, let that idea go and had the cut made without any markings, at home i spraypaint the profiles and carried the markings over onto the paint and had it bend on that principle,I am 100% happy
Regards
Chris

[Delamination]

Thanks Koning. Its nice to hear someone's actual experience with waterjet. The first quote that came back so far was from a laser cutter at $1100 for one set. When the shock wore off I decided to broaden my search and see what the cost and quality differences are. There are dozens of laser/waterjet places within 50 miles of me, being in the Milwaukee/Chicago area, so I would expect someone to eventuallly come back with acceptable price and quality.

[Gerald D]

I have not yet seen any laser (or water) cutting where I would say the quality of the cutting is too poor - they are all plenty good enough. So, don't worry too much about cutting quality when talking laser or water. The cutting quality only suffers when you talk plasma or oxy-fuel.

However, your big problem in quality comes with the bending. None of the bends in the MM are very high spec, but yet there have been a couple of bending issues that fell a bit short.

[Marc Shlaes]

Travis,

Not to discourage you from finding multiple sources but I live in the Cleveland area, a heavy industry town. I couldn't not find a single laser cutter wanting or needing the business. I took the crazy high prices I was getting to indicate that they neither wanted nor needed my business.

I ended up buying from Joe McLain in Alabama ant the quality was virtually PERFECT!

Marc

[Delamination]

I talked to a waterjet guy today and he said waterjet is non-competitve with laser for thin mild steel (less than 1"). Waterjet does well for thicker mild steel, and stuff laser can't do like stainless and aluminum. So I will concentrate on laser cutting.

I wanted first hand experience with sourcing these parts for the wiki, since they seem to be a difficult part of the MechMate to get.

[Delamination]

ok - I have bailed on sourcing the laser cut parts on my own. I am getting them from Joe.

[Gerald D]

Copied from another thread:

. . . plasma cutting will be okay(ish) for the part outlines, but it won't give you the small details of holes and slots. It won't give you the tabs/slots where the parts slot together for the y-car's welding. . . .

[Gerald D]

Copied from another thread:

. . . . you could bandsaw/jigsaw & drill those parts if really desperate, but you would spend a lot of time getting everything lined up. It would be a false economy to try plasma cutting instead of laser. . . . .

[Nikonauts]

Manjeet, the plasma will only allow you to cut the outer shapes, it will not be accurate enough for any joints such as the tabs and the many round holes.

You can consider printing those dxf drawings full size, glueing them to plates, and then using a saw (band & jig) and drill-press to shape the plates. I use to do this before laser cutting arrived in Cape Town 13 years ago.

I'd try machine cut stickers, a friend has one. Not sure if it'll stick on oily metal plates, but i'll give it a try if the cost of laser here is prohibiting.

[Gerald D]

Um, you can wash the oil off steel plates. Who washes your frying pan? :)

[Nikonauts]

Um, you can wash the oil off steel plates. Who washes your frying pan? :)

err.... i don't cook. just dine at foodstalls. i'm learning to DIY everything except for foods, thanks for pointing that out. guess i need some good sleep. :)

[gixi]

Are there any cons to water jet cutting, will it give the same accuracy as the laser cut? Also there is a company here that do CNC oxygen cutting, but from the little I could find on the net about it, it seems to be similar to plasma cutting in accuracy, anyone know for sure?

I cut the parts with water jet and the result was more than OK. Water jet is better than laser but you have to pay more. In my area I can't find a laser...

Marius

[truman]

I am just waiting to see someone make their mechmate into a laser cutter would be interesting.

[Zouave]

If you guys are looking for a place that can do one of these, a good friend of mine has a waterjet in northern CA, and will be doing my parts for me before too long, so if anyone is in the 'about to dive in' stage like I am, send me a PM and I'll see what kind of price we'd be looking at for the parts you need.

Eric