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-   Profiled (laser cut) & bent steel plate (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=70)
-   -   Laser cut parts in Wisconsin/Midwest (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=953)

Delamination Thu 28 August 2008 13:27

Laser cut parts in Wisconsin/Midwest
 
I am getting quotes on sets of the laser cut parts (or maybe water jet cut). I have one other guy interested so far, making a qty of 2 sets. Anyone else interested?

domino11 Thu 28 August 2008 14:10

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 Thu 28 August 2008 22:46

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 Fri 29 August 2008 07:51

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 Fri 29 August 2008 09:54

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 Fri 29 August 2008 10:36

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 Fri 29 August 2008 12:11

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 Fri 29 August 2008 21:54

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 Thu 11 September 2008 16:05

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


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