Cutting Stainless 24ga Sheet - Clean Edge?

I don't know of a Maker Space here in Yuma, Arizona. I've thought about creating one, but I really don't want to share my machines with folks that didn't pay for them.

---------------------

My lathe came from a trade school. I can't imagine doing some of the damage the students inflicted, like using the tailstock spindle as an anvil horn.

I looked out of curiosity. There is no Maker/Hacker/Builder/_____ Space that I could find within about 170 miles. Well, not in Arizona anyway. I saw two advertisements for a MakerSpace locally, but one turned out to be a one day project day for kids at the county library, and the other turned out to be a one day event at the local community college. Probably for recruitment.

There are some things I don't have of course, but for a one man operation I have what I consider to be a fair "makerspace" of my own. 5 currently running small CNC mills. 2 currently operational lathes, a decent size knee mill (SB1028), some smaller stuff, 4 currently functional welders (2 are good), 4x8 welding table, 48 inch Tennsmith brake, saws ad nauseum, etc etc etc... and a rash of hand held pneumatic and power tools to go with my hand tools. Just the other day I bought an "economy" pneumatic pop rivet gun from McMaster. It turned out to be a Chicago Pneumatic. LOL. If I get really desperate my son has three small 3D printers in the garage. (2 resin and 1 filament) He has printed a few projects for me. That's nice really. I just give him a

I don't have anything for handling full size sheet good. For plywood I break it down with a Skil Worm drive (or another saw I have with its own saw guide). Bandsaw, mitersaw, table saw, etc... takes care of the rest. For sheet metal and plate I use a hand held torch, plasma cutter, or metal cutting circular saw to break it down. Sometimes bandsaw(s).

You know. I do have a small piece of stainless sheet left over from the last project. I just might try the plasma cutter and see what kind of edge it leaves. I'm not great at straight lines, but I can hang it off the welding table, and clamp a piece of angle to it for a guide. A fresh nozzle and a wire standoff/drag should limit the kerf variations.

... I don't have anything for handling full size sheet good. For plywood I break it down with a Skil Worm drive (or another saw I have with its own saw guide). Bandsaw, mitersaw, table saw, etc... takes care of the rest. For sheet metal and plate I use a hand held torch, plasma cutter, or metal cutting circular saw to break it down. Sometimes bandsaw(s).

You know. I do have a small piece of stainless sheet left over from the last project. I just might try the plasma cutter and see what kind of edge it leaves. I'm not great at straight lines, but I can hang it off the welding table, and clamp a piece of angle to it for a guide. A fresh nozzle and a wire standoff/drag should limit the kerf variations.

-----------------------

Have you seen the price of wood lately? LOL.

Actually that does have more merit the more I think about it. I do need to make some cutouts in the sheet, and a guide like that I can crank out on one of the CNC mills would be perfect. I would say on the little CNC router, but its in a state of disarray. It started killing Z axis stepper drives and I decided to strip it for parts and build something better... yeah... after the 9,736 more important projects that come first.