Laser Cutting

Joh

-- pmpjoh

pmpjoh

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Kevin, these people were recommended to me by someone on this NG earlier this year. They did a lot of profiles in 5mm 316 stainless, including supplying the material for a very reasonable price.

They are in Harlow, Essex, and everything done by phone & post. There was a bit more spatter around some of the cuts than I would have expected, and it seemed to harden the edges of holes I had to tap M4 (broke 2 taps on this!), but otherwise very good.

I even got a 2008 Calendar in the post from them the other week, though sadly this is not a patch on the Mitutoyo one I'm hanging on for..

Peter

You could try

In message , Kevin writes

As a general enquiry, can someone point me at a source of information concerning the pros and cons of laser versus water?

In message , Norman Billingham writes

I've seen this guys stuff at a couple of exhibitions, it looked pretty good to me.

These guys:

Hope this Helps,

Garth

-- DR_

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Probably me who suggested them, a very friendly company, offered open days for me to take engineering students on tours of the factory. Only one thing worth pointing out is that sometimes if the item is very small they will make a "Chain" of the parts, just held onto the scrap, so that the items do not fall into the bed of the machine.Bob

To hell with the unsprung weight, eh?

Tom

I used Model Engineers Laser for some conrod parts for my loco - pleasant chap - I collected the bag of bits from his house near Doncaster, so I'm sure he dosen't do the cutting in his garden. Usual disclaimer - a satisfied customer.

Steve (Sheffield)

Laser is essentially just heat - the CO2 lasers used produce a highly focussed and intense beam of infra-red which cuts the metal by a combination of melting and burning, depending on whether it's done in air or inert gas. The cut edge is not smooth, high carbon steels and other heat hardenable steels harden along the cut line, and highly reflective materials cannot be cut easily as they reflect too much of the laser beam back into the laser. Laser cutting is (relatively) cheap.

Water jet cutting uses a stream of abrasive dust suspended in a high pressure water jet. It is less fussy about what it will cut, does not cause heat hardening but is much more expensive.

That's my understanding - I'm sure there are many more expert folk out there who can add to it.

I've heard though that on thick pieces you actually get a slight chamfer as the water jet is a conical shape. That another advantage of using a laser?

Michael

In article , Michael writes

It's not that bad - we had some titanium bar cut longitudinally (to make a smaller diameter bar) and the taper over about 200mm had to be measured to see.

David

Try

In message , Michael writes

If there is to be any fettling or fine finishing to be done then give me non-hardened surfaces every time!

Try

In message , pgeorge777 writes

So they do free shipping between UK and US?

Never mind the shipping, will their lasers get through 1.6mm steel? the web site says wood, paper, card, plastic -doesn't sound promising to me.

Regards Kevin