Laser cutting steel as a home gamer?

[BrokenBiker]

Long and short of this is, can you laser cut 3mm steel and/or Ali in a home gamer tote laser cutter?

I fancy having one, the engraving could be fun, but mostly I want it for accurately and cleanly cutting shapes from steel or ally ready to be bent, pressed or welded without any fuss.

Do any of the home gamer options allow for this? Moat of what I see only say wood or plastic

 

[Kram]

Plasma or water are your best best for home use.
Lasers need a decent amount of power for cutting steel and while it may be possible, it will be large and very expensive, certainally for 3mm!

 

[Munkul]

Most of those engravers are CO2 lasers which won't cut metal, most of them won't even engrave it.
To cut even 3mm you need a decent compressed air source and upwards of 1kw fibre laser.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I feared that would be the answer. Haven't got space for a plasma table, a laser cutter would have fit under the 3d printer quite well but a plasma table would mean having to chop some of the welding bench out and it's not as big as I'd like it to be as it is, so making it smaller isn't an option. Oh well, I'll stick with the hand held plasma and grinders then

 

[julianf]

You're looking at proper money. I outsource to a local firm. I reckon their laser probably cost them more than I paid for our house.

I suspect bottom end machines maybe start at 12 or 15k ish.

Plus your nitrogen shield etc.


You can do hardboard on a £400 machine, but as soon as you get onto metal, the technology type changes and it gets way more expensive.

 

[julianf]

I picked these up only this morning. Not a bad finish on that edge.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I've outsourced a few times when I've needed accurate custom stuff cut, adapters for engine parts and what not but would be nice to be able to do it myself...I do just fine with the tools I have but always looking for other ways to achieve accuracy and more importantly repeatability...I shall have to look into plasma tables and how/where I could store one

 

[julianf]

Non ferrous can be done on a CNC mill with good accuracy.

I can get to within about 0.15 ish on hole diameters with mine if I really need to (or the thickness of a thick human hair)

But you wouldn't get that from eBay special linear parts.

The trouble with a mechanical device, however, is that they dont scale well. If it's small, you can have a moving table design, but the larger you go, that becomes impractical, and then you're onto moving gantry, which just doesn't seem to work as well with resistance.

Accuracy is different for different people though. I reckon half a mm on non ferrous is probably pretty achievable on the cheap. It would make engraving look a mess, but if you were happy to drop that idea and just cut parts, it would probably be fine.

 

[Agroshield]

Haven't got space for a plasma table

Does a plasma table need to be horizontal/flat? Sure, most of them are because it is convenient, but if you think of the panel saws in B&Q or Selco, could a plasma be made to work like that?

For big money, there is this, which could be a space-efficient CNC route:

PLASMA KIT

INCLUDES: 1x Mach 11x Universal Arm1x Tablet1x Marking tool1x Scribing Tool1x Mach Command1x Rolling Case1x Tablet Charger1x Flash Drive Plasma Attachment:1x Plasma Module1x Ohmic Probing Cable1x Plasma Control Cable Domestic Shipping Included5 Year WarrantyLifetime Service Contract

cn-seamless.com

 

[indy4x]

ArcDroid maybe?

 

[Munkul]

My neighbor/pal has a 600x1100 plasma table that fits in his garage, it can wheel out on castors and pass a 2000x1000 sheet through it which is pretty useful. If you have space for a small laser, then you also have space for a plasma... Granted it won't be as accurate as laser, but you can do a lot with sub-1mm accuracy

 

[Agroshield]

ArcDroid maybe?

Would anyone know/guess why that is so much more reasonably priced than the CN-Seamless one above? They do the same thing and are mecahnically very similar.

 

[Dev]

https://www.boxford.co.uk/gweike-m-series-uk-6-in-1-fibre-laser-and-co2-laser/ Is the one I have been thinking of trying to get lately. But not for home obviously.

With your space restraints the ArcDriod would seem ideal.

The price difference is probably down the the size it can cut. 660x380 vs 1700 diameter

 

[sako243]

I've been distracted by many other things but I started assembling the JD Garage's little CNC plasma. £30ish for the plans and STL files. Still need to source some electromagnets for the feet but the idea is you can clamp it to a full size sheet and let it cut out the profile you want.

I had the steppers in stock so only had to pay circa £80 for the aluminium extrusion and about the same for the control board, gears, timing belts etc.

 

[Munkul]

That's a great idea, I've never seen that before. I'd much rather an xy table than an arcdroid, even though some people get good results with them.

 

[Wallace]

Neat looking unit, l like it.

 

[Trevorleach]

View attachment 540510


I picked these up only this morning. Not a bad finish on that edge.

200TDI?

 

[julianf]

200TDI?

In my case, a couple of 300s, and an 2.8tgv, but, essentially, yes.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I've been distracted by many other things but I started assembling the JD Garage's little CNC plasma. £30ish for the plans and STL files. Still need to source some electromagnets for the feet but the idea is you can clamp it to a full size sheet and let it cut out the profile you want.
View attachment 540540
I had the steppers in stock so only had to pay circa £80 for the aluminium extrusion and about the same for the control board, gears, timing belts etc.

thats interesting...i suppose you could make that to whatever size you want?

 

[sako243]

thats interesting...i suppose you could make that to whatever size you want?

To a certain extent. They've admitted that for 3d printed brackets that's about as big as it can go but I think shortly after I started this one they released some plans for an all metal one.