Costs of laser cutting????

[MattH]

I'm in the process of designing another 4' x 2' CNC router. My current machine is made of 80mm SHS and although it's a solid machine it doesn't have the stiffness required to to enable me to ramp up the speeds.

I'm thinking about making up a frame using some steel plate cross sections.

I don't want to go down the road of designing something only to send the DXF's to a laser cutter and find out that the work would be more than I wanted to spend.

Bearing that in mind can anyone give me an idea of what they've paid for laser cut steel in the past?

I'm looking at probably 5 sections of 12mm mild plate each about 1 square metre (profiled with a few cut out features).

I've no idea if this would run me to a few hundred or thousands.

 

[Welderpaul]

Bearing that in mind can anyone give me an idea of what they've paid for laser cut steel in the past?

I'm looking at probably 5 sections of 12mm mild plate each about 1 square metre (profiled with a few cut out features).

I've no idea if this would run me to a few hundred or thousands.

Ring one up and ask them? Only way you will get an accurate estimate of cost.

 

[MattH]

Ring one up and ask them? Only way you will get an accurate estimate of cost.

Can I get an estimate though without submitting drawings?

At this point I don't really need an accurate estimate, I just need ballpark.

 

[Welderpaul]

I've sometimes just described basic stuff over the phone and they have priced it (Even ordered stuff like that).

Just a rough sketch will give them an idea of what you want. Big square plates are not too bad on price as they nest together well. They base charges on size of plate, amount of cutting time, number of stop/starts, wastage and scrap recovery, position of moon in the sky etc.

We pay about £800-£900 a tonne for laser cut and part mark etched stuff - generally pallets full of small plates, odd sizes, full of holes etc so lots of cutting time. Big square plates will be cheaper, but then again we are trade, no minimum order costs, no delivery charge etc.

Thinking of it, I had a price today for 190nr 12mm thick plates, 4x18mm and 2x50mm holes in each, 580 x 580 square - £24 quid each.

It's a bit 'how long is a piece of string' that's why you are best asking them and not going off what i say. Not going to be thousands though.

 

[MattH]

I've sometimes just described basic stuff over the phone and they have priced it (Even ordered stuff like that).

Just a rough sketch will give them an idea of what you want. Big square plates are not too bad on price as they nest together well. They base charges on size of plate, amount of cutting time, number of stop/starts, wastage and scrap recovery, position of moon in the sky etc.

We pay about £800-£900 a tonne for laser cut and part mark etched stuff - generally pallets full of small plates, odd sizes, full of holes etc so lots of cutting time. Big square plates will be cheaper, but then again we are trade, no minimum order costs, no delivery charge etc.

Thinking of it, I had a price today for 190nr 12mm thick plates, 4x18mm and 2x50mm holes in each, 580 x 580 square - £24 quid each.

It's a bit 'how long is a piece of string' that's why you are best asking them and not going off what i say. Not going to be thousands though.

Thanks for that Paul, sounds like it's inside the ballpark at least.
I'll probably go ahead and rough out a design and then get some basic quotes.
Cheers for the detailed reply.

 

[Welderpaul]

No problem.

 

[I'm getting on a bit]

Don't know if you know this but I will assume you don't.

You supply dxf, that is imported into cam, cam produces a cutting time, then time x hourly rate = price

Everyone will rely on having a dfx

 

[steve t]

it pays to try and price a few places as I found the prices to vary wildly

 

[Welderpaul]

Everyone will rely on having a dfx

Not in my experience.
We send in DXF's DWG's, PDF's, back of fag packet drawings, verbal descriptions. A lot depends on nesting, and whether it can be cut from stock plates or if it's more effective to cut from decoiled.

For stuff we order, anyway.

 

[MattH]

Don't know if you know this but I will assume you don't.

You supply dxf, that is imported into cam, cam produces a cutting time, then time x hourly rate = price

Everyone will rely on having a dfx

Hence the reason for the post!

 

[I'm getting on a bit]

Not in my experience.
We send in DXF's DWG's, PDF's, back of fag packet drawings, verbal descriptions. A lot depends on nesting

Well yes if you are a regular, I've not managed it yet

 

[I'm getting on a bit]

Hence the reason for the post!

I know, I gave a reason why they don't

Have you means to produce a simple dfx?

 

[chester dylan]

i had the hubs for the dome i made laser cut 26 of them 1o of them were half hubs all in 8mm milde steel 350mm wide total cost was 260 quid
i started looking around and phoneing people then i thought id ring the local steel fabricator/steel stockest and ask where thay get all there laser cutting done and thay sugested kms hard range in flint

 

[MattH]

I know, I gave a reason why they don't

Have you means to produce a simple dfx?

I do, the whole design will be put together in CAD (as this is to build "another" CNC router then it's safe to assume I know a little about computer aided manufacturing).

The issue is that I don't want to put 100+ hours into a CAD design only to find that the laser option is too expensive.
If the cutters are happy to give estimates on rough designs and then refine their pricing later when given final drawings then that's fine as I can rough something out quickly.
I just don't want to be screwing a cutter about by asking for a quote and then changing it time and again as the design evolves.

Hence wanting to know ballpark figures. If I can work on a sum of around £500 +/- £200 for instance, then fine.
But if its £2K +/- £500 then it's out of the question and i'll build it a different way.

 

[MattH]

i had the hubs for the dome i made laser cut 26 of them 1o of them were half hubs all in 8mm milde steel 350mm wide total cost was 260 quid
i started looking around and phoneing people then i thought id ring the local steel fabricator/steel stockest and ask where thay get all there laser cutting done and thay sugested kms hard range in flint

Brilliant, that really helps.

I've got a few contacts that can put me together with firms locally so I think it's a goer.

 

[HughF]

Microkerf are cheap but you need to use them a few times before they will give you access to their superb online quote/ordering system... If you send me the dxf's I'll get them quoted from 2 places I use locally and then get a Microkerf quote later when my account holding neighbour next puts an order in...

 

[MattH]

Microkerf are cheap but you need to use them a few times before they will give you an account... If you send me the dxf's I'll get them quoted from 2 places I use locally and then get a Microkerf quote later when my account holding neighbour next puts an order in...

That's brilliant mate. I'l knock up something that close to what the final design will look like and fire it over. Cheers.

 

[I'm getting on a bit]

I would have thought with all your knowledge that you could produce a square of a similar dimension with the required/similar amount of holes in cad to get a ball park figure

10 minutes work I'd guess

 

[HughF]

That's brilliant mate. I'l knock up something that close to what the final design will look like and fire it over. Cheers.

You got my gmail?

 

[MattH]

You got my gmail?

No, got your mob but not email. Can you PM or txt it over?