Metal CNC Work

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

Who on here does the metal work on a CNC machine? I have a small project I need done.
Thanks in advance.

[SB09]

Metal CNC Work

Our steel fab company has a Plasma.

[arrowsmack324]

Is it lathe or mill work?

[UncleBubba]

Our shop is in Greenville. We have CNC Mills and lathes. PM me if interested and I’ll send you my email.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

Our steel fab company has a Plasma.

Is it lathe or mill work?

Our shop is in Greenville. We have CNC Mills and lathes. PM me if interested and I’ll send you my email.

Everything I’ve seen done with a plasma cutter leaves sharp or uneven edges. It needs smooth (not sharp) edges so I don’t know if a plasma cutter is the right tool. It’s definitely not lathe work. It’s basically cutting a flat piece of probably 16 gauge metal. I’d prefer it to be stainless but it can be some other kind of metal (aluminum maybe?). Like a metal sign. I probably should’ve added this to my original post. Sorry.

[SB09]

Everything I’ve seen done with a plasma cutter leaves sharp or uneven edges. It needs smooth (not sharp) edges so I don’t know if a plasma cutter is the right tool. It’s definitely not lathe work. It’s basically cutting a flat piece of probably 16 gauge metal. I’d prefer it to be stainless but it can be some other kind of metal (aluminum maybe?). Like a metal sign. I probably should’ve added this to my original post. Sorry.

Were they high def plasmas? That’s what we have. I don’t know if it makes a difference. We normally cut heavy structure with it, 1/2” or more. No issues with that type material being sharp. Supposed to not have that issue with the high def. But, with it being 16ga I’m not sure that anything you use isn’t going to have sharp edges. The plate is just too thin.


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[kck]

I’ve got a water jet at my shop here in La Grange. What are the dimensions of your project?

[RifleBowPistol]

Everything I’ve seen done with a plasma cutter leaves sharp or uneven edges. It needs smooth (not sharp) edges so I don’t know if a plasma cutter is the right tool. It’s definitely not lathe work. It’s basically cutting a flat piece of probably 16 gauge metal. I’d prefer it to be stainless but it can be some other kind of metal (aluminum maybe?). Like a metal sign. I probably should’ve added this to my original post. Sorry.

Are you needing something cut out of flat plate or needing a part machined? Plasma tables most of the time cut out pieces from flat plate steel, but can be set up to cut round tubing.

A plasma table's work can vary a lot, depends on who owns the table, what table and how well it's set up and how good the operator is. I have seen some very bad work done by plasma tables and then some very good work done by plasma tables. I set one up a couple years ago, got it to do some pretty good work, but not near as good as it could have been. I could not get the owner to buy the pieces needed to get the table to cut as good as it could have. That table had a problem with water in the air, it needed dryer air. So as it was, it kept cutting the tips with a slot to one side, resulting in the flame not projecting straight down. I fought with that for months, the owner refused to believe the problem was water in the air, but it had to be. We tried all types of different tips, nozzles, I adjusted the cutting height in the programs, made sure the plasma was perfectly square with the plate on the table.

But I have seen what other shops got their machines to do, that stuff looked like laser cut work. Some of that stuff, is impressive. The machine I built two years ago, has gone way down hill since I quit working on it. I gave up, since the owner refused to spend the money to finish it out the right way. The guy running it now, has that table so jacked up and rigged, it will take a lot of work to ever get it to cut decently again.

If you need three dimensional or four dimensional cutting, you need someone with a CNC mill. Basically a plasma table will cut just like a old cutting torch, but can cut noticeably cleaner, if the torch is in good condition and has dry air, or nitrogen. Then if you need something machined round or cylindrical, that would typically be lathe work. There are CNC lathes. The software and the drive motors are the same for all three types of machines, just different cutting operations.

Then a laser is basically the same table, software, motors, ECT. as a plasma table, but with a laser doing the cutting, instead of a plasma cutter. Then there is water jet, they can do some interesting work. I think there are both water jets that can cut 3D parts and then others that work just like a plasma table or laser table and cut flat parts.

[Arrow-Tek]

Everything I’ve seen done with a plasma cutter leaves sharp or uneven edges. It needs smooth (not sharp) edges so I don’t know if a plasma cutter is the right tool. It’s definitely not lathe work. It’s basically cutting a flat piece of probably 16 gauge metal. I’d prefer it to be stainless but it can be some other kind of metal (aluminum maybe?). Like a metal sign. I probably should’ve added this to my original post. Sorry.

We have a Amada Pulasr Laser that can handle a 5’x10’ sheet. We are not close to you but willing to help. We do all our design work in Solid Works CAD software.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

I guess I’m pretty dumb when it comes to this kind of metal work.

It is approximately 10 inches tall by 8 inches wide. Here are a couple pictures of what I’m looking for. The first picture is just a paper cut out of the badge. The second picture is one I had made a few years ago. It was made in 4 pieces. The snake was threaded onto the staff and the letters were epoxied on after.

[SB09]

I guess I’m pretty dumb when it comes to this kind of metal work.



It is approximately 10 inches tall by 8 inches wide. Here are a couple pictures of what I’m looking for. The second picture is one I had made a few years ago. It was made in 4 pieces. The snake was threaded onto the staff and the letters were epoxied on after.

Do you still have the original file from when that one was made?


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[AlaskaFlyerFan]

Do you still have the original file from when that one was made?


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I never had a file. I gave the paper cut out to the guy and he did the rest.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

I think it was drawn up in auto cad? Does that make sense?

[SB09]

I think it was drawn up in auto cad? Does that make sense?

Yes. That makes sense. Drawn in some sort of CAD program then converted to a file type the HyperTherm can read/execute.

I talked to our operator yesterday and he told me our HyperTherm will def produce some sharp edges on 16ga plate and possibly blowouts/flares on those intricate bends. Just too thin for it not to happen to us. We’d need a specific type head that we don’t have unfortunately.


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[bboswell]

we have a CNC laser here in New Waverly that can do this