metal router

caudlet wrote:


I tend to agree about rotary cutting stainless with the other posters. It will be a challenge to keepthe material from pulling up against the cutting action on the bit or vibrating and catching on the moving bit.

There have been a lot of improvements in plasma and cutting thin materials. Most manufacturers now offer "fine cut" tips that work well with thin material. Some even have special machines for cutting really thin materials. I have seen discussions about cutting stainless with Co2 instead of air and there was a thread about actually placing the sheet slightly under water and cutting that way. You might want to go over to the Plasmacutting Group and post the same question there. The amount and hardness of slag is a function of how well you adjust the speed, height and air pressure of the cut. Dry air is a must. Seems contidictry when you talk about cutting under water, but at the point the plasma ball is formed in the head the gas (air) needs to not have embedded moisture.

To cut metal with a laser requires a lot more power than things like acrylic or just engraving coated metal, and shiney metal is worse. Abrasive water jet is neat but the high pressures required for cutting metals and things like disposal of the abrasive and the maintenance of all the "plumbing" make it a technology not well suited for small shops.

I don't know how far you will get for a 1000.00. Plasma machines alone are more than that, and work hold down and cooling are going to have to be included in any rotary solution. A 3 X 4 gantry router to machine SS for less than a grand would be an accomplishment.

Certain types of stainless work harden easily and can eat bits (even Carbide) like they were free.

I know it's frustrating for you to watch someone spend money on an operation that you feel you could build a machine to do much cheaper but the business owner needs to think about other things. Unless you are going to hang around to run it for free it better be simple for them to operate and reliable. If they are making a fair profit on the items they make and sell under the current model they may find more return on their time by continuing to sub out the cutting and concentrate on selling and designing.







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rotary cutting of stainless is not the problem you all seem to think it is, the trick is to use a high spindle speed, around 20,000 rpm, a small dia carbide cutter, 1/8" (electronic industry pcb routers are perfect) and sandwich the workpiece betwwen some sacrificial 1/8 mdf by doing it this way and tagging the workpiece you can stack up to 5 0.020" parts at a time.. thats how we cut heatsinks and they are acurate to 0.0005"
any info you need email me
pauldick@...





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