Welcome to the Austin Seven Friends web site and forum

As announced earlier, this forum with it's respective web address will go offline within the next days!
Please follow the link to our new forum

http://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum

and make sure, you readjust your link button to the new address!

Welcome Austin seven Friends
This Forum is Locked
Author
Comment
Laser cutting...

I am looking for advice on getting a small run of metal plates made up for a job I need to do - does anyone have any recommendations of UK based laser cutters who might be able to help me please?

Re: Laser cutting...

There was a chap called Auric Goldfinger who had one some time back:



"Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?"
"No, Mr Bond. I expect you to die..."


Sorry, couldn't resist.


Location: Gard, France 30960. Used to be Languedoc-Roussillon but now it's Occitanie

Re: Laser cutting...

That looks just the job!

Re: Laser cutting...

This chap does a lot of work for the hot rod community. http://whengparts.com/His name is Paul IIRC, has done some stuff for me in the past.

Location: N W Kent

Re: Laser cutting...

From Model Engineers Workshop Mag- not used but would think ok if in that area.
LaserFrames Leeds- www.laserframes.co.uk 0754 200 1823 or 01423 734899
John W

Re: Laser cutting...


Ruairidh

Sorb.co.uk in Marlow have an online ordering system which is great. You can optimise cost/quantity. They are also happy to courier the parts.
If you want the .dxf drawings done send me a paper sketch and I can generate the files for you, that will save you some money. I am sorting out a batch of bits to do in the next month or so with some Solex parts for Robert.
Oh and remember you won't be able to get holes smaller than the thickness of the material you are cutting from.

All the best

Tom

Location: Guildford

Re: Laser cutting...


Hi Ruairidh,

Email sent,

Tom

Location: Eye on the Norfolk / Suffolk border

Re: Laser cutting...

Stuart and John - thank you very much.

Tom H - very kind offer indeed, I may well be in touch - thank you!

Tom B - thanks for your email, very helpful.

Re: Laser cutting...

You could also consider water jet cutting. I was told that laser cutting generates heat while water jet cutting does not, in case that's an issue. Not sure about the relative accuracy of the two systems but someone I know had the internal spline for a pinion flange cut with water jet and he said it turned out well.

Ivan

Location: Wellington, NZ

Re: Laser cutting...

To second Ivan's suggestion. I have access to water jet here in Cambridge and have had a number of items made for tiny links that I needed for bonnet catch refurbishment, some brackets for rear lamps - even head gaskets from solid copper. It is a very accurate system and maybe easier to find than laser cut?

Location: Cambridge

Re: Laser cutting...

Just a note on water-jet cutting; I was asking about it yesterday for some racing car bits and I learnt that there are water-jet cutters and water-jet cutters. Always ask if the machine has a 'ruby' jet (I'm assuming it's made from a ruby?) because the lesser machines without this type of jet tend to wander and I saw an example of a pilot hole in 10mm aluminium that went round a corner!
The other advantage of water-jet is the diameter of a hole is not constrained by the thickness of the material as with a lot of laser-cutting outfits - a 3mm hole in a 50mm thick billet is not a big deal.
I had a couple of sets of Morris Six manifold gaskets made in solid copper which have been a great success. Jowett Jupiter head gaskets are currently being processed.

Location: Suffolk

Re: Laser cutting...

The basic hierarchy of clever, CNC cutting goes:

Water Jet (best)
Laser
Plasma

There's no point having unnecessary cost or precision and for general fabrication plasma is pretty good. Helps that I've been using the same company (Phillips Engineering in Suffolk) for so long now that I've moved on from father to the son who now runs the company.

Re: Laser cutting...

Hi R
I am a big fan of water jet cutting and have a super supplier here.
They can cut to a 10th of a thou.
It is superior to laser cutting and you can cut very diverse materials.
If you send me a sample or drawing I will get you a quote.

Location: The Centre of the Universe

Re: Laser cutting...

Charles P
The basic hierarchy of clever, CNC cutting goes:

Water Jet (best)
Laser
Plasma

There's no point having unnecessary cost or precision and for general fabrication plasma is pretty good. Helps that I've been using the same company (Phillips Engineering in Suffolk) for so long now that I've moved on from father to the son who now runs the company.


Charles is right, depends on the quality you require. Although at the top of that list I would add CNC machining if it has to be absolutely perfect!

At work we use CNC machines (including a 5 axis and a giant industrial robot arm that used to weld cars that mainly gets used now to cut polystyrene!) for detail stuff. We have a plasma table for rough stuff (not a great one, generally needs a lot of clean up) and lasers but they are small so those are only for plastics and wood. For tiny detail things the lasers are great and are very accurate depending on the material. We send bigger stuff out for water jet cutting if it needs to be accurate and clean.

I'd say work out the exact precision you need then see if the suppliers can do it. I know they've looked at getting a water jet cutter at work and the maintenance/running costs were horrendous so you probably want a place that looks after their equipment well to get the best results.

Simon

Location: Wellington

Re: Laser cutting...

All your advice and offers here, and through email, are very much appreciated - thank you very much indeed.