Small laser for 1/4” plate possible?

We are shopping for a smaller laser - maybe a 24” sq work envelope and capable of 1/4” through cuts on steel.
Duty cycle to cut parts out of that sheet size and not blow its mind.
5k give it take to buy.

Pipe dream or are is there something in market along these lines?

Thanks all

Ok- shot off this question too early.
Looking around it looks like 1500 watts needed and this cut is not happening on a budget machine.

I easily cut 3/8 with oxygen as an assist gas with 1000 watts. 1/8 304 with nitrogen. 5K will not cut it, not even close.

I don’t think you’re even in cheap plasma territory there. Maybe you are with a small Hypertherm and a very very cheap or home made table. You will not touch a laser in your budget. Also account for the steep in-use costs of whichever way you go. The fiber optic cable that went bad on one of our lasers was $14,000 and the tech doing the resplice was around $1500/day. Nitrogen or air costs. Consumables.

Modern Plasmas are the way to go for entry level 2D metal cutting.

I wanted that sort of unicorn myself. Cheap lasers are all CO2. CO2 does not cut steel at all. Only marks it, even then, just barely and/or with coatings.

cheap hypertherm all the way...

I can't fathom wanting to handle less than full sheets unless you buy it already sheared.

DethloffMfg said:

The fiber optic cable that went bad on one of our lasers was $14,000 and the tech doing the resplice was around $1500/day.

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I don't often say "Holy F@ck!" when I read posts here, but this one got me going. I can't understand why a fiber optic cable would be that much.

Milland said:

I don't often say "Holy F@ck!" when I read posts here, but this one got me going. I can't understand why a fiber optic cable would be that much.

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The fiber was 125 microns, inside of an armored cable almost 3/4" in diameter. This is the termination.

You can absolutely cut steel with a CO2 laser, if the machine is spec'd appropriately. We had one CO2 fiber (I forget the KW? Cincinnati CL-707) and it cut stainless and steel all day, generally under 12ga. We had 3KW and 3.3KW Salvagnini fiber lasers that cut stainless and steel all day. We cut 3/4" steel on the 3KW a few times but cut quality was terrible. It did 1/4" like butter. The laser source supervisor there for the fiber cable replacement told me about a 9KW fiber one of their customers uses to cut 7" steel plate all day. They were just putting their first 11KW unit in service.

Milland said:

I don't often say "Holy F@ck!" when I read posts here, but this one got me going. I can't understand why a fiber optic cable would be that much.

Click to expand...

Well then maybe this is a goof business opportunity for you.
CarlBoyd

Now that I remember, right after I left that company they bought a small laser for R&D that would cut tube and had a 2'x3' bed to cut plate. I think they could do 3/16" or maybe 1/4"? The price was VERY low, I think they paid under $40k for it new. No idea who made it or what power it had or if it's any good, but there's stuff out there.

Thanks guys- this is trying to save the welder fabricator guy some time making up the small lot runs of parts he is doing.
Typical boat stuff- stanchion bases, motor brackets etc.
He is laying out by hand and sawing out on bandsaw- grinders, sanders etc to finish.
304 or 316 1/8”, 3/16” typical but just figured to have the 1/4” capacity if buying a machine.
It sounds like the better bet is just getting a shop to water jet or laser parts but often he just has one offs so still is tied to lots of hand work making small parts.

Is a used machine advisable or too many potential problems?
Next process down the feeding chain cost wise that would suit this sort of fabricator needs?

I would not touch a laser for your needs, not new or used. I have been in the same shoes, how many parts is he doing? Frankly if you've got good general fabrication tools that isn't a bad method. If you want to invest in 2D cutting I would definitely look at a plasma cutter, not necessarily even a table. Get a small Hypertherm unit for $1500 and he can bang parts out quick. You can pick up a table down the road and plug that plasma into it with a machine-style torch and be off and running. A plasma table takes up space and isn't all that cheap, but if you do a good chunk of 2d stuff it's worth it. Don't forget to compare the time/accuracy of doing this stuff by hand to the time to design, program and make the parts on a CNC plasma table; if it's not many parts or if you're making parts off of cardboard templates, just cut them out by hand with the plasma.

Decent tools - always trying to get him better set up.
I was looking at one of these Kindt Collins profile grinders to help him clean up work faster:



Anyone got time on one of these- worth bothering with?

It's only 1ft x 1ft, but you might find a protomax (waterjet) worth looking into - I have only but 12 hours cutting time on mine but rather like it. And waaaay less money than a laser....

You might be better off getting something like an iron worker and a plasma cutter. Depends on the part but a few chomps can take out a good bit of the material that would otherwise have to be ground off. The punch on the other side is a happy bonus, and the shear in the middle is even better if you have round bar or flat stock to cut up.

bryan_machine said:

It's only 1ft x 1ft, but you might find a protomax (waterjet) worth looking into - I have only but 12 hours cutting time on mine but rather like it. And waaaay less money than a laser....

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Can I ask what it cost?

If the Omax is too much, and you're daring, there's another small waterjet option:

WAZER | The First Desktop Waterjet.

However, it began as a Kickstarter, not sure they're shipping yet. I'd do some more research before I'd put any money down.

The protomax (small omax) sells for a list price on their web page - which may have gone up - I think with the machine, the accessory pack, taxes, etc. it was on the order $22K. (So a factor of 5 cheaper than the 2'x4' class machines, and an even bigger factor less floor space.)

Unlike the wazer, or various schemes people seem to be dreaming up in their garages, it's small-lab/toolroom sort of waterjet, but very serious "pro" tool. 30,000psi instead of 50,000 or 100,000. Max depth of cut of 1" vs more like 4" or 6" for the bigger machines. Only 1ft square travels. Pump fits under the table. You wouldn't buy it to compete in the local waterjet job shop market, you buy it to very quickly spit out all manner of parts from a small machine that takes up small space.

It does require 220 single phase with a neutral, which caused some aggravation in my shop full of 208v 3ph outlets without neurtral. But it doesn't require very heavy power. It does require water and a drain of some kind.

I figure I'll do a thread on it at some point, but for now I'll say I've cut polycarbonate, steel, tool steel (a2), aluminum - no real issues (except my learning curve for water jets.)

So cutting out things like stanchion plates, base plates for eyelets, backing plates, and so forth, I would think it would be great. (How much stuff do you need to cut out that's bigger than 1ft square? More than 1" thick?) 1ft square is of course not an ideal form factor for stocking large quantities of material.

Among the curtting done so far was making some templates, which will be used in a pantograph style plasma cutter. It's really well suited to template work.

Now, you can get a really nice plasma torch for way less than $22k, and I think you can get a passable CNC plasma table for about that (though way more floor space and nowhere near the variety of materials.)

For the parts it does, it's the bees knees and does them super well. It's much faster to get going than a mill for many parts because setup consists of "wedge this holddown over there" and "line this up by eyeball and run the dry run" [dry run is a literal thing on a waterjet.] Other parts the waterjet cuts in 1 setup, while the mill might need 2 or 3 or 4 - and if the part is just fixturing for some other part -> well that's why I bought it.

And of course the parts that come off happily go right into the milling machines, or to be welded, or whatever.

I'll write more about it in its own thread.

Forgive me guys.
I should have done my homework.
I didnt know squat about the various offerings.

I guess from what I am seeing let’s say we bump the budget up.
$25 k to get something in the door.

I am seeing a couple of Omax jets around the $20k mark used and the Protomax new.
The envelope of Protomax would make most of our parts just a little bitty sheet to get them out of so waste and we don’t have a shear to chop plate to 1’ squares.
Boat shops really are sorta lame I guess..

At this level- jet better utility than laser- price to get in door, running cost and reliability?

A used Omax in market at $22k
I assume there are a few others if I looked around:

USED OMAX 2652 CNC WATERJET WATER JET CUTTING SYSTEM 26" X 52" 25 H.P. | eBay

Hope you have a high tolerance for noise (maybe your shop is already tone deaf with grinders goin so won’t be an added issue).

Water jets are for the most part very noisy.

You will end up with abrasive material that will make its way into the other areas of the shop . If you haven’t visited a water jet in person you might want to do that. I shared a shop with a friend that operated a water jet and he was very conscientious but still I struggled with the noise and abrasive dust.

Trboatworks said:

Forgive me guys.
I should have done my homework.
I didnt know squat about the various offerings.

I guess from what I am seeing let’s say we bump the budget up.
$25 k to get something in the door.

I am seeing a couple of Omax jets around the $20k mark used and the Protomax new.
The envelope of Protomax would make most of our parts just a little bitty sheet to get them out of so waste and we don’t have a shear to chop plate to 1’ squares.
Boat shops really are sorta lame I guess..

At this level- jet better utility than laser- price to get in door, running cost and reliability?

A used Omax in market at $22k
I assume there are a few others if I looked around:

USED OMAX 2652 CNC WATERJET WATER JET CUTTING SYSTEM 26" X 52" 25 H.P. | eBay

Click to expand...

powerglider said:

Hope you have a high tolerance for noise (maybe your shop is already tone deaf with grinders goin so won’t be an added issue).

Water jets are for the most part very noisy.

You will end up with abrasive material that will make its way into the other areas of the shop . If you haven’t visited a water jet in person you might want to do that. I shared a shop with a friend that operated a water jet and he was very conscientious but still I struggled with the noise and abrasive dust.

Click to expand...

Not sure what WJ your friend had but my OMax 5555 is quiet...very quiet if I run submerged with their Polyurethane Splash Guard on it.

The pump is pretty quiet too. If I go in the other room 25 feet away I can hardly hear it running.

As far as migrating abrasive??? You will get splashes...all part of the process. But there are things you can do to minimize the mess using guards and curtains if needed. If your shop is a pigsty now adding a WJ will make it a bigger pigsty.