Hi im raul im new on dms, im doing my own sign for my shop, i already have the sign for the channnel letter but i need some advices to sep up a cnc machine that hold a 4x8 acrilic 3mm sheet to cut the letter
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We have a machine big enough to do this, though I’m not sure if plastic is currently allowed on it (it has been in the past and I saw evidence today of recent plastic cutting).
I’d be happy to help you if I can get a better look at what you want to do.
You will need to get your own plastic cutting bit since DMS doesn’t have any. I can help you identify a suitable bit.
Contact me here and we can set up a time and day. As a matter of course I don’t charge anyone for reasonable levels of help.
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Is this a 4x8 ft sheet of acrylic or 4x8 inches? Given the thickness of 3mm I wasn’t 100% sure. If its not a giant sheet, it might be easier on a laser cutter.
EDIT: If you have a small shop, I imagine that an 8" tall letter might be just the right size so I thought that might be most likely. Big Thunder laser has a 3x5 ft working space but I thought it was possible that you might have a Walmart supercenter-sized store and were doing 8 ft tall letters but for that size 3mm seems a bit thin.
Sound good thanks im avaliable today night, tomorrow moorning or weekend sunday what about you
Yes the sheet is 4x8 foot 3 mm there two sheets one acrilic and other acm, acm is plastic with a thin layer of aluminum paper on both side
Your letters are 8 feet tall? Btw, metal is not allowed in any quantity in the woodshop.
The shapeoko in plastics can cut both plastic and non-ferrous metals. Your project might be out of the scope of what our facility can handle.
Cutting ACM is not recommended for lasers, as this material has two different materials thus requiring two different speed and power settings. The super high heat needed to cut the aluminum part might be so high that it warps or bubbles the plastic/acrylic between the aluminum layers. Apart from that some searching revealed that 3mm aluminum takes a 500watt laser to cut through… and I don’t think we have that. we are sitting around 100 -130 give or take. Most suggest using a spiral up-cut bit to cut ACM, and as SWA pointed out METAL is a HARD NO in woodshop.
ACM will need CNC. There are multi-wavelength laser cutters that can do these types of composite materials but we don’t have one here at the makerspace.
How tall will your letters be? It may make sense just to cut the acrylic sheet down and then use a laser as that would be faster.
Aluminum is fairly reflective of the wavelength used in our lasers. Depending on specific laser this can be bad for the laser if it causes the total energy passing through the optics etc. to exceed the power they were rated for. Multiwavelength combo fiber-CO2 lasers are designed for this type of thing but they are $$$$$.
Ok but there an acm to hold 4x8 foot or ill have to cut the material?
What day can we work on it?
I’m not 100% sure that we have the equipment here needed to deal with a 4x8 ft sheet of ACM. The shapeoko has a 2.75 x 2.75 ft working space so you would need to cut the ACM first.
Also I’m not the person who offering to help you with setting up the CNC. That would be @mdredmond
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When can we meet for cutting it?
Let me know you available times
I’m available most any evening. I don’t think we can cut anything with the aluminum on it.
There is someone I can refer you too that can probably do that for you.
Ok send me the info
In summary:
You can see more about our tools, including their size capacity on the Tools list, by clicking through to the relevant committee.
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What format is your artwork currently in? Do you just have the CAD or do you have any CAM, and if so, for what type of machine? Machine choice will dictate what type of input file you need to drive the CNC machine (laser being the easiest because it doesn’t require any CAM - just the vector artwork).
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You should probably be looking for a Shapeoko 3 XXL class on the calendar. Filter the category as Plastics.
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The Woodshop Multicam is the machine that Matt Redmond volunteered to help you with.
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Regarding cutting the sheets down:
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Our only plastics table saw has a very small tabletop and isn’t going to be suitable for a 4’ x 8’ sheet. It also doesn’t have working space around it for a sheet that size.
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You could, at least in theory, cut the acrylic sheet at DMS, using a woodshop saw. You will have to ask if there is a plastics blade or you may have to provide your own.
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If you cut the ACM sheet, you will probably have to do that outside of DMS. I have read that you might be able to score and snap ACM but I have no personal knowledge.
** Our only saw that could cut the ACM (i.e., in Plastics) isn’t large enough (see above).
** None of the metal bandsaws have a deep enough throat unless you’re willing to cut off a few inches at a time.
** You can’t cut the ACM sheet on the Woodshop SawStops. At all. It is conductive and will trigger the brake.
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Ok thanks that helps a lot, i have the files on vector and i can convert it to any allow file
Can you send me the info for acm cutting service guy
still there? can you send me the info for the acm and we can plan to cut the acrilic
@mdredmond is an expert with the Multicam. That machine isn’t an option in this case. How long have you been a member? What machines are you cleared to operate?