Does DMS have a laser cutter, can it cut thin aluminum, and can it cut Delrin? Does anyone know of any good place where I can buy thin sheets of Delrin or aluminum?
Delerin does not cut well on the lasers and we currently can’t cut aluminum, only etching.
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No on aluminum. Maybe on Delrin. Depends on combustion products of Delrin. Find a material safety data sheet for it and go from there.
While we’re waiting for the laser folks to spot this (might be a while), you might go look on the DMS Wiki, and look at the Laser Committee. There should be an Approved Materials list, and possibly some discussion about what our laser cutter can and cannot cut.
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Delrin is permitted on the lasers, but for your edification here is our “go/no-go” list of materials for our lasers: Laser Cutter Materials - Dallas Makerspace
It’s one of the points of the material. It free machines and cuts exceptionally well with lasers for thin sheet (unless it’s black delrin, but that’s more a problem with the carbon based black pigment burning out). The bigger issue with laser is that you are still removing material and relieving stress, so warping can be an issue but that apples to all stressed materials. It’s commonly lasered for engineering prototypes and one-off embossing plates where a melt run will be too costly for tooling.
This hackaday writeup has some good notes: Drawbacks Of Laser Cut Delrin–and How To Slip Around Them | Hackaday
I’ve cut delrin on the machines for thin stuff. Thicker materials I’ve always machined in the machine shop.
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If the aluminum isn’t too thin, the CNC plasma cutter might be your solution for the aluminum.
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Been cutting Delrin for over 15 years so yes it can be laser cut. But as mentioned, not thick sheets. May take multiple passes based on thickness. I have/do cut 1/2" thick delrin in about 12 passes and it goes out of focus and leaves an ugly edgs. Fortunately it can be belt sanded to clean up the external edges.
Expect it to create a good 2" flame. No problem on the fusion which had a 2" focal length. mega problem on others as the nozzle is maybe 1/4" above the material. even with air assist exect a cracked lens would be in it’s future.
Mine is a ULS machine with a 2" focal length and zero air assist and never had a problem with cutting delrin. It’s melting point is just over 300 degrees so no problem there. Our exhausts should be able to handle the smoke generated. Nothing toxic there. It’s even food safe. cheers!
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Interesting I never had a flame; this happen even with the air assist usually? Might be because I was running lower power for tolerances. Or maybe I’ve been lucky
this is what I was referring to with not cutting well.
black definitely cut worse than white delerin, like was also mentioned higher up
Could be. I’m going 50 watts and about 5 IPM
I don’t like the sound of a 2 inch flame. Seems like an easy way to burn the air tube and or the lens.
From some videos, it looks like it can be done cleanly, so I think its fine to cut with some extra attention.
i dont think team laser is for metal cuts. doesnt metal works have a plasma laser?
i presume you’re making an intricate cut? like a design?
and for delrin that’s the plastics, PIG SIG where you’d be better off. I highly recommend a jig saw and a heat element to smooth the edges after the cut. the amount of time you’d spend making a vector file and then loading it into the machine can be done in 1/4 the time with a jig saw or other tool.
Fiber laser.
It’s pending move and electrical, IIRC… It’s a power hog.
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We’ve got a plasma cutter – the Dynatorch. Not quite the same as a laser.
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And last I heard, it is just a raw laser. So it still needs the CNC gantry and all the appropriate safeties.
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maybe we could advise this person on which tools would be more appropriate for the type of cuts being made. sounds like this is something that could be useful as we’re starting to see delrin onsite and aluminum as i understand it requires a little bit of consideration in metal works? or was that just for grinders
Laser for delrin or machine it for thicker materials.
For aluminium, the plasma is much rougher cuts/less detail; we do not know yet if this is acceptable for the use case or not since the OP hasn’t replied about that
This is nonsense; between the machine being less likely to screw something up than a jigsaw on thin material, to the statement that it’s faster arbitrarily
We still don’t know the use case, if files exist, or if this is even just a profile cut or something intricate like a stencil.
We also don’t even know what *thin" is for the purposes of this discussion yet. Is it 18ga? 10ga? 28ga? All of these will have different answers and results with the suggested methods.
And the 90A 480 circuit that comes way down the line and space to run it.
We can’t advise anything beyond the basics Nick/Pearce/I covered until @Reed_Graff chimes in with more specifics on what they’re trying to do. We have no idea the kerf requirements, the level of detail , if designs already exist in CAD or not, etc
No aluminium on the grinders is basically it.
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CNC plasma cutting aluminum is fine. The metal cutting bandsaws are generally fine with Aluminum. MIG and TIG arc welding processes are fine, but may come with technical limitations. Only one of the cold cut saws are suitable for aluminum.
But any form of grinding wheel not explicitly labeled for aluminum is a total no no. Aluminum gums up into the grinding wheel surface and gets well stuck. And it has a much higher thermal expansion rate than the grinding wheels. So there is a substantial risk of the expanding aluminum literally splitting a grinding wheel apart. And given the mass and energy involved, especially on bench grinder wheels, it doesn’t matter how rare an event it might be, you simply never gamble on a grinder wheel that has had aluminum embedded in it.
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I’ve used the lasers to make a Leatherworking makers mark out of delrin rod as outlined in this post.
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