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Has anyone experimented wil making beveled edges in this material? It does not have to be perfect clean and cane even be several "steps".
The application I am thinking of is a warranty tag used in pick-up truck beds when they do spray in bed liners. I will try to post a pic.
It's pretty easy to build a fixture to hold stock at an angle on the bed/cutting table. The problem (of course) is that you can only cut one edge at a time. You also have to be careful that overhangs don't interfere with the flying optics. You may be able to minimize the tedium a bit by cutting multiples and engraving in a separate step, but in the long run it's probably easier to cut the bevels on a tablesaw or chopsaw and flame polishing before engraving. You'll also probably have less waste as you can use the top and bottom of the stock. I guess you could rough them out on a saw and use the laser to finish them, but this seems redundant to just cutting and polishing.
Otherwise your looking at a 4 or 5 axis laser which gets into BIG money.
You might be better off subbing out the bevel cutting to somebody with a 5 axis and doing the engraving yourself.
-kg
Just a thought, make the fixture to hold the part upside down so that the highest part is the cut line.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Groenke
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Johnson29
Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. I guess I'm just warning that you need to watch the z position if you're switching between flat and bevel cuts or beveling rectangles on their long and short edges. I can imagine if I were making a bunch of parts, I might forget to drop the table at some point and run the lens box into the workpiece.
I have cut bevels on acrylic with the laser by making a fixture to hold the part at an angle, but I don't really know if it is practicable for production. I think it would be tedious and time consuming to bevel one edge at a time.
If your job is large enough I'd be more inclined to set up a router, or else build a machine (or adapt an existing machine) to do the beveling. Find out about suitable speeds/feeds/cutting tools before you commit to something.
Theoretically you can bevel or make steps using raster but I don't think you want to go there.
You can alleviate the risk of crashes by using a longer focal length lens. Also, on some lasers, you can remove the nose cone and replace it with a flat plate with a small hole in it to give more clearance. Not sure if this applies to your laser.
I do id plates for large log hauling trailers using anodized aluminum.
The issue is it is an oval, so an angle fixture will not work.
I have a beveler but, have also used a table top router and a dremel with a router attachment.
I've done it, as stated its OK for one offs, but too much of a set up PiTA for production work. You can only do one bevel at a time, straight lines only, and only on one axis. A router table is much more efficient.
Dave
I agree with others about using a router instead. As much as I wanted to use the laser for everything, it really comes down to using the right tool for the job.