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Machine Laser time!

Machine
M

Mcgyver

Ultra Member
Now all I need are the sharks.

Big thrill at work, we're upgrading from 10x 20' plasma to a slightly smaller (2x4 meter) 12,000 watt laser. One of the most powerful you can get, it should cut up to 2" and just flies on thin gauge and it has a dual table - one being loaded while the other is burning

Unwrapping a super cool late Christmas present



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The speed and thinness of the cut are incredible.

We imported it ourselves which saved 60% or more (vs local dealers). That carries risk, but I've a brilliant young mandarin speaking engineer who did a great job on due diligence with the vendor. Fortunately no empty containers arrived!

Here's the part where it gets goofy. Me being me, a confirmed toolaholic, thought this my chance top get a little laser for the good guys. Its a rounding error on the whole deal so I got it thrown in the sea can for a couple of fortune cookies and the promise to demo the machine to potential customers.

Cripes the little thing is big! 60" x 40" footprint. Short of the living room I have no bloody idea how I'm going to fit it in. I'm hoping it can be completely disassembled else it won't even make in the door. Those who have seen my shop know the challenge I face, I'm stumped. Like a good cave man I've taken over huge swaths of the house but wifey will kill me in the act for attempting to invade a living area. Living room and bedrooms seem under utilized by she won't agree lol. If she was at all crafty, I'd be like "honey you are not going to believe what I got you!"

God knows how I'll squeeze it it, but here's the latest addition to my crowded stable of machines


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they were supposed to increase it to 150watts, not going to start unpacking though until I'm ready to do something with it.
 
@Mcgyver I'll be very interested in how cutting out plywood goes. Very cool. I hope you can post some videos of the big beast cutting.
 
My buddy has a micro hobby laser that requires a few passes to get through balsa. He runs it with windows open, smoke detectors muted & SWMBO away on errands. Do the big boy professional lasers exhaust through some kind of scrubber?
 
Peter, second photo, far left side, the white vertical column thing is the dust collector.
John, the big one will just see sheet/plate steel/stainless, maybe the bit of AL. Little guy will light gauge ply, no idea the max it'll do.
Susquatch, nice try, but you're a further drive than the plant! lol
Dan, send 'em along, but you don't want to hear what the minimum order is lol. (that is something we're pondering. We generally make larger stuff so order intake efficiency isn't that important, who cares when its only 5 orders a month. I'm looking at ways to keep the machine busy, but small orders means hundreds of orders a month. Needs a software solution, people up their own dxfs, it sorts it all by gauge, and sends it to the guy doing he nesting etc. Still takes a lot of handling to keep it all organized and get it shipped. none of it is impossible, just very different what we usually do which is make parts for our jobs)
 
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Dam that's an impressive machine, can make some real big sheet metal Dino's with that thing.

Ps. Also I like the castellated beam over head crane 2 tons is good size. I want to put overhead crane in 40x60 shop after I build it this spring just got to figure out cost effective method of making one lol.
 
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I can't remember what it is about the castellated beams, but most won't inspect them anymore. (commercially you need an annual crane inspection).

I went in yesterday and did some tests. Everything was .002 or better on dimension and squareness. Really happy with it so far.

I like the Dino, is that an open source set of files?
 
Mcgyver said:
I can't remember what it is about the castellated beams, but most won't inspect them anymore. (commercially you need an annual crane inspection).
Click to expand...
The picture of that I posted isn't open source but there is bunch of open source DXF files running around or printable Dino's you can find on Google that would be fairly easy to convert to .DXF most of the nicer ones for CNC plasma cutters cost less then 100$ for the files.

Ye castellated beams have some flaws when you load them certain ways but for the most part are the same as normal beam. As far as getting one to pass inspection if you can get engineer even to sign off on them you can keep using them commercially but probly be severely down rated from 1960's load rating but for private use as long as WCB isn't involved you could use wet noodle as crane and it's all good. Hence the optimistic load rating on consumer load lifting products
 
We've been able to get ours certified (we have a couple light ones) but only because the service company we use is ok with them, most won't however. Nothing to do their design or engineering, the service company refuses ..... some flaw they develop over time? i did know why ...... I've got a great memory but its short lol. Will have to ask again.

Private use, no issue. Just adopt the line from crane co we built a lot of big cranes for: "we stand behind our cranes ..... but never under them"
 
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