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Laser/water jetting
flak monkey - 15/4/20 at 11:11 AM

Hi all,

Is anyone on here doing water jetting/laser cutting?

I need a few bits cutting from mild steel, already have the DXF's etc

Thanks

TimC - 15/4/20 at 11:31 AM

Hi Sera,

I’m planning to use Rob @ https://www.octagonprecision.com/about in the next week or so - customer service seems great.

Hope you are well.

russbost - 15/4/20 at 01:47 PM

Tim, why do you use waterjet rather than laser? Just wondering about the pros & cons of each?

How does it compare pricewise?

Ugg10 - 15/4/20 at 02:05 PM

https://www.lasermaster.co.uk/

I had good service from these guys in the past, send them a dwg/dxf file, they will quote, you agree, parts arrive. I had inlet manifold plate and smaller bits done in aluminium and exhaust manifold plate in steel. Worth and email for a quote.

flak monkey - 16/4/20 at 09:07 AM

Thanks all, some food for thought!

TimC - 16/4/20 at 10:04 AM

quote:
Originally posted by russbost
Tim, why do you use waterjet rather than laser? Just wondering about the pros & cons of each?

How does it compare pricewise?


I’ve used both over the years. For my purposes (one off kit car stuff) I don’t think it makes much difference. I tend to go where the customer service is Good providing that its not prohibitively expensive.

In theory, laser is more accurate and cheaper but water can do thicker materials and also leaves surfaces without tarnishing. However, when you are talking one-offs, the business model and overheads of the firm will have as much to do with the price as any underlying efficiencies of the process.

We also use a wire-eroding contractor in work which is laser++ - another-level of accuracy and cost but comes with proper 3D versatility.

russbost - 16/4/20 at 10:55 AM

What's minimum order for the water jet guy you recommended

TimC - 16/4/20 at 10:57 AM

It seems he does a fair amount of one-off work.

balidey - 16/4/20 at 06:54 PM

Do you know of Guttridge in Spalding? They have their own laser place next door, may be worth a try. And looks like they are remaining open.
https://www.laserfab.co.uk/

peter030371 - 16/4/20 at 07:27 PM

I use several companies for stuff at work but none are that good for smaller quantities like kit car stuff. I recently tried Laser Master (already mentioned) for a few personal bits and the price and service was excellent (some of the bigger companies could learn a thing or two from them!).

mcerd1 - 17/4/20 at 08:56 AM

quote:
Originally posted by TimC
quote:
Originally posted by russbost
Tim, why do you use waterjet rather than laser? Just wondering about the pros & cons of each?

How does it compare pricewise?


I’ve used both over the years. For my purposes (one off kit car stuff) I don’t think it makes much difference. I tend to go where the customer service is Good providing that its not prohibitively expensive.

In theory, laser is more accurate and cheaper but water can do thicker materials and also leaves surfaces without tarnishing. However, when you are talking one-offs, the business model and overheads of the firm will have as much to do with the price as any underlying efficiencies of the process.

We also use a wire-eroding contractor in work which is laser++ - another-level of accuracy and cost but comes with proper 3D versatility.

^^ what he said but waterjet has another major advantage - its not a thermal process, so doesn't suffer from local hardening on the material around the cut which could give you fatigue issues or just make it harder to do any secondary machining operations (like countersinking etc..)
obviously laser should be better than plasma in this respect, but its just not an issue for waterjet




at my work we use a lot of CNC plasma cut steel profiles (high yield structural steel, but similar behaviour to mild) and we've also had a fair bit of laser and waterjet too

bare in mind that we only need accuracy to ±0.5 at best normally and generally use the lowest bidder (which no doubt can make a huge difference to quality) but I've found that laser can leave a surprising amount of spatter/dross as well as leaving quite a rough edge - in fact there wasn't much in it between the better plasma cuts and the worst/cheapest laser ones
On the other hand I've yet to see a really bad finish on any of the waterjet stuff and it wasn't really all that much more expensive for very small volumes (we do a lot of 1off work)




[Edited on 17/4/2020 by mcerd1]

pigeondave - 17/4/20 at 11:51 AM

Another vote for LaserMaster. co.uk

Got them to cut me a back plate for the ITG filter. The holes had to be offset, so couldn't buy an off the shelf item. Ended up costing less than a blank from a motorsport seller and was accurate to 0.5mm and I drew in the hole for the air temp sender too.

Only problem was that I asked for 3mm thick, should have gone for 1.5mm.

phelpsa - 17/4/20 at 07:20 PM

My experience is that both technologies can achieve similar results as long as you specify what you want on the drawing. Laser tends to be cheaper on thinner materials, waterjet cheaper on thicker stuff for a given surface tolerance.

lsdweb - 17/4/20 at 08:12 PM

For info, I've just had a quote from Fractory.com to produce 2 (same price for 16!) of these in 5mm steel for £75. Drawing needs tweaking first!

Description
Description

lsdweb - 17/4/20 at 08:34 PM

I've just had a quote from a local supplier for the same job for £16!

russbost - 18/4/20 at 09:13 AM

That's a £75 min order price, hence same for 2 or 16. When I tried Fractory didn't get any responses at all

Rich J - 18/4/20 at 10:42 AM

quote:

I've just had a quote from a local supplier for the same job for £16


Cross Waterjet Wyn??

TimC - 20/4/20 at 11:28 AM

I thought I’d update on my experience with Rob at https://www.octagonprecision.com

I drew a profile with pencils and ruler yesterday, took a photo with my phone and e-mailed it to Rob.

He’s drawn it in Solidworks this morning and the parts should be with me Wednesday at the latest.

We had a good 15min chat on the phone too. Most of his usual customer base are on shut-down so he’s reinventing his offer to meet the needs of the likes of us. I’m really very impressed - he mentioned some of his blue-chip customers and if it’s good enough for them...

I’ve never used the guy before, have no affiliation but think he’s well-worth the recommendation.

TC