Waterjet or Laser?

[paulbaguio]

what would be the growing trend or direction for more efficient and well utilized tool for cutting acrylic, stainless or metal? waterjet or LAser? what buy for wiser investment? I know the laser equipment can bring in more jobs like engraving and other stuffs that water jet cannot do except cutting.

thanks.

 

[rjssigns]

Depends on thickness of material. If you are doing very thin metals and using mostly for engraving then a laser.

Waterjets are incredible and yes they will engrave, just not as crisp as a laser.

The other thing to understand about a waterjet is the "swimming pool" under the cutting area. Waterjets require approximately 36" of water below the head so you don't cut your floor to ribbons. Another misconception is they only use water. Wrong. To cut harder substances Garnet abrasive is introduced into the high pressure stream. This creates a waste issue because you can't re-use it.

It boils down to knowing your market and being able to justify the expense. I outsource all my laser and waterjet stuff.

At some point I will build a Lasersaur, which is open source.

BTW there is a waterjet shop in the valley by me. You should see their foyer floor. All different types of granite, marble and stone done on their monster waterjet. (30 foot x 100 foot table!)

 

[padchua]

I have a laser machine, bought it 4 1/2 years ago from kern elctronics and laser, unfortunately the laser stop working. Before I bought the machine, Mr. Kern told me that, if the machine ever needed repair he would sent me a loner while it's being fix. unfortunately that's not true. I felt cheated
so, I'm hoping that someone where I can get this laser fix real quick, beacuse I needed this for a job.

Ricky

 

[TR1018]

Kern

You should go on their facebook site and voice your concerns.

 

[CES020]

I haven't seen every available laser, but to my knowledge, a laser isn't going to do what you want. There are engraving lasers, and they won't cut metal. Not because of the power, but because of the wavelength of the beam. They are typically in the 40-100 Watt area in price and run from $15,000 to $40,000 in that power area. They will cut acrylic just fine, as well as engrave things.

Then there's the industrial laser. It'll cut metal. They are 1000 Watts and above. They don't engrave. They cut. You can mark something with it, but it'll just be an outline. You can drop $100,000 on one of those in a minute.

I'm not aware of any laser that will engrave AND cut metal.

To me, you can't do all you are trying to do with one machine.

Just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Just for reference, we have two lasers, neither of which will cut metal.

 

[CES020]

On second thought, I think the Kern's do both to some degree. My guess is they do both reasonably well, but neither extremely well (speed,etc., when compared to stand alone machines).

 

[g&eprinting]

I have a laser machine, bought it 4 1/2 years ago from kern elctronics and laser, unfortunately the laser stop working. Before I bought the machine, Mr. Kern told me that, if the machine ever needed repair he would sent me a loner while it's being fix. unfortunately that's not true. I felt cheated
so, I'm hoping that someone where I can get this laser fix real quick, beacuse I needed this for a job.

Ricky

Was very interest in a large Kern laser.
Was this issue ever resolved.

 

[TwoNine]

Water jet's are not designed for acrylic - they generally have a difficult time piercing the acrylic without cracking it. What I have done in the past to correct this is pierce all holes first with a lower pressure, then step up the pressure and cut. But all and all - they are not efficient for cutting acrylics. For stainless and aluminum though a water jet is far and away superior. Leaves a nice blasted edge, however, it does have a "cone" type cut when going through thick materials (1"+)

 

[jhanson]

We're actually looking at a Kern laser. The 400W model will cut metal pretty quickly; aluminum is the PITA of laser cutting metals due to its reflectivity, so the Al cutting ability of a high-wattage CO2 laser is pretty low (something like 18ga sheet).

Mild and stainless steel, however, are much easier. 400W on the Kern means about 3/16" mild steel and (I think) around 1/8" stainless. You need the metal cutting kit, and when I spoke to them, I think they recommended getting the machine built around a Coherent laser.

1" acrylic looks terrific; nice crisp cut with perfectly flame-polished edges.

Padchua, just out of curiosity, how long after you got the machine did the laser tube burn out? I'm just wondering how many hours you might have gotten out of it, since laser tubes do have a finite lifespan.

 

[MultiCam]

It does depend on the thickness of metal and what you're hoping to achieve with the machine over the long term. Read this article on my blog that will help you understand the capabilities of a waterjet.

http://multicamcanada.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/why-waterjet-the-capabilities-are-endless/

 

[Gompf Brackets Inc]

We run a laser machine shop cutting and engraving stainless steel, colled-rolled steel and most non-metal stuff. We don't run any waterjet stuff since most of our product work is under 1/4". The type of laser you use really depends on the market you're going after and what material you would be mostly be cutting. Lasers will give that nice polished edge to acrylic as well as cutting thinner materials.
More info: http://www.bracket.com/services/laser-cutting/