Sprinter 4WD Conversion Idea, GMT-800 IFS.

b dkw1

Observer
Water jet is another option. Quality of the cut is just as good.

Cut quality is dependent on cutting speed. Getting a good cut out of a WJ is not quick. Price is reflected in cut quality. For a laser like cut, it will not be cheaper than a laser.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
Typically that's what you run into with thinner material. With tougher to cut materials/thicknesses waterjet cutting seems to be more competitive.
 

b dkw1

Observer
1" is about all most lasers will do. I have cut 4" with a WJ. Even with a tilting head kerf was an issue. They are just not that consistent. In material that thick the hardness varies and you can tell by the cut. Laser don't care how hard it is.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
Ironed out a display and switch panel for the 4WD bits. I am thinking black powerdercoated 3mm aluminum with engraving. The holes will accept 5mm LEDs holders. The switch rectangles will accept Carling mini rocker switches. I put 3 spare switch locations, as I may want to add items later.

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luthj

Engineer In Residence
FINALLY got back a decent quote. $505 plus tax. I may even get back another tomorrow, this shop stocks 1018 steel (and can order A514), which would be my preference. If they don't get back in a timely manner, I will just settle for A36, and a lower margin.

A lot of these shops are using outdated software, so they can't read DXF or DWG files later than 2007...
 

shade

Well-known member
2007 was an important year for AutoCAD. I'm guessing there have been a few other improvements in CAD software since then.

I had to manually write G-code and used Excel for hole spacing for a multi-million dollar company. The head CNC programmer refused to use anything more advanced. smh
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
A friend works for a fab shop (medium sized one). He is the sole engineer, and another drafter handle all their work. Management refused to purchase nesting and automation software for plasma table. Given what they were paying him for OT, $10K for saved time and major material savings would be a shoe-in right? "We never needed it before" and "We already bought you solidworks 2016!" were the responses. It turns out humans are not naturally rational. Whodathunkit?
 

shade

Well-known member
I made the programmer mad by using the conversational programming interface on refurbished mill to define a few parameters, and allowed it generate the program. "I don't trust it."

I ran it through a full cycle to cut air so I could prove it wasn't going to crash the tool, and that the mill could do the work significantly faster with the new program. "I don't trust it."

I think he was really just afraid of losing his job and being sent back to the production floor. In the end, he had me program the new mill, and we didn't talk about it any more. I hated that place.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
Alright, 549$ out the door, ready for pickup next week.

For interest the quotes I got back were 1350, 1100, 1000, 550. I gave up on getting higher tensile material. They just don't stock plate thicknesses in the higher strength materials. Cest la vie.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
I designed around lower grade mild steel initially. If I went with high strength medium carbon steel, I could drop the material thickness, which would yield about 40lb savings. My solidworks was pretty rusty when I started, so changing material thickness would require a couple days of fiddling to get everything right again. Lessons learned for the next project, though I will probably forget by then.
 

Alloy

Well-known member
A friend works for a fab shop (medium sized one). He is the sole engineer, and another drafter handle all their work. Management refused to purchase nesting and automation software for plasma table. Given what they were paying him for OT, $10K for saved time and major material savings would be a shoe-in right? "We never needed it before" and "We already bought you solidworks 2016!" were the responses. It turns out humans are not naturally rational. Whodathunkit?

When I sent parts to be CNC and supplied the materials there was large crops left over so I started to hand nest the parts doing a better job than the $10-$15k software that was used.

Rule of thumb I use is biggest to smallest.
 

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