Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: March 01, 2011, 07:09:49 AM »

Good Morning,

i wrote to the folks at Rofin, that stuff looks a bit spenny but you never know. i do not think that kind of power will be necessary to cut a thin laminate, but it could not hurt to have extra capacity. If i decide to go with a laser i would prefer a purpose-built machine as opposed to something i cobble on to a router table. In my humble opine, i feel it would be difficult to take advantage of the speed and almost impossible to control the depth for pocketing without a machine designed to do so.

BTW, i stole tweakies avatar, and use it for my Cisco "WebX" company intranet chat avatar. i think it is pretty "Gender Neutral". 

Jen

12

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 28, 2011, 02:29:53 PM »

Thanks Dave,

I'll check it out.

Jen

13

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 28, 2011, 11:42:00 AM »

Tweakie,

That is what we are hoping, that on average we can control the depth, any irregularities should be controllable with the liberal application of adhesive. i am also hoping that sanding the surface willl diminish any blackening of the wood, if it occurs. i'll let you know when i find out.

I am sure i can develope some kind of protocol for testing the timing/intensity needed to control depth on a given sample of wood. after a while it should become routine. perhaps develop a test template, varying the settings programatically between the different test areas so i could push a button, measure the depth of the samples and choose the settings necessary to achieve that depth on that particular sample of material. any thats the plan.

Jen

14

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 28, 2011, 10:49:45 AM »

Thanks for the advice tweakie,

Yah the stuff will put up a nice stink when burnt. fortunately the units i am considering have a 4" vent on them, and my dust collecting system uses the same size hoses. It vents outside, and neighbors are a fair distance away, so the odor should not be an issue.

My real concern is weather or not i can get a controllable depth for the pocketing. I would really hate myself for dumping that kind of money on a system that turns out to be unweidly in the z axis. wood does not, by nature, have a consistant density. also if the laser discolors the wood around the edges.

it woould be senseless to have a machine that can cut nice sharp corners on my inlay material only to have to use the router to cut pockets that will be rounded by virtue of the tool's diameter.

15

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 28, 2011, 07:27:35 AM »

Hi,

i am investigating a third alternative, it is a laser system from a company called epilog. they make small lasers that work off of image files from applications like vcarve or corell draw. they have a very high accuracy and lightning speed, on the order of 100 inches per minute cutting materials similar to the "ablam" that i use for my inlay work.

they run in the 40 to 80- watt range and work a lot like a dot matrix printer. the cost is well below 10k for table sizes of 12x12 and 12x18, which is great for the type of work i am doing. they are a CO2 based system and have many advantages over a router or a mill. very thin "kerf" about .001". They are capable of making the sharp corners that inlay artists love, no cutters to wear or break, made in the U.S. real win win stuff.

I am in the process of working with the local sales rep to test one out on the material i use. i will keep you posted. the real concern is how accurately it can hold "depth" on the "pockets" that my inlay work "guzinta" so we will be testing some of the various hardwoods used in musical instruments to see if it is possible to maintain a reasonably even depth.

have a great week!
Jen

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 22, 2011, 02:06:19 PM »

Hi Tweakie,

I once owned a laser hair removal clinic, an alexanderite laser that output 20 joules of enercy into a 25mm spot over a 3ms pulse cost me about 80,000 dollars a pop. output in watts it was probably about 40. The power supply generated a huge amount of heat, i had to water cool them then air condition the room the machine stood in.

i just have this frankenstein picture of this room full of power equipment tied to a six foot long CO2 laser attached to a six inch mount focused on a tiny piece of .050" thick by 1/4 inch across abalone shell

Jen

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 22, 2011, 11:33:20 AM »

Hi Dave,

could you please e-mail me your contact information, so we can take this discussion off line? my address is: jedwards@hanger.com.

Thanks,
Jen

18

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 22, 2011, 09:59:49 AM »

Dave,

that is not a bad idea. i could replace the belt drives with ball screw feeds on the X & Y on the table i have. there is room to bring the travel up to 18 X 32 on the table i have. the Z axis is already a very precise set up. built with ball screws and dovetail rails of hard steel. no slop at all.

i have a budget of 8k for this machine, aren't laser heads much more expensive? could it be made switchable so i could use the spindle i have for wood, and the laser for shell?

Jen

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 21, 2011, 05:00:26 PM »

Forgot,

with regard to material, what i am doing is cutting very fine inlays out of a material called "Ablam" it is basically abaline shell that has be delaminated and re laminated with a plastic compound as a binder. many thin layers of shell. the size i use if .050" thick. it is basically limestone. the amount of wood carvig is equally small. "pockets" that are like very thin vines ("tree of life" designs) about .040" in depth. in very hard woods like ebony, ironwood, rosewood & etc...

thanks for the feedback guys!
Jen

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 21, 2011, 04:47:29 PM »

Dave,

I took a look at the probotics offring and do not think it will be enough of an improvment over what i have now to justify the cost. I do like the larger 25x25 cutting area.

The table appears to be made of some kind of composite, that worries me. if the table is out by more than about .005" or so i could wind up with "pockets" that are too deep. That could prove costly with regards to material. The same goes for the male part of the inlay, the abalone.

A 5" x 9"x .050" piece of material (Ablam) costs me about $300. A grade AAA Ebony Fretboard can go for close to $100. So the stiffness of the machine,repeatability, and having a stable "plane"working surface is very important.

I like the idea of an air spindle, 40k rpm is a good increase out of the 25k i am getting now, i could kick up the feed by a good 35%. But i would have to add the complexity and noise of a air supply and the noise of a screamimn turbine. I have found some high speed electrical spindles that run on 220v single phase, that are rated about 2hp and turn 40k as well, but they tend to be bulky.

so, the search continues....
thanks for the feedback