To laser cut or to water cut

[JAParticipant @ja]

I am thinking of making a 5" gauge steam locomotive. This would have 4mm thick S275 mild steel frame plates that would be commercially cut to profile with the fixing holes (mostly 3mm diameter) included.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of laser cutting and water cutting?

JA

[JAParticipant @ja]

[John BaronParticipant @johnbaron31275]

Hi Ja,

Laser cut will likely produce a very hard surface where the laser has gone through, water cutting doesn't do that.

If its something that you would need to file or otherwise clean up then you would grind the laser cut surface.

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

You pays yer money and takes yer choice. May have changed but Waterjet was a bit more expensive. Again, may have changed but the holes would probably only be "spotted". Would imagine water is going to have a cleaner edge due to cold cutting.

Regards Ian.

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

Speak to your proposed suppliers as it is a general rule of thumb that pierced hole diameters should not be less than material thickness.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Modern Fibre Optic laser will not harden the edges much and a quick bit of draw filing will soon tidy them up

The stuff I've had water jet cut ha shad a better edge than laser cut though even then you can get different grades of cut depending on what you want to pay as it all comes down to machine time and fine cuts take longer

[Roger BestParticipant @rogerbest89007]

There has been considerable technological development in this area over the years, both in terms of lasers, pumps and CNC gubbins, so it will largely depend on the age and quality of the machine concerned.

Ask your potential suppliers what they can do but my money is on water jet due to the edge hardening issue.

[John BaronParticipant @johnbaron31275]

Hi Guys,

The people that have done laser cutting for me, require that you submit a DXF file along with material specifications. Depending upon what jobs they already have, they can add your job to an existing one, particularly if you are prepared to wait a little ! This will also reduce the cost considerably because they don't have to set up the machine just for your job. You can get a lot of pieces out of a sheet of plate.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

**LINK**

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Not sure how up to date ME laser's cutter is but I have used Lasermasters the last few times and not had an issue with hard edges. For waterjet I use Sciss

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi,

I have been VERY happy with the water jet cut stuff I have had done both large and small parts, all to good tolerances, particularly the holes from 3/16W to M16

I use OCTAGON Precision, easy to find on the net if local to you. Small parts he just posts to me and I have my gauge plate material delivered direct to him.

Cheers, Martin

[JAParticipant @ja]

Many thanks for the replies. Which ever I use I realise that I should gather all the suitable items into one batch.

I will now start contacting cuttering companies.

JA

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