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Posted by Trevor Jones on June 29, 2007, 8:53 am
Please log in for more thread options Prometheus wrote:
> Just wondering if anyone here happens to be pretty good with a laser
> cutter. The metalworking group has pretty much been dead every time
> I've looked at it, so this is the next closest one.
>
> Basically, I'm just having trouble with a specific job at work- I've
> never run across anything I haven't been able to dial in before, but
> this one is a doozy.
>
> What I'm trying to do is cut a number of holes and a couple of
> octagonal openings in a piece of 6063 T5 aluminum tubing that is 3" x
> 6" with a .125" wall. Seems like it should be simple enough, but the
> laser loses the cut really frequently, and is really sloppy, even when
> slowed down to as little as 4 inches per minute.
>
> I spent a few hours tonight running every setting up and down through
> almost the entire range of the machine, and nothing seemed to work.
> Even a bad cut might do if it had to be that way, but with the
> constant loss of the cut, it would take a month to cut a job that
> should only take a couple of hours.
>
> I've run through all the basic tune-ups, cleaning the lens, centering
> the nozzle, adjusting the z-ht sensor, and adjusting every relevent
> setting in the cut condition. .125" 6061 can be a PITA sometimes, but
> it always cuts- unlike this stuff.
>
> So, what I'm looking for, if anyone happens to have any suggestions,
> are cut conditions for 6063 tubing, .125" wall, for an Amada Pulsar
> 1212NT. The best I could come up with was to jack the power to 3000,
> lower the frequency to 300, set the duty to 100%, and lower the fly
> height to .0100. It still didn't work for crap, or else I wouldn't be
> asking here, but it was better than any other combination I tried.
>
> In lieu of cutting conditions, any information on how 6063 differs
> from 6061 might be helpful so that I can try to get a handle on which
> way things need to be adjusted.
>
> It's a long shot, I know- but I figure someone here *might* have done
> this before, and have a good handle on the material. If I were making
> the call, I'd send the sucker out for outside milling, but I suspect
> that that is not going to fly. This machine has done this job before
> in the past, not without a difficult setup, but now it doesn't seem to
> be able to do it in any circumstance.
>
> Or maybe it was just a bad night. It happens.
>
>
Can't help with the cut. Sorry.
Wondering which metalworking group you were looking at.
rec.crafts.metalworking is a pretty busy group.
alt.rec.crafts.metalworking (or is it alt.crafts.metalworking?) was, I
think, started by someone that had a tantrum after being ignored on rcm,
and get's little traffic.
You might ask on the PracticalMachinist forum. There is a EDM cutting
forum there as welll as a welding one. Lot's of the guys there run
commercial shops.
Cheers
Trevor Jones
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