Ping J Larkin

Machine shops in Spain can't do square cut-outs?

Got a nice laser engraver company, 30 minutes drive away, not worth it for a simple onezy or twoozy, and the USA made Sherline looks so much better than the Indian stuff.

martin

Works fine. We're machining small aluminum boxes and VME front panels. We also mount a swivel knife in it and cut out polycarb overlays after we do the graphics on a printer. These look good enough to sell on the first few units and let us take photos for web pages and press releases, like this:

I think the machining and polycarb overlay were both done on the Sherline for this one:

My production guy added a coolant pump and tray...

ftp://66.117.156.8/Sherline.JPG

We do still send out production quantities of machining and overlays, but this is great for prototypes and small runs.

John

... unless there is a nice bodega on the way, or a pub.

Yes, every time I look at their stuff I begin to drool. If anyone else wants to look:

Wow! Looks great. On the printer? Do you have a link on how to do that?

Don't let the OSHA guys see that. I know, I know, it looks like it's all LV cabling but it does make those folks antsy.

Impressive, how do you do the polycarb overlay on the Sherline, I'm not too familiar with milling (yet) or a url?

martin

What are you using for a printer? Color laser? Background printed or covered post-printing?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Door to door motorway, apart from the first 5 mins, Jerez airport sans TSA is now 30 mins away, instead of 70 mins, thanks to the EU investing in the infrastructure

martin

The printer is an HP Laserjet CLJ3800. The stuff that seems to work best is actually a white vinyl, Presslabel.com WLV8511, with adhesive back. The polycarb apparently smears. They just print it then cut out the outline on the Sherline with the swivel knife. After it's stuck to the machined panel, they use the machined holes as a die of sorts, and cut out the interior holes by hand with an x-acto knife.

I think there's a plan to make a bigger, XY plotter sort of table, stepper motors and belt drive, to cut bigger stuff. We'll just disconnect the Sherline's stepper motors and plug this in, and use the same PC and drive electronics.

John

So when the Sherline is kicked out to the curb on Otis Street after that change let us know ...

Thanks! I've tried back-printing polycarbonate in a color laser, which sort-of works. HP color lasers are not good, IME. Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

The sherline machines are fun, but very limited in size capacity. You have very limited span in the Y axis that you can get the cutter into, because the machine isn't stiff enough to be made with a very deep throat overhang behind the table. John Larkin's picture seems like it may have a spacer block moving the head forward to increase this, but the limiting factor in how far you can go with adding spacers is stiffness. Remember, while it takes a lot of sweat and rollers to move a bridgeport or comparable cast iron, this is a mill made of aluminum extrusions that you can pick up with _one hand_.

But they are fun, and if your job will fit on the table, then useful.

Why would anyone *ever* get rid of a 35lb mill? You just put it on the shelf for when you might need it for cutting plastic or aluminum (mild steel on a good day). A Bridgeport/ BP clone uses significant real estate, 3-phase power, etc. Even the little Griz mill I bought weighs in at in excess of 450lb. Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Well, I know, I was just hoping ...

Back when I lived in Europe we used this company, especially if we needed some really weird machine and had to roll our own:

They even make the stepper controllers although they call them controllors :-)

We love our 3800. It's fast, reliable, networked, photographic quality, prints both sides if you want. We put all sorts of color pics and scope waveforms and stuff into our manuals now, and just print one when we are ready to ship something.

John

What I'm thinking is that cheap semiconductor lasers ought to be able to cut through thin plastic like this any day now. There are already

The yags and CO2's they use for bowling trophies and laser trimming are still big and expensive.

John

co2s are way down in price, a top of the line synrad @ 10 watts that you could mount on a xy table runs for 5000 hours before a refill. They quoted me 3K for the raw laser. A stand alone Chinese xy stage cutter with 15 watt laser here at work was ~4K$, and takes a direct corel draw file and burns/cuts it, including intensity control if your marking wood, paper or plastic. The raw sealed mirror CO2 tubes of Chinese origin are showing up for 150-300$ on ebay plus another 100$ or so for a 3500V 100 mA psu. THATS CHEAP by 1990s standards.

The 808 nm diodes are nice, but you have to watch for stripe width specs on the emitter and back reflections kill them by blowing the surface off the die.

Steve Roberts

I'm just waiting for the $ do drop a bit more

martin

Why don't you buy a cheapie Chinese 40W CO2 laser and give it to your folks to play with?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany