Laser Cutting Costs

Afternoon, does anyone know rough costs for laser cutting?

I am designing something and not sure what’s costs are like for 10mm stainless.

Do they charge per mm of cut?

Thanks.

best bet is to just send a DXF to one of the many on-line cutters and they will send back a reply, if it is fairly siple then an automated quote comes back almost straight away.

Will more likely be priced per job, if a single part then the setup time to put the metal on the machine will be greater than if you can nest 100 of the same parts in the sheet. Number of stops and starts, holes etc will add time so that will affect price

Another case of a rough idea of posters location being helpful. I am West Midlands based and use a laser cutter in Tamworth at very reasonable prices. You must be able to send file in DXF format if the cutting company has to do it from a drawing things get expensive.

Chris

Just noticed this thread.

Having no luck (never reply to emails) from various laser cutting companies for my request to cut some frames, I wondered wether you could let me know the company you use in Tamworth. Although I live on the south coast, my daughter lives in Cannock and regularly visits her inlaws in Tamworth.

I have done the CAD files.

Paul

Give Malc a ring **LINK**

and tell him i will get his burner sorted soon!

Paul, Try Nathan at NRS Laser. I will sort out his card and number next time I am in the workshop. Chris.

Depending on what you are making, also consider cnc water jet cutting. I got aquote of just £15 to cut a steering wheel blank with drilled spokes from 6mm ally plate supplied by me. This was a one-off enquiry too and no 'mates rates' involved.

i don't know if the finished cut would match the precision of laser however.

I had a pair of side screens cut from stainless sheet using cnc laser, very impressive but costly (admittedly that was probably largely material cost as they were supplying the sheet) but the precision was incredible. 3mm bolt holes produced a gentle sliding interference fit as I put the screws in, I could not have bettered it with a reamer. Only very minor deburring required to knock off sharp edges.

the guy gave me the computer print out which gave length of cut, time on machine, size of sheet required and weight of finished item along with cost.

both of these firms were smaller specialists on industrial estates in Dorset using files I had drawn in AutoCAD and emailed to the company. The files required no additional work before use.