Laser cutting job and Material offcuts

Tags: #<Tag:0x00007fa4974b0f58>
#1

Hello all!

I’ve recently started full time as the Operations Manager at a laser cutting studio in Bermondsey. woo!

As such:

  1. apologies for any projects/materials left in the makerspace this last month as I acclimate to my new schedule and I am not around actively makerspacing as much
  2. I regularly have discretion over quite a lot of offcuts from commercial projects that could likely serve quite useful for hobby projects for the makerspace.

I’m scoping out what this could look like at the moment, but the materials we often have meaningful offcuts of are:

  • acrylic
  • mdf/hdf
  • ply (laser and standard)
  • dibond (plastic sandwiched between two thin layers of aluminiuminiumium)
  • mild steel
  • stainless steel
  • aluminiuminiumium
  • brass

We tend to be hopeful that we’ll have a new job come up soon enough not to have to store a ton of spare material stock, but the truth is just that it’s never that predictable, so have to purge offcut stock at least monthly.

Specifically this would be useful for @metaltechs and @CNCtechs I would imagine, but possibly useful for the space in general. I imagine we might come to some sort of arrangement where I could post our offcut stock to the Makerspace and people could claim pieces and arrange a single van/pickup from the shop to the space.

Currently the priority system for spare material is:

  • commercial jobs
  • staff personal project
  • skip

It would be nice to save as much from the skip as possible so I’m just spitballing ideas and thought it would be worth seeing what SLMS might be able to use.

For now, please reply here if you’d like to be active in the overall conversation to work out a system, not just interested in potential materials at some point.

Thanks!

9 Likes
#2

Hiya! Yes this sounds mutually beneficial! Keep me in the loop!

Cheers,
Andy

#3

Could we have a look at the actual (exemplar) skip? Take pictures?

#4

@scythian Yes, we’ll be doing a clear-out relatively soon so can take pictures of this particular set of materials.

Often it will be something like a 20x30 cm plate (or 5) of 3mm aluminum that has a big scratch across it so we can’t anodize it; or the 30cm along one side of a full sheet of MDF; or a 20-50cm diameter circle or some sort of rectangle we’ve cut out of something as negative space.

Nothing particularly predictable, so would probably want to set up a system whereby we set aside usable offcuts throughout the month as possible, and then I post in Discource and give everyone a week to decide and then a hard date that it needs to be picked up otherwise we add it to the skip we rent that week.

2 Likes
#5

Once I have finished off making good the trailer hitch for my bike, I could potentially carry up to quarter sheet size 1220mmx610mm on my trailer. The wheels, or the mount for them, are rated for 40kg. This way we could avoid delivery/hire car charges, providing items not are not stacked to tall or heavy.

Here it is. I was using it last year to deliver Xmas trees.

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Let me know if you think we can fit it into the workflow.

6 Likes
#6

Sounds potentially very useful.

#7

I’m in Brockley so not far from Bermondsey and drive to the space once a week. I drive a pickup with roof bars so can carry most things.

I’d be very happy to ferry items to the space once a month or so.

Also I’m interested in some dibond to play with as I’m thinking of using some for cases and want to see how tough it is.

2 Likes
#8

I’m very new here, but I would be very interested in getting my hands on some off-cuts, specifically of brass, but also the mild and stainless steel! :slight_smile:

#9

I’d second the brass, are we able to etch that using the laser cutter at the workshop @lasertechs?

#10

Sadly not, its risky engraving metals on the laser as there is a chance the beam could reflect off the surface and bounce back inside the mirrors and cause damage to the tube/inner workings of the laser, and a tube replacement is not cheap! Very small chance this could happen howveer on a machine such as ours which is shared by so many users its not worth it!

#11

Agreed, you will not want to engrave metal on a machine that isn’t designed to do so. Even here at the shop we have a single fiber laser specifically for metal engraving.

Ill post