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Eric DeSilva
06-16-2016, 1:48 PM
...sort of an etsy for laser-cut and engraved SS metal: http://lasergist.com/discover/

No affiliation, just stumbled across it and thought it might be of interest.

Kev Williams
06-16-2016, 5:13 PM
Interesting-- but their web page designer needs a lesson in not using 10% gray text on a white background.

Michael Hunter
06-16-2016, 6:29 PM
Interesting-- but their web page designer needs a lesson in not using 10% gray text on a white background.

Maybe you need a new monitor - their site looks great on mine!

Kev Williams
06-16-2016, 7:47 PM
Seriously? those boxes and 'millimeters' below the numbers are dark enough? If I change the angle of my monitor they're a little easier to see, but as I'm looking at it right now, I can barely tell there's even words there at all... and they're a wee bit small too, even for this 25" monitor!




http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/toolite.jpg

Bert Kemp
06-16-2016, 11:51 PM
I agree with Kev their site is awe full and basically no info here

Doug Griffith
06-17-2016, 12:05 PM
"So, first things first: Close your Paths Never, ever leave a path open. The laser won’t figure out how to close the path and cut accordingly."

I don't know about anyone else here but I very often work with open paths. I strategically place end nodes on lines and curves. Otherwise overlapping cuts are required. Think of a tic-tac-toe grid enclosed in a square.

Kev Williams
06-17-2016, 2:35 PM
I agree Doug... "Never, ever leave a path open"...? Never, EVER?

That statement reminds me of a similar one read recently, on some website to do with ULS lasers, went something like "Never change the tuning bar setting in the driver, it's not necessary, and the belt never stretches anyway"...

Both statements scream 'inexperience' to me... 'I've had my laser a whole year now and I know everything there is to know about 'em!'...

I've had lasers for 16 years and while I've learned a lot, I'm sure I know a lot more squat! ;) ...just YESTERDAY on my 12 year old LS900, I finally figured out that the 'jackrabbit' actually DOES speed the machine up! (in certain situations)

Lee DeRaud
06-17-2016, 7:36 PM
Biggest problem with the website? Essentially no pictures of example finished products. Seriously?

I twiddled around with some numbers to see rough costs...turns out to be cheaper than I expected. One oddity is a minimum width is 50mm. They may just have a minimum piece size they're willing to cut from the roll and/or don't want to deal a lot of small leftover scraps, but I was thinking of some long skinny things like clock hands. Oops.

Lee DeRaud
06-17-2016, 7:39 PM
"So, first things first: Close your Paths Never, ever leave a path open. The laser won’t figure out how to close the path and cut accordingly."

I don't know about anyone else here but I very often work with open paths. I strategically place end nodes on lines and curves. Otherwise overlapping cuts are required. Think of a tic-tac-toe grid enclosed in a square.<scratches head> Ok, I'm thinking of a tic-tac-toe grid enclosed in a square, vector-cut. Were you intending to end up with nine separate pieces?

David Somers
06-17-2016, 7:48 PM
Did you know their lasers travel 2 million km every year? Wow. I feel pretty colloquial now!

It is interesting. Other than their banner image there truly is nothing to look at. I didnt find the light gray lettering unreadable, but it wasn't till my second pass over the site that I realized there was more shown in those boxes.

I am curious. What search were you doing that turned them up? I certainly would not have dug very deeply into their page based on what I see if I were not specifically looking for this company and knew what it offered.

Curious. Perhaps they dont count on the web for most of their contacts?

Lee DeRaud
06-17-2016, 7:58 PM
Biggest problem with the website? Essentially no pictures of example finished products. Seriously?I just found a forum where one of the guys behind this is answering questions and of course several people had the very same comment. He replied, "Great idea, we should have a gallery page implemented very soon." However, that post was dated "193 days ago", so don't hold your breath.

The operation is based in Europe somewhere. Shipping is free world-wide, but he's talking a week of shipping time to get something to the east coast.

Doug Griffith
06-18-2016, 10:20 AM
<scratches head> Ok, I'm thinking of a tic-tac-toe grid enclosed in a square, vector-cut. Were you intending to end up with nine separate pieces?

Yep. It was an easy example to give. Most of what I vector cut shares common edges. I set files up that way to speed things up.

Lee DeRaud
06-18-2016, 12:12 PM
Yep. It was an easy example to give. Most of what I vector cut shares common edges. I set files up that way to speed things up.Ah, got it. I suspect that, if whatever software they're using to drive their laser(s) is smart enough to detect open shapes, it's smart enough to eliminate overlapping lines.

I could be wrong. :p

Kev Williams
06-18-2016, 1:00 PM
Did you know their lasers travel 2 million km every year? Wow. I feel pretty colloquial now!


umm...

someone correct my math if I'm wrong... ;)

as per raster speed running non-stop 24/7:

100" per second average raster speed = 393.7 mm per second--

393.7mm x 60 seconds = 23,622 mm per minute, /1000 = 23.622 meters per minute--

23.622 meters x 60 minutes = 1,417.32 meters per hour, /1000 = 1.41732 kilometers per hour--

1.41732 kilometers x 24 hours = 34.01568 kilometers per day-

34.01568 kilometers x 365 days = 21,599.9568 kilometers per year...

We're missing 2 zero's methinks, or they gots some really really fast lasers! (or some other method of measuring beam travel)
;)

Gary Hair
06-18-2016, 1:39 PM
Maybe they have 100 lasers? That would give them 2.15 million kilometers per year!

Lee DeRaud
06-18-2016, 1:58 PM
umm...

someone correct my math if I'm wrong... ;)

as per raster speed running non-stop 24/7:

100" per second average raster speed = 393.7 mm per second--
...
We're missing 2 zero's methinks, or they gots some really really fast lasers! (or some other method of measuring beam travel)
;)Worse than that, given that it appears their main business is vector-cutting, not raster.

They're using multiple Mazak lasers, type/power unknown but clearly industrial-grade.

Doug Griffith
06-19-2016, 10:51 AM
Ah, got it. I suspect that, if whatever software they're using to drive their laser(s) is smart enough to detect open shapes, it's smart enough to eliminate overlapping lines.

I could be wrong. :p

I'm guessing they're keeping it simple because they're dealing with the public. Closing the paths would define what the part actually is and allow the software to automatically add lead-ins and lead-outs.

Eric DeSilva
06-20-2016, 11:14 AM
I am curious. What search were you doing that turned them up?

I can't even remember what I was searching for. The site seems to be still in beta, so I wasn't looking at their web design.

What I found fascinating about it the business side. I'm not sure I understand how far they are going to take this, but if you can create a one-stop shop where someone with an idea for a product can send you a PDF and basically you do everything else--from production to order fulfillment to web commerce site--and you just send them a check at the end of the day, seems like you could attract a fair number of creators to your site. Whether their ideas succeed or fail isn't really of import--if they succeed, you do a do of production. If they fail, it's some bits on a computer you are storing. But if it's on-demand manufacturing, you take the risk out for them, especially given the more typical model of having to fund a whole production run. Just seemed like a pretty interesting business model from a number of perspectives.

Lee DeRaud
06-20-2016, 12:28 PM
I can't even remember what I was searching for. The site seems to be still in beta, so I wasn't looking at their web design.

What I found fascinating about it the business side. I'm not sure I understand how far they are going to take this, but if you can create a one-stop shop where someone with an idea for a product can send you a PDF and basically you do everything else--from production to order fulfillment to web commerce site--and you just send them a check at the end of the day, seems like you could attract a fair number of creators to your site. Whether their ideas succeed or fail isn't really of import--if they succeed, you do a do of production. If they fail, it's some bits on a computer you are storing. But if it's on-demand manufacturing, you take the risk out for them, especially given the more typical model of having to fund a whole production run. Just seemed like a pretty interesting business model from a number of perspectives.Maybe I'm missing something, but I got the impression that they were just acting as a low-volume fab shop, sort of a very specialized industrial-grade Ponoko. I'm not seeing anything regarding order fulfillment, unless you're brave enough to have them drop-ship parts to your customer sight unseen.

Matt McCoy
06-20-2016, 12:45 PM
Maybe I'm missing something, but I got the impression that they were just acting as a low-volume fab shop, sort of a very specialized industrial-grade Ponoko. I'm not seeing anything regarding order fulfillment, unless you're brave enough to have them drop-ship parts to your customer sight unseen.

Yes, this reminded me of Ponoko, which I think really influenced a lot people to get into digital fabrication.

Lee DeRaud
06-20-2016, 1:12 PM
Yes, this reminded me of Ponoko, which I think really influenced a lot people to get into digital fabrication.I can't post the link here (it's on another forum...google 'lasergist' and look for a hit that starts "Show HN"), but I saw a thread involving one of Lasergist's principals. Reading between the lines somewhat, I came away with the impression that it is sort of a side activity of a much larger operation, something to keep the machinery busy between large production runs.

Eric DeSilva
06-20-2016, 2:45 PM
Isn't that how all the places like Cafe Press work for printing jobs--drop shipped to customer with pseudo-storefronts? This strikes me as being mainly decorative stuff, not process-critical machining, so I could see direct shipping appealing to some designers. But maybe I read too much into it. Even so, seems like if you could pull it off and crowdsource decorative design, you might have a market.