RFQ - Cutting Thin Plastic Sheet

[ukchris]

I may have aneed soon to have some cutting done, I'm concerned that the material may give off fumes if it is cut with a laser which is my usual method so I suppose some form of CNC cutter would be appropriate. I'd like to get a rough idea of cost and identify someone I might discuss this further with.

The material would be 12" x 12" PVC, pretty thin, probably 7 mil. The cutting wouldn't be especially complex, probably about 36" in patterns that would be specified electronically in an AutoCAD or Adobe Illustrator file. I'd probably want to do a coupld of sheets to start but then if things work out possibly several more later.

I would supply the plastic material and the template in electronic form.

If you're able to provide a rough estimate per sheet based on low (1-2) quantities and the larger quantities (10+) please post or send me a message.

Despite my username I am based in the US by the way.

Thanks, Chris.

[dpryor]

What do you think about water jet cutting? Do you have the CAD data available now?

[ukchris]

Waterjet would be fine, it's fumes that are my concern so anything that will cut my pattern accurately would be fine with me. I haven't finalized the layout yet but for sake of argument it will be about 12 circles with some small cutouts, they will actually be instrument gauge faces with some holes cut in them so think of a circle, with an arc cut away (making a sort of crescent moon) and a couple of holes cut in it. Does that help?

I have experience preparing files for a friend who does laser cutting/engraving so I'm assuming the process would be similar?

Chris.

[ukchris]

Here are some template files of what I'll be wanting to cut out, it's all 2D so waterjet would work fine, I just need something that will take one of these source files (it should be 17" x 18") and cut along the lines show accurately, assuming the production process is accurate of course..!

The original drawing is in Adome Illustrator so in theory the .AI would be the best but if it opens to be a 17x18 page with the shapes within it then we should be good.

Chris.

[Cebby]

Might be in for a rude awakening...

The stuff I've converted from illustrator to DXF or DWG has been riiddled with too many nodes that makes the waterjet pressure ramp up and down producing less than desirable results. The less nodes the better.

[jkeyser14]

There's a lab here that does some waterjet cutting. If you can send a .dxf file to wew2@umbc.edu, he could talk to the appropriate person and get you a quote.

[todd71]

I openned your file in all formats. The 8 larger templates have extra vectors that are overlaped making it difficult to establish where the holes are located relative to the profile. Do you have a dimensioned file to varify the hole locations? If so please post or send to todd@innovative-accents.com 7mm is .273, is this going to be the stock thickness? Where are you located?

"I haven't finalized the layout yet but for sake of argument it will be about 12 circles with some small cutouts" it's actually 22 pcs on the sheet

Thanks,
Todd
http://www,innovative-accents.com

[ukchris]

Todd,

You're right, with my first estimate I hadn't confirmed the most efficient print size so the number of faces did change and increase.

I think it's going to be a problem in that my art work is in Illustrator and does not convert well to the formats most of you guys seem to need. I don't have AutoCAD and even if I did I don't think it woulod work out as the real print file is more complex and includes colors, blends, clipping masks and a lot of other graphical elements that are important to the overall finished piece. To make what I proposed as the template I simply deleted all the graphical stuff to leave the outline of the shapes than needed to be cut.

I guess I'm going to need to find someone that can cut from an Illustrator file or a more workable way (than Illustrator Export) to convert to an AutoCAD file. Any thoughts on this would be most welcome.

Chris.

[hankulees]

I have a question for you, Chip. In your original post you say 12"x12" material yet you go on to say your pattern is 36". Then later you reference the source files as 17"x18". Can you please explian your sizing more specifically?

[ukchris]

Originally Posted by hankulees I have a question for you, Chip. In your original post you say 12"x12" material yet you go on to say your pattern is 36". Then later you reference the source files as 17"x18". Can you please explian your sizing more specifically?

Sorry for the confusion. The piece is being produced with a color printing process, at first I thought a 12x12 square would be the most efficient test piece but it turned out that I could increase the size to 17x18 with no extra cost so I thought I may as well do so.

I do however need to determine a repeatable process because if the test works and I produce more in the future the size of the piece may vary and I am limited in the templates I can create, as such I think I need to fins someone who can read my .AI files or interpret them.\

Sorry for any confusion.

Chris.

[ukchris]

The mention of 36" was intended to be a guess at the linear length of cutting required, I thought that some of these tools charged by the inch (of cut) so I was trying to have a stab at how much cutting might be involved.

[todd71]

The smaller cresents came out fine. So it seems the 8 larger just need to be cleaned up . I cut .AI / .PDF files provided by sign shops all the time. It is a workable vector format with the right software.
As stated in the your E-mail the material is pretty thin. Thinner than I would want to mess with on a rotory cutting tool situation. Even then you still need to provide more info for who ever is going to quote the job. Good luck

Todd