Originally Posted by
joeavaerage
Hi,
the capability to cut steel, certainly in the size you are talking about I think is impossible within a hobby budget.
If you relax the steel requirement, even then you will need to make a heavy steel frame and gantry to cut aluminum.
One way to make it much MUCH easier is to build smaller. I know everyone wants to make a big machine to do this, that and the other
thing....but do you have the budget for it?
Just ballpark figures here, and the may be some dispute over them but if you spent $10,000 to build a 2m x 4m machine of rigidity R,
then you could build a 1m x 2m machine of the same rigidity R but for $2,000. Making a smaller machine as a huge impact on cost,
or another way of looking at it is that for the same cost you could make a much more rigid machine which improves accuracy, vibration and
may mean that you can cut aluminum well, and maybe even steel, whereas a big machine would be restricted to wood and plastic.
Craig