Metal cutter for beginners

Contents:

Everyone is used to thinking of machines as a huge and complex mechanism that only belongs in a factory. However, such a time has long passed. Now technology allows you to choose a machine that can fit in a small workshop, and make absolutely impressive things on it, for sale or for yourself, you choose.

• DIY projects;
• Arranging your home;
• Repair of any metal structures on territory of house;
• Landscaping and landscaping.

And this is only a small part where a metal cutter can be used! Now, we will talk about how to start working on such a machine and which one to choose?

Finding out about tools

Before buying a machine, you need to clearly define what you really need. You need to understand what kind of metal you’re going to cut, its type and thickness, cutting accuracy, budget and available workspace. Each machine has advantages and disadvantages, so here is a brief overview of each type.

Plasma cutter

The machine is a platform on which head automatically moves, a charged gas enters from a nozzle on material and creates an electrical circuit. The incision is made due to fact that the electrical circuit melts material, and its particles are then blown away. The main advantages of this type are:

• Fast cutting;
• Low cost.

However, this type doesn’t allow to:

• It does not work with materials that do not conduct electricity (wood, glass, plastics, etc.);
• Leaves a wide furrow at the cut site;
• Possible deformation of material due to thermal effects.

Abrasive cutting machine

By type and principle of operation, this machine can be compared to a large fixed grinder. The main advantages of abrasive cutting machine are: 

• High cutting speed;
• Low cost;
• Suitable for cutting thick materials.

The drawbacks include:

• Rougher cutting edges compared to plasma and laser cutters;
• Limited accuracy;
• A lot of dust and debris.

Waterjet cutter

The principle of operation of a waterjet machine is simple. Water with addition of an abrasive is subjected to pressure and, reaching from 4,000 to 6,000 bar, exits nozzle, cutting everything in its path. The advantages of such a machine are:

• The ability to work with any material;
• No risk of material deformation;
• Environmentally friendly technology.

Disadvantages:

• Different holes at inlet and outlet of jet if material is too thick;
• Frequent replacement of consumables;
• Slow cutting speed of thin-sheet steel.

Laser cutter

CNC laser machines have long been common in industrial environment for their reliability and ability to work with almost any materials. Unlike other types of machines, the development of technology gives lasers access to completely new capacities and speeds. All this makes laser cutters the most promising type of machine tools, so let’s talk about them in more detail.

Why do people like laser machines?

Automation 

The main advantage of CNC machines is almost complete automation of operational processes. This greatly simplifies work and significantly increases efficiency.  For large volumes and repetitive tasks, a CNC machine is an indispensable assistant. 

Universality

The metal cutter is a versatile machine, it is capable of working with many metals, including steel, aluminum, copper, stainless steel, their numerous alloys and other metals common in production.

Cutting speed

The cutting speed fully ensures power of the laser source inside the machine. At the moment, all modern metal cutters have lasers with enough power to process thin sheets and medium sheets (up to 3mm) at medium speed and high speed. 

Accuracy

The machine is controlled by CNC, which means that precision of processing any, even the most complex products, will be perfect. If you add an additional rotation axis or autofocus, it will significantly expand the range of your machine’s capabilities. 

Waste of material

The width of the laser cut is not more than 0.5 mm. When working with expensive materials, this factor plays an extremely important role.

Working with a metal cutter

The use of any machine always begins with a study of the machine passport and the manual for it. You can also familiarize yourself with manuals for radiator, chiller, control board, laser head. Find out what the requirements are for operation of equipment and components. 

Take, for example, the Raycus RFL-c3000S radiator. It is recommended to operate it in temperature range from 10 to 40 degrees Celsius with humidity from 30 to 70%, otherwise there will be a risk of freezing coolant (according to passport, it can be either distilled water or deionized) or getting into dew point and condensation forming on control units.

Or, for example, the Raytools BM111 laser head, which has special requirements for purity of working gases (oxygen, argon, nitrogen), presence of water vapor in them and content of hydrocarbons.

Cutting gas	Purity	Maximum content of water vapor	Maximum content of hydrocarbon
oxygen	99,95%	<5 ppm	<1 ppm
nitrogen	99,99%	<5 ppm	<1 ppm
argon	99,998%	<5 ppm	<1 ppm
helium	99,998%	<5 ppm	<1 ppm

Basically, when working on a machine, you need to pay attention to the quality of the cut and, based on this, already understand what could have gone wrong.

An example from the worker’s life:

The metal cutter worked perfectly all day. The next day, the oxygen tank was changed, and everything stopped erupting. There may be many reasons for this, but the main one is a changed cylinder, which may contain gas of unsuitable purity. Or the same situation, but the cylinder has not been changed, in which case it is worth checking the lower protective glass for contamination, etc.

We also advise you to pay attention to following points:

• If there are sparks between the sheet and nozzle, check alignment and condition of the safety glasses;
• The torch should look vertically down when cutting, if it bends back, then you are cutting fast — slow down speed. If forward— on the contrary, increase speed.

If something went wrong during oxygen cutting and you are sure that your settings are correct and optics are clean, calibrate BCS100 sensor and, if this does not help, replace the nozzle. There are additional holes in the oxygen nozzle that swirl oxygen, creating an oxygen column in the cutting area to keep air out. If one of these holes gets clogged with dirt, you may not even notice it during cutting, so we recommend that you carefully inspect it separately. If the machine does not work after that, check whether the hose through which working gas is supplied is inserted well into the laser head. It is possible that it has come out of fitting and is letting some oxygen through.

Fixing common problems

• Allow the chiller to heat up before turning on the radiator. When starting the radiator outside the temperature range, it will give an error. You can fix it through software or reboot the radiator;
• After each power-on, send the machine to the home position; 
• After each start of the machine, check alignment of the beam;
• Keep an eye on the lubrication system and adjust it so that it lubricates the machine, not floods it;
• Wipe rails once a week and check that nothing gets on rails and slant rails;
• If there are persistent errors that are fixed upon reboot, contact service;
• Purge filters in the chiller and change water once every 3-4 months;
• When replacing safety glasses, immediately close compartments or seal them with masking tape.

Advanced methods and tricks

• When setting the modes, first find the focus, then select the other parameters. But change only one parameter at a time and always keep the best option;
• When setting up the oxygen mode, select compensation immediately and write it in the name of the mode;
• When setting up a breakout, when you get a good result, spend about 20-25% of the time on a breakout;
• Rust tracking doesn’t work very well, so use the defilm function to remove the rust;
• If there is a large amount of oxygen cutting, optimize the cut so that the overheating is evenly distributed throughout the sheet. Use grouping, manual sorting, and the pre-punching feature;
• Not all machines have automatic lubrication — monitor condition of carriages and syringe them through special oilers;
• When producing parts of the same type in a stream, use the automatic sheet edge impression function;
• Never leave the machine unattended.

Conclusion

As we said before, development of technology makes laser machines more powerful and gives incredible growth to industry as a whole, on one hand. On the other hand, technology makes laser cutters accessible to everyone, not just to professionals. 

At Wattsan, we do our best to ensure that the latest discoveries from the world of lasers reach our customers first, so go ahead and explore the world of machine tools with us!

And if you have any questions, our experts are always happy to answer them and help you!