New here, just seeing what’s help i can get! (Laser or CNC cutting)

[Jonas EH]

Morning all!

I emailed Max to see if the meets are happening in these covid times and booo, no BUT that doesn’t stop me, hopefully things get back to normal at some time in the future?!

So a bit on my, I’m a designer and photographer, I’m always making stuff, from shooting targets in laser cut steel to designs for friends etc in my spare time.  

My recent request from my wife is a neon sign, then her friends got on board and want things too... so actual neon, nooooo, but LED neon has come a long way, Its still pretty expensive until you find suppliers in china then its 1/10th the cost for the good quality stuff. 

So my main problem is NOT doing the hap hazard working like you see on youtube, the good stuff is mounted onto/into something.  So I’m like to get lettering borders cut with a 6mm channel for my to then fix the LED into.  I’m thinking acrylic or ply.  My first idea is a vintage map of the world 1000x500mm and across is JK Adventures in neon on front of it. 

So maybe an intricate frame and the lettering, or maybe just the lettering mounted onto the image, not sure yet. 

So here where hopefully someone will read this, laser cutting in the derby area?  I seem to be failing! I can get steel cut easily at Promex! I also foun a place near Mansfield BUT their prices are done on laser time, understandably, BUT they give you no idea of time, so if they charge for a segment of time, you have no idea of you could add more or less cutting, which just seems mad!

So any ideas? Anyone on here fancy cutting me something lol! 

[Bill Howcroft]

There's a sheet metal works at top of Abbey at called Meakin. I used them for an RR subs job.

Possibly Eggleston on Alfreton rd but they are probably more like plate than sheet .

Regards

Bill (clanky by trade)

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Derby Makers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to derby-makers...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/derby-makers/b479839b-8ed0-46ad-a851-b6fcf8e6f4c8o%40googlegroups.com.

[Al Johnson]

I'll leave it to members with their own lasers to reply if they're interested.
There is (or at least was) somewhere up Ascot Drive that I think would do what
you're after - I didn't check the details as we had access to the cutter at
the Silk Mill as was, then out own machine. You could also try Nottinghack -
as I understand it their members can book access still.

I'd expect anywhere that does cutting to be able to give you a quote based on
the design file, or at least a guide price. Perhaps a one-off like this is
just too small for them to want to bother with.

There's also the CNC router - ours has a working area ~3ft x 2ft, and can take
things longer than 3ft if you just want to work on part of them. The
capabilities are a little different to a laser cutter, so depending on exactly
what you want to do it might be suitable (tool radius etc.)

Or you can do it the old fashioned way with a pad saw ;-)

[Jonas EH]

Thanks guys, I’ll investigate, 

Looking at the best methods I think cnc acrylic will suit, just need to source it. I’ll try the Notts guys