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  #31  
Old Wed 20 February 2008, 01:47
john doe
Just call me: john doe
 
Lusaka
Zambia
Hi,

Sorry been away at my real world job on a break down in Tanzania ( i do two things here in Zambia...i export tropical fish which is more of a hobby/business and i install/maintain and repair VSAT systems all over Southern Africa)

I will read up on all the above posts and see if this looks feasible or not.

Thanks for the replies and interest.

JD
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  #32  
Old Thu 12 June 2008, 22:22
Greg J
Just call me: Greg #13
 
Hagerman, New Mexico
United States of America
Already thinking about my next MM.

I'm just starting my homework, but check out this site for cutting glass.

http://www.synrad.com/search_apps/ap...iefs/109-1.htm
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  #33  
Old Fri 13 June 2008, 01:15
isladelobos
Just call me: Ros
 
Canary Islands
Spain
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Laser 400W
Weight 160 lbs / 72.6 kg

not is too heavy for the MM?
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  #34  
Old Fri 13 June 2008, 06:28
Greg J
Just call me: Greg #13
 
Hagerman, New Mexico
United States of America
Ros,

That's a good question.

Just starting to do work on this topic. Now that I have a working MM, at some point in the game, I could just add weight to the Y car and check performance.
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  #35  
Old Sat 14 June 2008, 05:22
john doe
Just call me: john doe
 
Lusaka
Zambia
Hi

Glad to see this thread is still alive. I still want to do this but work keeps me away - for now. It will be interesting to see if a way can be found to cut glass.

Tagging along on this one.


Regards

JD
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  #36  
Old Sat 14 June 2008, 06:21
isladelobos
Just call me: Ros
 
Canary Islands
Spain
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This is the project to build a cutter by water, with an diesel fuel injection pump of a truck, to cut steel.

we need a bomb capable of delivering water to 400 kg/cm2 of
pressure at least. In addition, the flow of the same (calculated in the 4th stage) must be 0554
litres / minute.
The bombs that meet these characteristics are the type volume. They may be plunger
(piston) or rotary. The piston develop greater pressures of work that Rotary.
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  #37  
Old Sat 14 June 2008, 06:46
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Ros,

I think for the translation of Bomba, you want pump and not bomb which means explosive device in English.

I don't speak spanish but I used Google's translator.

Good luck with your project. I am interested in learning more.
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  #38  
Old Sat 14 June 2008, 07:41
isladelobos
Just call me: Ros
 
Canary Islands
Spain
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yes, in spanish Bomba is pump or bomb.
In google translator you put a complete sentence "Bomba de agua" and google understand.

This is other project http://www.fceia.unr.edu.ar/b_21601/mfben.htm

Not is my project, is an Argentine Student.
This is a low pressure system but I do not know how much pressure needs to be cut glass.

In the market there are many commercial pressure pumps that give up 1000kg like http://www.catpumps.com/
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  #39  
Old Sun 15 June 2008, 08:12
john doe
Just call me: john doe
 
Lusaka
Zambia
check this

http://www.gfpm.it/inglese/index.htm


thats the sort of thing we are talking about i guess. It looks to me like they are scoring the glass and using a table of some sort to lift and break the glass along the cut.

This is ideally what i need as water jet cutting is at unrealistic price levels. Can this be done?


Regards

JD
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  #40  
Old Sun 15 June 2008, 14:54
isladelobos
Just call me: Ros
 
Canary Islands
Spain
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Ok John Doe <<---This is your name?

hi is a lineal cutter, no need a waterjet cut.

This is the Waterjet system:



need a nozzle, pump, motor.

view the configuration here

Last edited by isladelobos; Sun 15 June 2008 at 15:05..
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  #41  
Old Sun 15 June 2008, 19:24
Greg J
Just call me: Greg #13
 
Hagerman, New Mexico
United States of America
Quote:
Originally Posted by john doe View Post
check this

http://www.gfpm.it/inglese/index.htm


thats the sort of thing we are talking about i guess. It looks to me like they are scoring the glass and using a table of some sort to lift and break the glass along the cut.

This is ideally what i need as water jet cutting is at unrealistic price levels. Can this be done?


Regards

JD
John Doe,

The high cost/expense of water jet cutting is why I started looking at laser cutting. The cost of water jet is in the 10's of thousands of dollars (> $10,000). A laser for cutting or scoring is about $8,000.
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  #42  
Old Sun 15 June 2008, 21:01
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Quote:
Originally Posted by john doe View Post
. . . It looks to me like they are scoring the glass and using a table of some sort to lift and break the glass along the cut.

This is ideally what i need as water jet cutting is at unrealistic price levels. Can this be done?
Of course it can be done . .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerald D View Post
I have actually seen a huge CNC float class cutter in Germany. It scribed a line then pneumatically lifted a blunt "blade" up under the cut - the weight of the glass snapped it.
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  #43  
Old Sun 15 June 2008, 23:38
john doe
Just call me: john doe
 
Lusaka
Zambia
Greg J,

the laser looks interesting. I followed your link and read the information. Looks like the ticket for stained glass cutting but the information says it is not for cutting float glass. Is there a laser system around that will cut up to, say, around 10mm float glass. If there is i would go that way as well.

As far as i have been able to see, water jet is the ultimate, but retro fitting it to a MM is beyond my engineering abilities, so it will likely remain a dream for me. Interesting though none the less.

Regards

JD
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  #44  
Old Tue 24 June 2008, 06:13
TheDave
Just call me: dave
 
Toledo (Ohio)
United States of America
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerald D View Post
By the way, Mach3 includes a facility for turning a "knife" tangential to the cut direction.
I'm constantly amazed at the information on this forum! I had wondered if this was possible, I have been toying with the idea of mounting various cutting heads that would need this kind of control.
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  #45  
Old Tue 01 July 2008, 11:42
john doe
Just call me: john doe
 
Lusaka
Zambia
http://www.waterjet-cutter.com/

http://waterjet.0catch.com

http://www.waterjet-cutter.com/waterjet_cnc.html
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  #46  
Old Tue 01 July 2008, 12:23
john doe
Just call me: john doe
 
Lusaka
Zambia
http://www.waterjettingdirectory.com/news.htm

http://www.iwmwaterjet.com/download_video.html
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  #47  
Old Wed 27 August 2008, 19:43
servant74
Just call me: Jack
 
Nashville (Tennessee)
United States of America
I worked for a company a LONG time ago that sold software to optimize cutting for the flat glass industry. Like for making windows, mirrors, etc. They used a CNC scribing machine, and an anvil that rose up and let the weight of the glass break along the scoring lines. For each cut, it had to go from edge to edge of the glass, so no notches, etc. For that, they used grinding wheels, etc and really machined the glass with diamond bits.

If the glass was to be tempered, the customer put in which side the 'tongs' would hold the glass from so we could calculate how much it would stretch during tempering. Once glass is tempered it cannot be cut (or at least that was the technology then). I forget if they had a 'air hockey' kind of table used for positioning the glass or not. I never made it out to their site to see it in action. (The main clients were near LasVeagas and I was in East part of Texas.)
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  #48  
Old Thu 11 September 2008, 18:49
Leko
Just call me: Leko
 
Kaukapakapa
New Zealand
Hey, if anyone still cares, I came across this info in an auction ad.

http://www.irsauctions.com/popups/pr...98700&id=11471

If you look closely, and think like an engineer, I'm sure you could figure out how to adapt a MM.

I think the trick is to cushion under the glass and keep the cutter height/pressure constant. Rotating the cutterhead and keeping it oiled would be the only quirky part...
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  #49  
Old Fri 23 January 2009, 15:36
isladelobos
Just call me: Ros
 
Canary Islands
Spain
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An insteresting documentation web referent to the waterjet system.

http://www.flowcorp.com/waterjet-resources.cfm?id=335
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  #50  
Old Wed 05 May 2010, 12:14
jschaudt
Just call me: Jon
 
TX
United States of America
Well, I just stumbled in here, and I have an idea for a glass cutter blade. It would require snapping the scribed area off after the cut. Relief cuts made at a tangent to the scribe line really help this process, and allow for smaller pieces to be removed at a time. Much higher quality curves are possible.

There are diamond tipped engraving/scribing cutters available from Johnson Plastics (800) 869-7830

They have a standard tip of 120º, and other tips are available, but the sizes are:
DG1 - non-rotating 1/8" x 1 1/8"
DG125 - top loading spindle 1/8" x 4 1/2"
DG171 - top loading spindle 11/64" x 6 1/2"
dg250 - top loading spindle 1/4" x 6 1/2"

The spindle mounted cutters could be cut to length. I have used them before to etch metals. Prices for the cutters are $15 to $22. Now, I must admit, I was using a Xenetech rotary engraving machine to do this, so a featherweight spring holder is readily available for that machine, and the cutting head is spring tensioned already.

One more thing, I have a Omax waterjet cutting machine here, and it can cut glass. You just have to do all cuts starting from the edge of the material with a cutting traverse line, or start from a Predrilled hole for centers of letters or hollow shapes.

Excellent, but not much fun.

Last edited by domino11; Wed 05 May 2010 at 14:57..
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  #51  
Old Thu 06 May 2010, 16:47
Hillbillie
Just call me: Larry
 
Paragould, AR
United States of America
I use to work for a window manufacturer. They had a big cnc based glass cutter. Big sheets (bigger than 4x8ft) maybe 5x10 not sure.

The table was covered by carpet (not shag but thin, not thick). An operator would take the glass and just let it fall on the table. First stand it up on the edge of the table and let it fall down. The air would make the glass fall gentle.

The cnc would score the glass in straight cuts and curved cuts. The operator would then tap with his hand/finger to finish breaking the glass. The curved pieces were a pain the the butt. It was about a 50% change of breaking one of those wrong.

Seems to me that the diamond blade had a spring that applied the correct pressure on the knife to score the glass.

Since the glass we used was the same thickness we could use the same pressure to do the scoring.

They also had a manual table that held the glass vertical while the operator would slide the cutter in a up and down cutting method. This table wasn't used too much.

I bet the Mechmate would cut glass great.....
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  #52  
Old Thu 23 September 2010, 15:50
diyengineer
Just call me: diyengineer
 
Seattle
United States of America
Force feed back could be calculated with using a spring attachment. Drop the knife to the glass and have a spring assembly between the knife and Z axis. You could then change out springs to vary the force. :P

It would work!

Quote:
Originally Posted by john doe View Post
Hi,

I fear i am off on my next tangent. I stumbled across this site quite by accident and have not been able to pull myself away from it since.

What a fascinating machine !

Quick question though ; can a machine like this be used to cut glass sheets ? I want to cut float glass up to about 15 mm thick. I phoned around various manufactures to price CNC machines to cut glass and got quickly depressed and threw the whole idea out the window.......now i find this site and i am off on it again..oh dear.

I have not read through all the reams of information here yet, at least not too much of it but in what i have read I have found no reference to glass so far.

is it possible to cut float glass on a machine like this? I guess it would need some modifications to cut glass ?

Any comments most appreciated.

Regards

John Doe
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  #53  
Old Thu 23 September 2010, 17:51
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
JD,
You could also use a castering knife on the end of pneumatic cylinder. Vary the PSI on the cylinder based on thickness of glass and grade of cutter.

Some of the VERY large manufacture's cut glass this way on the assembly line.
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  #54  
Old Thu 23 September 2010, 18:54
Leko
Just call me: Leko
 
Kaukapakapa
New Zealand
I checked out a big CNC glass cutter at an auction last year, and talked to a couple of the guys that actually worked at the plant. There is no spring type mechanism on the z-axis, the 'spring' is the layer of padding under the glass sheet, which seemed like heavy felt. They just bring the cutter down to some dimension slightly lower than the top of the glass sheet at rest and score away.
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  #55  
Old Thu 23 September 2010, 19:59
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
Matthew....completely forgot we talked about that auction item last year. bed of felt....easy
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  #56  
Old Fri 24 September 2010, 01:04
diyengineer
Just call me: diyengineer
 
Seattle
United States of America
That sounds like it would be difficult to gauge. If you had a flat plastic surface that was machined flat and you layed the glass ontop it would be easier to buy precision springs and know exactly how much force your exerting onto the cutter. The bed of felt seems like there would be a lot of variables, like wear, unevenness, collects shards of broken glass, etc..

They sell cheap precision spring kits.

If the big glass people do it, there must be some special technique or "fabric" they use?
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