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Can you laser cut square tube?
smart51 - 3/6/11 at 12:59 PM

I've made a chassis brace for my car, which works nicely, but there's lots of fiddly cutting and welding. Members of the owners club want me to make some for them, so I was thinking, can you get RHS tube laser cut? It would save me a job, since someone else is paying.

blakep82 - 3/6/11 at 01:07 PM

pretty sure waterjet can, andyw7de's got a little cabinet in his place full of stuff he's cut in half. mobile phones and their chargers for example, a perfect clean cut the whole way through.

laser might be able to, but i don't know how it would do when it gets to the vertical side of the tube

Minicooper - 3/6/11 at 01:31 PM

You certainly can but you need one of these or something similiar, I've seen tube done on a conventional laser by accurate placement on a guide plate which is then cut normally, only works in one plane really and if the cutting stays away from edges

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeGVbtrrHjE

Cheers
David

blakep82 - 3/6/11 at 01:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Minicooper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeGVbtrrHjE

Cheers
David



i want one! lol, would be awesome for doing the fish mouths on tubes if building loads of chassis, like for business or something

smart51 - 3/6/11 at 02:34 PM

You have no idea how much I want that machine. Given how that one worked, I guess the laser wouldn't cut through top and bottom in one sweep.

Volvorsport - 3/6/11 at 05:10 PM

laser disperses after the cut , ive cut t45 tube for malcolm wilson in past life .

im pretty sure you can do square tube , but the torch head would need to move up and down with the workpiece as it rotates , which would probably mean a dedicated tube laser , not just a laser with a tube cutting attatchment .

beagley - 3/6/11 at 07:04 PM

quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
i want one! lol, would be awesome for doing the fish mouths on tubes if building loads of chassis, like for business or something


No kidding! You could make some very intricate joints with something like that. Being a diabetic I wonder if I could sell my pancreas for one of those, it doesn't work anyway....

compositepro - 3/6/11 at 09:06 PM

why use square tube on a tube cutting laser the joints can be mitred perfectly ....so you can use round tube ....hence its as easy to use round as square tube now...simples

smart51 - 3/6/11 at 09:47 PM

quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
pretty sure waterjet can


quote:
Originally posted by Volvorsport
laser disperses after the cut


So water jet is the way to go then.

Mad Dave - 4/6/11 at 08:11 AM

quote:

quote:

i want one! lol, would be awesome for doing the fish mouths on tubes if building loads of chassis, like for business or something

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeGVbtrrHjE Cheers David


Road Runner Racing's SR2 has it's chassis and wishbone tubes laser cut just like this. It's is quite expensive for a single chassis/wishbone set so you have to order in batches to reduce the cost per set. The chassis build time time is reduced significantly as each tube just drops into the jig straight out of the box from the laser cutters

Dave