[JESSE_at_TLT]

quality of laser-cut parts: FUCK Ballistic Fabrication

EDIT: Nevermind these shitty parts that Ballistic Fab cut for me. Fuck them for ripping me off.

I had a small batch of parts laser-cut, and I'm REALLY disappointed with the quality. But I'd like to know what do you guys think about the quality of these parts. Acceptable? Would just like to know if I'm being unreasonable, before I refuse them and have these parts cut somewhere else.

These are hubsteps that I designed for 2.5-ton Rockwell axles, and I understand that the sharp teeth on the hubsteps can present a problem (heating/melting the steel). Was not expecting them to come out perfect - but I just can't see any reason/excuse for the rest of these sloppy cuts.

These samples were cut by the same shop, and the quality was much better.

Let's start with the quality of this material. WTF? Looks like they got it out of the salvage bin.

But nevermind the material, what about these cuts? That's a laser-cut part? Really?

Look at the kerf on the slots on the slots at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock. Why do the rest of the slots look OK?

Lots of blown-out cuts, and in areas where I can't see any reason for it.

This is more what I was expecting the teeth to look like, and some of them do. The parts are just super inconsistent. Any reason / excuse for this?

Same here. Decent quality. What gives? If they can cut good parts, why don't all the parts look like this?

 

[jeepinlunatic]

For a Laser that is Very bad. It looks like someone doesnt know how to use it at all.. I have many parts made from laser cut 3/4 inch steel that look a LOT better then that.

 

[crash]

Looks like a poor plasma cut to me.....

 

[spidr]

Looks like a poor plasma cut to me.....

That's what I was about to say.

 

[Throttle Happy]

Looks like plasma table work to me too? I have had many parts cut by TMR up here and none have looked like that.

 

[JESSE_at_TLT]

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that all those parts are 1/4" plate.

 

[patooyee]

Poor quality cuts, I agree. The quality of laser cuts, in my experience, can very drastically based on who is using the machine that day.

What is the function of those things? Steps for your feet to get into the bed???

J. J.

 

[JESSE_at_TLT]

What is the function of those things? Steps for your feet to get into the bed???

Yeah, pretty much. I'm building a motorhome out of an old deuce and a half, and I wanted to use these steps to make it easier to climb up onto the front fenders. Would serve the same purpose on the rear (if you've got a cargo bed and singles). They also make it easier to mount and dismount wheels/tires. Some of the other guys with deuces liked them, so I had a batch made and was planning on selling them here and on steelsoldiers.com.

 

[dconnole]

Laser tends to be much cleaner of a cut, even in the sharp points (I had some badging done as cursive script- much more difficult that those shapes) and had no issues.

Who did you use so we can steer clear?

 

[JESSE_at_TLT]

Who did you use so we can steer clear?

Well they're a vendor here, but I'd rather not say who. Not trying to bash them, or use this as leverage - just wanted to make sure I wasn't being unrealistic/unreasonable. This company's got a good reputation here, and I'm sure they'll take care of this, even if that means just giving me a refund so I can have these parts made somewhere else.

 

[smewhtguy]

We have parts laser cut for projects at work all the time and if they sent that shit there would be problems. That looks to be very poor cut quality.

 

[JohnnyJ]

Looks like they didn't loop the edges and they blew them out. When I did laser setups, we always looped the edges to make sure we had sharp corners. Also allowed us to cut faster since there were no hard corners.

(looks like overall crappy machine setup, too)

 

[dconnole]

Well they're a vendor here, but I'd rather not say who. Not trying to bash them, or use this as leverage - just wanted to make sure I wasn't being unrealistic/unreasonable. This company's got a good reputation here, and I'm sure they'll take care of this, even if that means just giving me a refund so I can have these parts made somewhere else.

Fair enough. Here's to you getting it resolved :tank::beer::beer:

 

[Corey Young]

Was Daniel Little running the machine? :barf:

 

[mrtwstr]

That is complete shit! They should have been embarrased to send stuff out like that. I have thicker stuff cut all the time and it's WAY cleaner than that. Absolutely send it back!

With the material thickness and relative small part, it's probly not easy to cut, but still that's krap!

 

[LASER]

I have about 20 years laser cutting under my belt, so here is my honest opinion.

That thick plate should come out a lot better, it shows that the vendor either has an older system or little experience with plate. Some sort of power control on a more modern system would help with the corners. I have had jobs that went like this though.

 

[DWT]

My beadlocks are laser cut and they make those parts look like they were hand cut with a Harbor Freight plasma. A GOOD laser cut is crisp top and bottom not blown out on the edges and nice sharp corners.

Here's an example of a quality cut. The flamingo's are only about 2" tall and they are perfect. The 90* corners are very pointy not rounded at all.

 

[jimcolt]

Laser does its most accurate work on materials thinner than 1/4", and even on these materials the quality of the plate in terms of metalurgy (especially silicon and carbon levels) and surface texture have to be carefully controlled. The best shops will cut special "laser quality" plate, and will spend some time getting the parameters dialed in (focal length, gas pressures, nozzle size, opics to workpiece distance) before they continue with production. These issues make laser system users want to cut higher quantity, and have higher prices.

Regardless of the shop or the type of laser, as the steel gets thicker, it is more difficult to dial in the process. When it is dialed in, the cuts on steel up to 3/4" thick will be painstakingly slow, but will have very nice tolerances, all at a price!

A High Definition Plasma (not an air plasma) can often do a much better job and at much higher speeds and with a lower operating cost as compared to laser on thicknesses above 3/16".

With the quality of cuts in the pics.....I would look for another laser shop!

Jim

 

[sceep]

Looks like a poor plasma cut to me.....

x whatever.

 

[traxman25]

I would not pay for that from my laser shop. It would get sent back, scraped and they could start over. The ring doesn't even look like laser cut because the laser was set up completely incorrectly. You can obviously see where they had to grind the edges down to get rid of slag, and that should not be happening on a laser table. I wouldn't even expect to see that from a low end plasma table that was set up right.
I can't speak for the sharp corners as I try to round everything to decrease laser time as much as possible, but I would not be too happy with what you go there either.

One thing that Jim brought up could be correct but I'm not sure. When they get recut try specifying a better material. A36 is a crap material spec. and something like commercial 1010 or 1020 will be a better material to work with over all.