That’s one huge honeycomb bed, I’m sure that plenty of people will want to know Your experiences with it.
And of course where You got it and how much did it set You back.
That’s probably just an error with translation, iron by itself isn’t malleable enough to be formed into thin sheet, nor has it the other required properties, steel is and has.
Other than the cast varities, iron is very rare material in engineering.
That’s great -and somewhat unexpected as far as the flatness requirement goes- news for anyone who wish or need to do the same thing.
Finally got my honey comb bed and it’s okay. But couldn’t get a bed big enough so had to get 2 at 1500x1000 to sit next to each other and they do exactly sit nicely. But should be good enough. The whole thing is -+2mm across the whole bed.
Did a test to see how cutting goes when out of focus and it’s all good at at least 7mm.
Looking forward to cutting me fabric with this and not sitting for hours with scissors.
Hey Luke! Wondering if you could share your source for the honeycomb bed? I’m also looking for a 1500x1000mm bed but I can only find them in alu and not steel. Also as I understand the ±2mm tolerance is enough for cutting fabrics in your case?
I couldn’t find a 1500x2000 bed so got two 1500x1000 and just removed the outside one one 1500 side on each and pushed them together. It works but not very professional looking. They came from some shop on Alibaba that make laser beds.
I’ve found I the bed really doesn’t have to be dead flat at all. Most of my fabric cuts so easily at lowish power that I tend to just run it at 10% higher then needed power to make up for inconvenience in the laser focus.
the lighter colour the fabrics the more power needed. One of my fabric is white UHMWPE and the laser doesn’t even touch it.
I’ve been using the laser for cutting fabric and eva foam for awhile now and it’s been a real game changer. No real problems with the bed not being 100% flat (might be 5mm-+ out in places) but it still cut fabric fine and black 10mm eva foam in one pass. I can tell that the far side must be out of focus a bit more then the rest and should really sort it. But I just turn the power up by 5% and it’s all good.
Found I can cut black 420D at at least 2500mm/m at around 70% but run it at 80 so I don’t have any spots holding together.
White fabric is rubbish and only cuts after a second pass so don’t bother. Even a light gray 100d cuts fine. All the colours I’ve tried cut okay at different powers but still fast enough for me.
I’m still learning how to use it, digitalize my patterns and designs. Find nesting the patterns to cut time consuming and need to work out a better way.
But it’s definitely working out well and happy with everything from this cheap AliExpress laser. Should have gotten it years ago.
I’m pleased to be wrong about the flatness requirement, because that eliminates a whole bunch of hassle.
Looks like you’re cutting one sheet of fabric / material at a time, because it lays smoothly across the whole platform. Is there a vacuum under the honeycomb?
No vacuum bed but I’m sure it would probably help. Most of the fabrics lay flat enough and if the edges aren’t I just use small magnets and try and put them where I’m not cutting.
I’ve not tried cutting multiple layers yet but expect they would stick together. But might give it a try if I need to cut the same things from different colours.
