[Route401]

Hi everyone!

New to the forum and have a question I'm hoping you guys can help me out with.

I make license plate art, you can see an example of the Canada Map I make below. I've been looking into buying a CNC router machine to cut these designs as I've been getting lots of orders and falling behind. Right now I just use a pair of tin slips on the plates. The problem is, with the CNC router, what do I do with the plates when the machine is cutting? How do I secure the plates to the platform? Also, with the router machine, it will chip off the paint near the cut zone which would ruin the whole look of my pieces.

So then I looked into cnc water jet machines, but those are way out of my price range. What about laser? Would those be too much?

What would you suggest I do to cut these faster? I also saw a shop press that I could press down on the plates with a die (that I would have to get made I guess for each design) that was about $250. Is that a good option?

Just looking for your opinion on what would be the best method. Thanks a lot for helping out, look forward to the responses.


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[Dylwad]

If you make a lot of identical pieces, a router would work good, if you are mainly just doing one off cuts, doing it by hand will be faster.

CNC for one off parts could mean an hour + of drawing and setup to make a 2 minute cut.

Look at bench mounted shears/nibblers too, imagine Tin snips with some leverage.

Another option is an air or electric nibbler. Check out some auto body tool suppliers

[Route401]

Yea I do make a lot of the same pieces over and over. I would get a cnc router but how would I solve the stripping of the paint and holding the plate down to the platform?

Bench mounted nibblers I don't think are too good for me because there isn't too much flexibility. The electric nibblers might be good but again, doesn't seem I can do the intricate, delicate cuts I may need to do... I'll look into them further though, thank you. Any other ideas?

[ElmoRoyD]

Hello, I would suggest a Plasma cutter, you may glue, weld, spotweld a lot of plates to create a single sheet and then cut from there, there is not a lot of setup time and you can use a simpler cam software where you can just export pictures to the program.

other options is putting something heavy on top of it so it wont move, just be careful with the Y axis so it wont crash.



How do you put the plates together I cant see it from the picture.

[Route401]

I'll look into them, thanks. I did briefly in the past and I know they were over $10k and that's a little steep for me.

I cut them and then nail the pieces to the wood backing. You can see more detailed pictures here if you want to check it out, I do a USA map as well: 302 Found

[Dylwad]

Plasma would char the paint to oblivion.

I think a nibbler would be the way to go http://youtu.be/E1JALyXKvrc

Many different models and styles out there.

[Dylwad]

And for the router, with the right bit and setup, the paint should hold up well. Problem is the better you hold the material down, the better the cut quality and bit life. If you are decent with CAD that will go a long way with a cnc router. Setup is half the fun though, can be as easy as some double stick tape, or harder like custom clamps and fixtures for each shape.

[ElmoRoyD]

after 2 hours in paint.

If you plan to make ALL of your pieces in the same way. I mean if you want to copy the Canada map, and have the exact same layout for all the Canada maps, same position for plates. you could make it by parts, like a puzzle, Lets say you have a order for 10 pieces. you make 10 pieces of part number 1, 10 of part number 2, etc. As far as I can see you are using 16 plates, you would need to make 16 drawings in CAD. For holding the part you could make a hole on the plate and clamp it with a screw, the same hole you use to hold the plates to the wood. Another option would be nail them to a smaller piece of wood in a way that all the edges that need to be cutted can be reached by the milling tool without touching the wood.

Maybe someone will let you experiment with their router.

Also plasma cutters can be bought from $5,000, but yea it will ruin the paint.

[Route401]

And for the router, with the right bit and setup, the paint should hold up well. Problem is the better you hold the material down, the better the cut quality and bit life. If you are decent with CAD that will go a long way with a cnc router. Setup is half the fun though, can be as easy as some double stick tape, or harder like custom clamps and fixtures for each shape.

Hi Dylwad,

Sorry, not sure I understand. The problem is the better you hold the material down, the better the cut quality and bit life? I don't quite understand.

[Route401]

after 2 hours in paint.

If you plan to make ALL of your pieces in the same way. I mean if you want to copy the Canada map, and have the exact same layout for all the Canada maps, same position for plates. you could make it by parts, like a puzzle, Lets say you have a order for 10 pieces. you make 10 pieces of part number 1, 10 of part number 2, etc. As far as I can see you are using 16 plates, you would need to make 16 drawings in CAD. For holding the part you could make a hole on the plate and clamp it with a screw, the same hole you use to hold the plates to the wood. Another option would be nail them to a smaller piece of wood in a way that all the edges that need to be cutted can be reached by the milling tool without touching the wood.

Maybe someone will let you experiment with their router.

Also plasma cutters can be bought from $5,000, but yea it will ruin the paint.

Thanks a lot for doing that! This definitely seems like the best option, thank you thank you.

I do the exact same design with the same plates in the same position, and I want to do exactly as you said. I want to do 10 Ontario "bottoms" in a row, and then 10 Ontario "tops", for example.

Right now I use Illustrator and place the designs I need to cut and fit them into a 12 x 6 inch rectangle (the size of the plates). If you take Ontario for example, Ontario goes across two 12 x 6 '' plates (rectangles). So I could just move those files into the CAD software. I looked into it and I believe you can import .AI files into the CAD software.

I get the fixture examples you suggested, but I still don't understand how the wood would be fixed to the router platform? Like if I do the option where I nail the pieces to a smaller piece of wood that is not within the cut line, how does the smaller piece of wood stay fixed? I guess I just have to see one of these machines in action to get it

[ElmoRoyD]

first of all, i should not have upload that picture, i realized it was kind of wrong when I saw your work again.

For holding the wood pieces you have tons of options, you make the "main fixture" so the router can run and cut, to sustain the plate in the air. then you can add whatever you want at the bottom of that fixture, make it bigger so you can clamp it.

I do not really know a lot about machining, but maybe you can find a shop or a friend that can let you try this before spending money on a machine.

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