A Giant Glowforge

Check what i found. Amazing. https://youtu.be/136HqrXOMpw

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There is only one reason I don’t like vertical cncs or panels saws, otherwise I would say best things ever. Gravity is an unforgiving goddess. With panel saws the piece drops the kerf width. And even with a splitter on the saw, it isn’t wholly straight I find. I bet wth cncs and I guess lasers , the parts still drop. Otherwise awesome idea and foot print.

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Ha… this is my friend, Patrick. He’s a genius designer, and I co-wrote a book with him years back on building your own CNC machine. His designs work. I didn’t realize he’d made this much progress on his vertical laser. I donated my desktop laser (built from his kit) to my local makerspace. He’s a good guy to know.

If you were cutting lighter stock you could use vacuum to hold the entire sheet against the back board while you cut it. I suspect anything thin enough to be cut by a laser could be held by a moderate vacuum and a high friction back panel. Then you wouldn’t get any movement and could even cut soft materials like leather

Another idea would be to leave a couple of un-cut tabs at the top and side of each piece which only get cut right at the end. That would require that you cut rigid materials (not leather) but saves you from building a vacuum panel.

Why would you fight gravity at every turn of the build?
Seems kind of silly.

From an industrial woodworking perspective it has to do with space to some extent. I have worked in smaller production shops, and space is a premium. In long norrow spaces it is handy not to lose the 8 ft wide by 20 foot long space needed for a sliding panel saw. On a vertical the blade moves, so it only has to be as big as the sheet more or less. Also if you tend to be cutting 1.5 to 2 inch MDF and 10 to 16 ft sheets, it is easier to deal with them standing on edge, vs lifting onto a table.

Also some industrial setups have production lines setup up for vertical, with vertical boring machines and the such. Not the most common setup, but you can line a wall and continue production and assembly in the middle of the shop.

I guess the advantage of the laser is garage shop or basement maybe? Better then losing a cars worth of space to something that is part of the early cutting phase and not the building phase.

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Coming from construction myself, I used many panel saws and plate glass cutters, however, this is not a saw. I just feel you would limit yourself more than you would gain by not using gravity.

You have to ask yourself, why is no one buying the Vertical Plasma Cutter if it’s so good.
I will tell you why, Because gravity sucks!

Notice they never show any cuts finished. Because they bend! They have to leave tabs. So you have a ton of post hand cutting. It’s a POS that that will cost your shop way more time than it will save.
Maybe in space this would be a cool idea, but not here on earth.
Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

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