Cutting plates to size

[prlocks]

Looking for advice on what equipment you guys use to cut brass and stainless steel plaques to size. At the moment we order in cut to size but would make sense to cut from a full sheet ourselves if it's not too expensive 

Cheers

[grahamparker]

Vargas saw but it won’t cut Stainless Steel, if you mean silver plate then it’s fantastic for that as well as plastics and rigid laminate.

[GLENGRAVING]

We currently order them cut to size too, but if you have any notion of doing larger signs or carved projects, you could look into the various options of entry-level CNC router machines. 

Desktop CNC machines are generally available in 60x40cm bed size, and will cut you rectangular plaques at any size you ask them to, even with a bevel if using a V-bit cutter. You can order full sheets of brass and plastic laminate and rough cut them into sections that fit on the 60x40 bed (using a table/circular/band/hand/whatever saw). This process is what I'm taking steps to implement in my workshop - but i'm hyped about the wood-carving possibilities this machinery offers too. 

This route won't be strong enough to cut steel though. 

If that's all overkill, then get a varga saw as Graham said - I have an alert on my eBay to keep an eye open for any cheap ones going, but so far, no luck. 

Edited February 9, 2019 by GLENGRAVING