Andrew Mawson wrote:

"John" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

I'm semi retired & take in odd engineering jobs.

The latest to come up causes a bit of a problem, I cant do part of
it
with my existing equipment!

The job wont make that much profit, so its not worth investing more
than
$1000 in equipment to do it.

It will come up with VERY short lead times and MUST be done on time,
so
I cant outsource it.

The jobs a bit difficult to describe, but...

Imagine a piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
Some of the pieces are about 3 inches square and some around 25
inches
square.
Some of the edges are curves like a puzzle piece, and some a
straight
and meet in a 'V'
Some of the pieces are 3mm thick and some 6mm thick.
The accuracy required isnt that great, the example of a jigsaw
puzzle
would be about right for the accuracy and finish required.

The only idea that springs to mind is a manual plasma cutter and use
a
template to cut around.

But I've never used a plasma cutter. If it would do the job, its
within
my budget.

Will this work?

Many Thanks for any help or ideas

John

A water jet cutter or wire edm would do that from a file in minutes -
I know you don't want to outsource, but if you have a company nearby
with the equipment it would be fast and easy

AWEM

CNC plasma will do the job as well and is a lot cheaper and more
suitable to home shop use. You won't get one together for $1k since the
plasma cutter alone is that much, but if you have time to build one
yourself you can put one together for about an additional $2k past the
plasma cutter and it will be a very useful and versatile tool to have.
Likely having CNC plasma will open up new job possibilities.

Lots of good DIY CNC info, including plasma on cnczone.com

Pete C.