Educate me on CNC Plasma cutting please. I have a project.

[ScottsGT]

I've got a project I want to do that will require a CNC program and time on a table. For the past 12 years or so I have been hoarding two sheets of brushed stainless steel a friend bought to glue to the sides of his refrigerator. Rough guess, 24" wide by 60" tall. He gave up on the idea was going to scrap them, told him no, I will find a use for them.
Fast forward to current time. I recently moved to a lake. I want to get these sheets of stainless cut out in the shape of the lake, large as possible and to include the tiny islands along the shores. One I plan on making a large wall hanging with it mounted on some old barnwood or pallet wood as a background. The other, I'm thinking about a live edge table reversed with the lake "floating" and back lit.
Here's a link to the shape of the lake.
Lake Wateree
Can anyone throw out to me how much work is involved in making the program and what I should expect to pay for a service like this? Anyone know of a shop that does this in South Carolina?

 

[Firebrick43]

um, if the shop is charging you for programming walk away. Modern cnc plasma don't require programming, you just drag in the dxf file into the CAM software, auto nest it, tell it thickness of you material, find the corner and cut. Now they will charge you a setup fee typically if its a one off piece.

You need to provide a good dxf cad file with no gaps for this. The islands would be separate files and the program will nest them where it desires. Place them on the back ground later.

Some plasma controllers can take art file such as svg and corel draw files, call and ask if you cant do a dxf cad drawing. I don't know of one modern machine that wont take a dxf drawing into its CAM software.

 

[Ralphxj]

I do plasma cutting and am on a couple Facebook groups, if you want I can post on there find you someone local to you. The artwork is very easy for someone who knows what they are doing. I did this 3d topo lake map on my machine. Some places won't like the idea of using material you already have, but some won't have an issue.

 

[ScottsGT]

That would be great. Totally out of my wheel house. I’m actually wanting the stainless to be the shape of the lake, not the lake cut out as yours is. I’ve gotta use this stainless. It supports my hoarding tendencies!

 

[sjvicker]

Technically you'll get both

 

[CGT80]

Technically, there are variables such as lead in, lead out, and cut direction which do not always result in both being top notch parts. lead in and lead out are where the torch pierces in the scrap and cuts a short line into the part to be cut. On thin material that can be skipped, but there is still a pierce point which can be larger than the kerf of the cut. Direction of cut shouldn't be much worry on thin material. If you wanted both, be sure to tell the person doing the job that, so they make both parts look good. I have done this on small parts of 20ga cold roll steel and would expect stainless to work as well. You would get a 2 for 1 lake outline!