Would need to continuous feed. Fabric is just a lightweight powerstretch material. Plausible (or possible) to build one? Any suggestions where to start?
Definitely possible. Probably a bit beyond the OpenBuilds ecosphere and it definitely won't be cheap but seems possible. An interesting video I came across looking into the subject below. It's really all just a matter of scale. large format laser cutting machine with auto feeder device textile/fabric cutting machine - YouTube
Would probably be an epoxy and aluminum beams/truss job, but no reason it couldn't be done. Laser tube would likely have to be gantry-mounted, might be a little tricky to keep the whole thing light enough to be really quick.
Aren’t lasers generally a bad idea to use to cut fabric..... a drag knife would work better I think. Today I came across an auction with a massive cnc that is a laser, router and drag knife, and includes a convert belt across the bed, I checked it out on YouTube, can feed rolls of stuff continuously, was at 1k usd, but ends the 10th, I imagine it will go up to many 10s of thousands at the last min. I’ve been trolling auctions (not eBay, and not that kind of trolling.. maybe trawling is a better choice of words) for excess equipment to round out my workshop.. but I always like seeing the monster machines that go reasonably cheap compared to buying new. was this thing.
If anyone is interested in building me a 6 Meter wide CNC fabric cutter with table and feed. If it works well, we could potentially buy 4 more. We are negotiable, but this would be pretty much be name your price.
I take it checking out the DIY route didn't go quite according to plan! This is a pretty huge project, but I'm open to discussing some details. DM me if you'd like.
