Are backplate dimensions standardized?

[dmaziuk]

... dremel ...

Yeah... have you tried that on a 3-mil 316 steel? With diamond or tungsten bits it's... doable.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I have a plasma cutter.
It’s OK, not super clean and cuts need to be cleaned up quite a bit. For perimeter cutting they are fine because I can use a flap disc grinder to clean it up, but for slots it’s not ideal.
The best is laser cutting hands down.

What actually works better, and gives a better edge that is easier to clean up, is a waterjet. Lasers tend to temper the edges with the heat. Waterjet eliminates that. But they are a tad slower and not as cheap or easy to find places that will do it. We have 3 of them at work.
I've been running waterjets for 16 years now.
Cutting pretty much everything. I've run .003 brass, swapped to 1/2 inch rubber, and then went to 3 inch thick stainless steel or titanium in one shift.
Compared to the 9 lasers the company has, including the new fiber optic, for 1/8 stainless and above, the waterjet gives a better edge that is easiest to clean up. If the operator knows what they are doing and is using the right settings.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

What actually works better, and gives a better edge that is easier to clean up, is a waterjet. Lasers tend to temper the edges with the heat. Waterjet eliminates that. But they are a tad slower and not as cheap or easy to find places that will do it. We have 3 of them at work.
I've been running waterjets for 16 years now.
Cutting pretty much everything. I've run .003 brass, swapped to 1/2 inch rubber, and then went to 3 inch thick stainless steel or titanium in one shift.
Compared to the 9 lasers the company has, including the new fiber optic, for 1/8 stainless and above, the waterjet gives a better edge that is easiest to clean up. If the operator knows what they are doing and is using the right settings.

Yeah, that is true that laser does temper the edges a little. I battled that phenomenon a little when I was making Freedom Plates, but I just worked through it.
Water jet was more expensive because I guess they have to use an abrasive in the water plus it’s slower and they price by time and material. I was using a place in Fremont, CA (Advanced Laser and Waterjet) they do a lot of work for Tesla which is only about a mile away (pretty much right next door).