CNC Plasma Cutter Art
James Kingston asked:
Plasma cutter art is becoming more and more popular. One of the major reasons is that cost of plasma cutters has come down substantially over the past few decades. Using a CNC (computer numeric control) plasma cutting unit to create metal art is almost cheating. If you sell your art in large numbers this may be a process you want to look into.
You can use CNC plasma cutting units to make just one piece of art or you can make hundreds of copies of your one piece. The artisan would only be interested in using a CNC plasma cutting unit made from extruded aluminum because the fabricated steel units are prohibitively expensive and used mainly for large scale industrial applications.
Here is the cool thing about CNC plasma cutters. Say you are a painter and you want to present your works in a different light. You can scan your canvas painting into your computer, make a few adjustments and then feed the resulting digital image into the CNC computer. The computer will then instruct the machine to cut that image out of sheet metal. The end results of the plasma cutting process will be some reflection of your original canvas work. The plasma cutter cannot make half cuts, it either makes a cut or it does not. When editing the digital copy of your canvas image you will have to make it so that the CNC machine will know what to cut and what not to. This is accomplished by changing your image to black and white. After the machine has completed the cut you can add your own details, engravings, or colors to finish the piece.
Plasma cutter art is becoming more and more popular. One of the major reasons is that cost of plasma cutters has come down substantially over the past few decades. Using a CNC (computer numeric control) plasma cutting unit to create metal art is almost cheating. If you sell your art in large numbers this may be a process you want to look into.
You can use CNC plasma cutting units to make just one piece of art or you can make hundreds of copies of your one piece. The artisan would only be interested in using a CNC plasma cutting unit made from extruded aluminum because the fabricated steel units are prohibitively expensive and used mainly for large scale industrial applications.
Here is the cool thing about CNC plasma cutters. Say you are a painter and you want to present your works in a different light. You can scan your canvas painting into your computer, make a few adjustments and then feed the resulting digital image into the CNC computer. The computer will then instruct the machine to cut that image out of sheet metal. The end results of the plasma cutting process will be some reflection of your original canvas work. The plasma cutter cannot make half cuts, it either makes a cut or it does not. When editing the digital copy of your canvas image you will have to make it so that the CNC machine will know what to cut and what not to. This is accomplished by changing your image to black and white. After the machine has completed the cut you can add your own details, engravings, or colors to finish the piece.