Fabracadabra sponsored this video and cut the sample part you’re about to see. First sponsored video I’ve ever done.

I wanted to answer a question: at what point do you stop cutting your own steel and start having it cut for you?

Kris from Fabracadabra, a new online laser cutting service, messaged me out of the blue. He knows how much time I spend prepping steel, so he offered to cut one of my designs and send it to me. I sent him a part off my LED microphone stand. It came back with every hole laser cut, and everything lined up perfectly with the rest of my parts.

So I emailed him back and said let’s make it a competition. I’d cut the same part on my table and we’d see how they compare.

My side of it

My table is a Baileigh PT-22, a two foot by two foot CNC plasma table from 2015. It runs off a Hypertherm Powermax 45 on a shelf above it. It does a pretty good job, and it would do even better if I spent more time with it. I’m keeping it around either way. I wrote about setting it up back in part 1 and part 2. I also wrote up how I test cuts and designs without wasting metal.

Before I could cut anything I had to refill the water table, fire up the air compressor, pre-cut a piece of steel so it would fit on the table, and set my origin. Partway through, a line blew off my compressor. So now I get to fix that too.

How the two parts compared

The Fabracadabra part is laser cut. No dross, perfect holes.

Mine cut out. It got all the holes. But look close and those holes are not great.

Plasma isn’t as accurate as a laser, and my skills aren’t either, because I don’t do this every day. I make up the difference with manual labor. Last time I made these, every one of those holes went to the drill press to get punched out. I think there were 24 of them. Then there’s the dross on the edges. Some of it chips off by hand, some of it takes a chipping hammer, and then you sand it. By the time all of that is done I’ve got a lot of time in one piece.

So where’s the line?

It isn’t a straight black and white line, but it’s in there somewhere.

If you’re prototyping, if you’re making something and you’re not sure it’s even going to work, if you need one or two, make it yourself. Make a prototype. Making stuff is cool. Making stuff is fun.

As soon as you’re selling them in any kind of volume, it makes sense to use a service like Fabracadabra. The file is already uploaded and ready to go. Say I sell five more of those mic stands next week. I get on there, change the quantity to five and order them, instead of fixing my compressor, finagling with the table, sanding parts and making a mess of my shop.

What they take

Fabracadabra takes DXF, DWG and flat STEP files, prices it right away and has no minimums. They cut mild steel, A36, HSLA and 304 stainless.

Wrapping up

That was my first sponsored video and it was educational for me. It’s going to make it hard to go back to cutting my own parts, because it just makes sense to let a half million dollar laser do it instead of my old machine with no torch height control. That thing likes to drag parts across the table.

Get out in the shop and work on something.

Stuff mentioned in this post

• Fabracadabra online laser cutting
• LED mic stand with light-up base
• Baileigh PT-22 CNC plasma table (2×2, no torch height control)
• Hypertherm Powermax 45
• Like my shirt? Get it here: Lies RV Holding Tank Monitor Panel T-Shirt

Fabracadabra sponsored this video and cut the sample part. Where the line falls between cutting your own and sending it out is my own take.