Need Your Help: Need to Design a Saw with SUPER LOW KERF LOSS

[Educated Guess]

Folks, sorry, haven't been getting notifications.

FYI, sheet stock is FAR more expensive, not even close. A 10" x 10" x .25" is $1100(!) -- yikes.

Meat slicer -- great idea!

Will respond more later. Thank you!

[12bolts]

What makes this material so desirable as a guitar pick? If it is so much better than other materials for some reason then the price becomes irrelevant. People will pay for a premium product

[Educated Guess]

Actually, it makes the MOST INCREDIBLE pick in the world. We're in business four years, and there is such demand for what we do that our typical lead times run three times run three to four weeks -- and people pay IN FULL ahead of time.

A long story on the materials, but in acoustic instruments the holy grail for centuries has been tortoise shell. However, tortoise was outlawed in the seventies along with ivory, and for the last forty years the guitar world has been looking for a suitable replacement. This stuff comes very close, but we use six different materials that do different things with tone and again, demand for our stuff outstrips our ability to make it fast enough. Crazy, I know.

Not in sales pitch mode here, but this is our website, just to get a sense of what we do: https://www.charmedlifepicks.com/online-store

Thanks Very Much,

Scott

[Jon]

Fascinating. Can you get Vespel in very thin sheets and then just pick punch it?

[Educated Guess]

Jon: No, and no. The thinnest they make it is 1/4" (I kid you not), and because of the different way the sheets are extruded it is much more expensive -- as in, $1100 for a sheet 10" x 10". And you get very little discount off that price unless your name is Boeing, Lockheed or Northrup. Occasionally you can score a random piece online, but still ridiculous.

Crazy.

The good news? There are more than a hundred (100) other engineering thermoplastics that have never been made into guitar picks by anyone on the planet. We're just starting to test one, and have two more on the docket. And they're ALL far less expensive than Vespel -- like half, or less.

scott

[high-side]

I found thinner stuff in sheet form (1/32" - .031") The price was still about what you stated though 10" x 10" $1009.09

[Frank S]

I am wondering if a press mold cold not be made heated to somewhere in the 550 to 600° f range. then a small pellet of the material be placed in the shaped mold cavity the punch of the same shape be pressed down on the heated pellet to a high enough pressure to for the desired product.
It seems that vespel can be injection molded with very little chemical alteration

[threesixesinarow]

I had bad results trying to cut hardwood with about the same size cross section as a guitar pick, cutting along the grain using a 3-1/2” diameter 0.020” slitting saw.

[Educated Guess]

I found thinner stuff in sheet form (1/32" - .031") The price was still about what you stated though 10" x 10" $1009.09

Yeah, ridiculous, huh?

What I found out in research is that Vespel was the first in a series of plastics called polyimides. Because they were first, all the DOD and milspec aircraft folks spec'd specifically Vespel into their blueprints. Since that time everyone and their brother has knocked off Vespel, but because it was first the engineers always insist on using it. Being DOD, they have more money than God, they have no reason to change, even though many of the competitors are less than half the price.

DuPont has only three master distributors in the U.S. It's all locked up. All pricing must be approved by DuPont. A few years back one of the largest plastics distributors in the country -- a huge master distributor for them -- was caught offering unauthorized discounts. They cut them off. That's how they play ball.

EG

[Educated Guess]

That's correct. When I first started out, I had a CNC house trying to cut this stuff. They blew up three jewelry blades within a half hour. I'd settle for a .040" (1 mm) loss for now, but keep looking. However, the coolest thing is the 3D printing thing is coming on like gangbusters. Within ten years (probably much sooner), they will be 3D printing this stuff. All the sudden, no material loss. In the next couple decades 3D printing will revolutionize the metals and plastics industries. It's already happening.

thanks,
EG