Sheet Metal Laser Cutting Guidelines

Tolerances, part size limits, hole sizing, and other guidelines that are important to know when designing parts for our sheet metal laser cutting service.

Our sheet laser cutting service runs on a 4kW TRUMPF TruLaser 1030 fiber laser. It cuts precise 2D profiles from flat metal sheet, including flat patterns for bent parts. Holes, slots, cutouts, and hardware locations are all cut in a single pass. These guidelines cover the practical limits and conventions to design around. For general laser cutting concepts like kerf, taper, and surface finish, see the General Laser Cutting Guidelines.

Stock Materials

We stock a curated set of aluminum, steel, and stainless steel sheet in a wide range of thicknesses. The full list of grades, thicknesses, and per-material limits is on the materials pages:

If you need a material or thickness that isn't listed, contact us.

Part Size

Maximum part size is 96" x 47". Minimum part size is 0.25" x 0.25". There is no minimum order quantity.

Parts that will be bent are also limited to 80 lbs so they can be safely handled on the press brake.

Tolerance

Our standard cutting tolerance is +/-0.005" across your whole part — hole sizes, outer dimensions, and hole to hole. Most parts come out much tighter, around +/-0.002". You do not need to compensate for kerf in your files. See the General Laser Cutting Guidelines for the details on kerf, taper, and when tolerances can open up.

Hole and Feature Sizing

Minimum hole and feature size depends on the material and thickness. Each materials page lists the minimum feature size for every thickness we stock, so check the material table for the exact limit on your material.

Holes marked for hardware are resized automatically to the correct press-fit dimension, so model them at the hardware's callout size and let us handle the rest. See the Hardware Guidelines for supported PEM hardware.

Added Services

Sheet parts can move through the rest of the shop in the same order, with each service covered by its own guidelines:

Engraving

Laser engraving is the process of using the laser at lower power to mark the sheet surface without cutting through it. It's commonly used for part numbers, logos, or bend orientation marks.

Fabworks does not currently offer engraving.

File Format

Upload a STEP or STP file when ordering — even for flat parts, we cut directly from your 3D model, and flat patterns for bent parts are unfolded automatically. 2D formats like DXF cannot be processed. If you're new to STEP export, see the guides for Fusion 360 and Onshape.

General

Tolerances, kerf, taper and other guidelines for that are important to know when designing parts for our sheet metal laser cutting service.

Tube

Tolerances, stock sizes, features, and other guidelines that are important to know when designing parts for our tube laser cutting service.