Laser cutting, nested onto the sheet — not priced part by part.

Fiber laser cutting of steel, stainless, aluminum, copper, brass and titanium, from a single flat bracket to a full sheet of parts. An engineer nests your parts against everything else on the sheet to cut material waste and cost, instead of pricing each one in isolation.

Get my laser cutting quote →See materials & gauges ↓

Quick definition

Laser cutting uses a focused beam — almost always a fiber laser for metal — to cut a flat part directly from a 2D drawing, with no tooling and no minimum run. It's the process behind brackets, panels, gussets and spacers that stay flat, and it's also the first step that produces the blank for any part that gets bent afterward.

One sheetYour parts, nested together
Priced by material and cutting time shared across the sheet — not per part.
±0.1mmtypical cut tolerance — tighter than a part that's also going to be bent needs
0.8–10mmstandard gauge range, wider than a bent part can usually go since nothing has to fold
1 → thousandsparts per order — no fixed minimum, price sets the floor
Nested, not per-partparts packed onto the sheet together to share material and cut cost

Proof, not a claim

A best-selling bike rack starts as a laser-cut steel blank.

One wall-mounted bike rack, sold on Amazon at 4× its production cost, begins here — laser-cut from steel, then bent, painted, kitted and palletized by OperGo under one account. The brand never touches a factory floor.

Nested flat laser-cut steel parts still arranged in their cutting pattern on the sheet
Nested onto the sheet as one job — material and cutting time shared across every part, not priced one at a time.
Flat laser-cut brass part with a clean, precise cut edge
Reflective metal, cut clean — brass and copper need a high-power fiber laser most shops don't run.

Priced by the sheet, not by the part

Most laser cutting quotes charge per part. That's not how the machine gets paid.

Ask most laser cutting services for a quote and you'll get a price per part, calculated from its bounding box — cut one bracket and cut fifty on the same sheet, and the software charges you for fifty separate operations. Send the same files to OperGo and an engineer nests them onto the sheet together, sharing material and cutting time across your whole order instead of pricing each part like it's alone.

Priced per part
  • Priced per part, from a bounding box, with no credit for what else is on the sheet
  • Nesting left to you — one file and one line per part
  • No flag when your part is reflective, oversized or too thick for the laser being used
  • A quote that doesn't say whether the part actually needs waterjet instead
The OperGo way
  • Parts nested onto the sheet together, so material and cutting time are shared across the order
  • One file with your whole BOM, priced and cut as one job
  • Reflective metals and thick or hardened material flagged before the quote, not after a failed cut
  • Requoted under waterjet automatically if your gauge or material calls for it

What we run

One flat part, or a whole sheet of them.

Fiber laser cutting

Steel, stainless, aluminum, copper, brass and titanium cut from 0.8mm up to roughly 10mm, direct from a 2D drawing — no tooling, no minimum run.

Nesting

Multiple parts — and multiple part numbers — packed onto the same sheet to cut material waste and cost, done by an engineer, not left to you.

Reflective & exotic metals

Copper and brass cut with a high-power fiber laser; titanium cut under inert gas (N2/Ar) to keep the edge from oxidizing.

Beyond the laser

Thicker, more reflective or hardened material a fiber laser can't cut cleanly gets requoted under waterjet automatically — cold-cut, no heat-affected zone.

The spec sheet

Materials and gauges we cut.

Materials & gauges · Laser cuttingfiber + waterjet
SteelMild steel (DC01), laser-pickled S275JR, CORTEN weathering steel and galvanized DX51D — 0.8mm to 10mm.
Stainless steel304, 316L and 430 in 2B mill, BA mirror or G240 ground finish — 0.8mm to 6mm.
Aluminum1050, 3003, 5052, 5754 and 6061-T6, 1mm to 6mm — a flat, unbent part runs fine in any of these, 6061-T6 included, since there's no forming step to crack its temper.
Copper, brass & titaniumC110 copper and C260 brass up to 3mm, cut with a high-power fiber laser for the reflectivity; titanium Grade 2 up to 3mm, cut under inert gas to prevent edge oxidation.
Beyond fiber laser: waterjetSteel up to 50mm, stainless up to 40mm, aluminum up to 40mm, titanium up to 30mm — cold-cut with no heat-affected zone, for gauges or reflective metals the fiber laser can't take.
Tolerance & nestingCut tolerance typically ±0.1mm. Parts nested onto the sheet by an engineer, priced by material and cutting time used — not per part.

Full range of materials and finishes on Materials & finishes →

Picking a process

Laser cutting is the right call — until it isn't.

Laser cutting vs. sheet metal bending →

If your part needs to be 3D — an enclosure, a bracket that wraps around something — bending is the next step. Laser cutting alone is for parts that stay flat: plates, panels, gussets, spacers.

Fiber laser vs. waterjet

Fiber laser is faster and cheaper up to about 10mm on most metals. Beyond that gauge, or on very reflective metal like thick copper or brass, waterjet cuts cold with no heat-affected zone — your engineer switches automatically if your part calls for it.

Still not sure?

Send the part and an engineer matches it to the right cutting process — and flags if it should really be quoted as CNC or a casting instead.

Laser cutting, answered

What's the difference between laser cutting and sheet metal bending?

Laser cutting produces a flat part straight from your 2D drawing — nothing changes shape. Bending takes that same flat blank and forms it into a 3D part on a press brake. If your part is flat and stays flat, laser cutting alone is faster and cheaper; the moment it needs to fold, that's sheet metal bending.

How does nesting actually save money?

A laser cutting machine is paid for by sheet used and time the beam is running, not per part. Packing several parts — or your whole BOM — onto the same sheet means the material and setup get shared across everything cut from it, instead of being priced separately part by part.

Can you cut reflective metals like copper and brass?

Yes — with a high-power fiber laser; copper (C110) and brass (C260) up to 3mm are standard. Thicker or more reflective jobs than that usually move to waterjet instead, which doesn't have the same reflectivity problem.

What's the thickest metal you can laser cut?

Up to roughly 10mm on mild and laser-pickled steel; other metals top out lower — 6mm on stainless and most aluminum, 3mm on copper, brass and titanium. Past that, waterjet cutting picks up, up to 40-50mm depending on material.

What tolerance can you hold on a laser-cut part?

Typically ±0.1mm — tighter than a part that's also going to be bent needs, since there's no forming step adding its own tolerance stack-up.

What's the minimum order quantity?

There's no fixed minimum — price is what naturally limits a very small order, not a policy. A single flat bracket is quoted the same way a full sheet of parts is.

Can you laser cut tube and profiles too?

Yes, but on a different machine and a different page: round, square and rectangular tube runs on a rotary tube laser that cuts length, holes, copes and slots in one program — and can include welding the finished frame. See Tube Laser Cutting under capabilities; this page covers flat sheet.

What if my part needs to be bent, welded or finished too?

Then it's quoted as one job under sheet metal bending, not as a separate laser-cutting order — cutting is the first step of that process anyway. This page is for parts that are cut and nothing else.

Laser cutting vs. sheet metal bending →

When a flat part is enough, and when it needs to fold.

Cut cost before you quote →

The layout and nesting calls that decide cutting time and scrap.

See all capabilities →

Sheet metal bending, CNC machining and everything else we run.

Materials × process

Materials we run in laser cutting.

Sourced, produced and finished under one quote. Tap a material to see the other processes it runs on — material and process are two axes you combine, not one nested inside the other.

SteelStainless SteelAluminumAll materials & finishes →

Ready? Go.

Get a price an engineer will stand behind.

Send one part or your whole BOM. An engineer reviews it with the shop floor and sends back a real price, a real lead time and free DFM notes.

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