Advanced router nesting techniques

[honeybunches]

We are having another shop do some router parts for us. Basic part is a 1x2" rectangle and stock thickness is .060". The other shop does not want to get creative with nesting but the sheet price for this plastic is high so we want a good yield from the sheet. We rarely ever use the router features of MCX. We are running X2MR2. I was specifically wanting to take a look at mirroring to butt the tabs against each other and hopefully get some cutter path overlap. I am unable to access the mirror functions and cannot find much info in the manuals about it. Where would you guys start? Basically this part on a 4x6' sheet is yielding 930 parts or so with .100" margins and path spacing. I really need to get more than 1000 parts from a sheet.

 

Thoughts?

[Robert Ouellette]

if the parts are all the same i always nested myself. i would flip and rotate and mirror 3-4 parts real tight. then i would array those over the rest of the sheet. if the material is that expensive then it is worth it to take the time to nest it properly. its not hard. just tedious. if you can try nesting the parts so you have a common line between the parts. saves lots of cutting and space. if you need some help or more questions just ask.