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I was just wondering if anyone has considered one of these as a tool in their business. Thye're pretty expensive and most only have accuracy to .005, not too good in fine wood working but good enough for roughout.
Waterjet
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You guys need to watch more TV. American Chopper, Biker Build Off Challenge, Boyd Cottington, Monster Garage...
Oh it's one of those, I didn't realise you could use it on wood. It's a extremely high pressure cutting machine. You input designs and its computer directs the jet of water to cut the shape. I was under the impression it was used for metal.
Hey wait a minute, you can't use it on wood. Can you? The inconsistency of wood's internal structure would make it chalenging at best to have consistent results.
Teetor, you are playing with us regarding the numbers you throw around , right? (.005) You must have been a machinist in another life. You mean I gotta bust out my feeler gauge when I install cabinets now.
Hey wait a minute, you can't use it on wood. Can you? The inconsistency of wood's internal structure would make it chalenging at best to have consistent results.
Teetor, you are playing with us regarding the numbers you throw around , right? (.005) You must have been a machinist in another life. You mean I gotta bust out my feeler gauge when I install cabinets now.
Hi Teetorbilt, I have some knowledge of a water jet. What I'm wondering is what you might be planing on using on? It will cut just about anything. In the building trades it would be good for doing things like tile inlays, cutting granite counters or cutting custom metal brackets. It really isn't very good for materials that can be affected by water. A laser would be more useful for those applications. Also, as you said, this is expensive equipment. Unless your using it all day, every day, it would probably be cost prohibitive. A good solution would be, if you do need this type of cutting, find a good sheetmetal fab shop in your area. Many of the higher end shops have this type of equipment and can do cutting for you on a per piece basis. Good luck, Mike
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I use a scroll saw with a diamond blade running off a cummins diesel out of Suicide Jockey's wrecked Peterbuilt.
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The tools that I have worked with had an operating pressure of 50,000 PSI through an orfice of 0.040". accuracy was +/-.005.
A waterjet doesn't care what it is cutting. Garnet can be mixed into the stream and it will cut 10" of Titanium or 464 Naval bronze. To bring it back to our needs, it will cut glass, tile, brick, stone into any shape that might be required. The difference between it and a LASER is that it is cold, this really doesn't matter unless you work with SS which will work harden and have to be passivated to resist rust.
0.005" may seem accurate to some of you but if compounded to 0.010 in something like a mitre joint, it is very visable.
It's just something that I was thinking about, had a good offer on a used one. May still buy it just to have one around, never can tell when you might need one. LOL
A waterjet doesn't care what it is cutting. Garnet can be mixed into the stream and it will cut 10" of Titanium or 464 Naval bronze. To bring it back to our needs, it will cut glass, tile, brick, stone into any shape that might be required. The difference between it and a LASER is that it is cold, this really doesn't matter unless you work with SS which will work harden and have to be passivated to resist rust.
0.005" may seem accurate to some of you but if compounded to 0.010 in something like a mitre joint, it is very visable.
It's just something that I was thinking about, had a good offer on a used one. May still buy it just to have one around, never can tell when you might need one. LOL
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Yep, that's it. Around here we call them CNC machines, since they seem to always be hooked up to a computer to run them. Maybe there are manual ones too. My first time watching one was about 15 years ago when I was an apprentice working for a commercial photographer. We were in Chicago Pnuematics plant shooting stuff and they wanted pictures of their brand new 10 million dollar Tombstone and CNC machines. The Tombstone was way cooler actually, it was a robotic arm that had a gallery of tools that it would zip about and choose from by itself, snapping them on and off as it drilled and machined solid blocks of metal, slowly turning them into recognizable parts. Very cool to stand their with your mouth open as this thing went about its business.747 said:
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I did some R&D engineering for a Co. in Palm Beach that had 70,000 sq. ft. of CNC machines up to 80 hp. Coolest place to walk through. All of those machines cranking out parts all by themselves, some 24/7 with just a few guys checking on them.
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I have programmed Waterjet and CNC machines.. CNC is the way to go, we used on at a finish carpentry shop I worked at.. Pretty cool..
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The place where I worked was in transition. I learned G&M programming to start and then progressed to Catia as it was being integrated. They still had some programs on tape, I took a class on that years earlier but never exercised the knowledge.
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when it comes to cut glass, marble or granite for some special shapes,
waterjet is very usefull.
If you are in home improvment trade, and if you can offer some
glass decoration with waterjet cutting, or if you are able to provide
waterjet cut tile floor, you will be very hot in your local market
There are many waterjet manufactureres and price in a wide range.
Flow, Omax, Jet Edge, KMT, International Waterjet Machines ...
just to name a few.
waterjet is very usefull.
If you are in home improvment trade, and if you can offer some
glass decoration with waterjet cutting, or if you are able to provide
waterjet cut tile floor, you will be very hot in your local market
There are many waterjet manufactureres and price in a wide range.
Flow, Omax, Jet Edge, KMT, International Waterjet Machines ...
just to name a few.
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