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Offline The WuSue

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Waterjet Cutting
« on: December 04, 2011, 12:23:42 »
I was accosted for not mentioning that my father's fab shop has a Flow waterjet in Springfield  :-[ .  If you DIY folks out there need to get some high tolerance holes made into anything flat send me a PM and I'll get you connected.

 I should mention a few things about waterjet fabrication.... It holds a tolerance of about .0008 and can cut materials up to 8 in thick.  The envelope is 12x 8 ft so any practically any size that would go into the aquarium trade would fit there.

They make the files for the holes in the shop and can work with any ideas you may have for any project that you may need. Woodrow Corp usually makes most of their parts for the Aerospace industry so they are used to making very demanding parts.

Hope this helps!!!

Offline The WuSue

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2011, 12:25:12 »
Also, waterjet has no heat affected zones on the holes it cuts.  Great for DIY led set ups.

Offline Reefpete

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2011, 13:16:50 »
I was accosted for not mentioning that my father's fab shop has a Flow waterjet in Springfield  :-[ .  If you DIY folks out there need to get some high tolerance holes made into anything flat send me a PM and I'll get you connected.

 I should mention a few things about waterjet fabrication.... It holds a tolerance of about .0008 and can cut materials up to 8 in thick.  The envelope is 12x 8 ft so any practically any size that would go into the aquarium trade would fit there.

They make the files for the holes in the shop and can work with any ideas you may have for any project that you may need. Woodrow Corp usually makes most of their parts for the Aerospace industry so they are used to making very demanding parts.

Hope this helps!!!


Thank you so very much for offering/posting this amazing service! I would be more than happy to pay for any work I need done.

Offline slandis3

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2011, 13:22:57 »
Woody this is the thread we were talking about last night.


http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=12547.0

Offline DarinSchmidt

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2011, 13:40:14 »
yeah i wonder what the cost of making something using a waterjet would be. cant be cheap, or could it?

Offline Neogenesis

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2011, 14:35:49 »
Any restrictions as to what material they can cut?

Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2011, 14:38:35 »
yeah i wonder what the cost of making something using a waterjet would be. cant be cheap, or could it?

Very fast, accurate and clean.    Like other machining services rates go based on supply and demand.    Waterjet is very economical too.....finding someone who has the machine and is willing to help the one off job and us hobbiest is the harder part.

Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2011, 14:43:04 »
Any restrictions as to what material they can cut?

Not really, but different materials require different setups.   It can also be a little bit of an art.   When it cuts, the "spray" fans out as it goes through the material.    The material cut away is narrower at the top surface than at the back surface.     Some machines can compensate for this by tipping the cutting head.    This works very well for making cut outs, but when your trying to make a hole that will eventually hold a thread takes more care.

Offline Neogenesis

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2011, 14:48:17 »
I was thinking getting acrylic cut to make housings for my LED's.  I'm sure a water jet cut piece is more accurate than what I could do on my low end table saw.

Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2011, 15:03:25 »
I was thinking getting acrylic cut to make housings for my LED's.  I'm sure a water jet cut piece is more accurate than what I could do on my low end table saw.

I wanted to do waterjet when I made my LED fixture, but had to do it all by hand with my tablesaw, router, drill press........   I had a place that would do it, I just thought a couple of weeks of working in my basement was more fun.

Offline HUNGER

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2011, 15:50:05 »
thats great thank u
SIZE DOES MATTER

Offline The WuSue

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #11 on: December 05, 2011, 09:02:15 »
Wow, I kinda let this thread get away from me. Let me catch up on a few things.

Not really, but different materials require different setups.   It can also be a little bit of an art.   When it cuts, the "spray" fans out as it goes through the material.    The material cut away is narrower at the top surface than at the back surface.     Some machines can compensate for this by tipping the cutting head.    This works very well for making cut outs, but when your trying to make a hole that will eventually hold a thread takes more care.

That's right on the money. His machine has a dynamic head so it can rotate 8 degrees to make the cut out true all the way to the bottom of the material and send all the taper to the piece that'll be cut out. His shop has done every weird material that I've ever heard of. Obviously it's impossible to do anything with tempered glass but he has done some work with fuse glass before. It can have some chipping but I've never seen it shatter the pane itself and the chips are no bigger than what you'd get from using a glass saw maybe even smaller. If the hole is large enough then you make the initial pierce in the center of the hole (which is the point 90% of the chipping will come from) and you should have a perfect piece.

Mike: Doing the reflectors would be a snap. The way that material is made we could probably do those 4 or 5 high depending on the tolerances.  Running them stacked like that cuts down on the run cost considerably.

 
yeah i wonder what the cost of making something using a waterjet would be. cant be cheap, or could it?
I don't have any say in what the price is to run the machine. It is incredibly efficient effective and clean and as such it comes at a price. Some materials the only cost effective way to cut them is by waterjet same way it is that some jobs can only get the required parameters by waterjet. It isn't for every project, but it is perfect for the very demanding one. 

On a side note, my father also has a saltwater set up at his place and I plan on setting up a profile for him to get on here. It'll be better to talk to the man himself instead of risking losing anything in translation.




Offline Neogenesis

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #12 on: December 05, 2011, 10:45:12 »
another thought, how would we get our designs over to them?  Would we draw them up ourselves in a program they can import, or would be relay our designs to them and they program, draw them up and load into their machines.  Didn't know how they like to do business

Scott

Offline slandis3

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #13 on: December 05, 2011, 11:12:08 »
I already have the dxf file for the diy reflectors we are making. But if they have to design it that can get pricey at most shops. it took me longer to turn the drawing of the reflectors into a cad file than it did to run them.

Offline The WuSue

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #14 on: December 05, 2011, 12:45:04 »
The machine runs dxf but its not a problem to send any measurements. We've had people bring in the  part they want cut with drawings of where they want holes on the material...  They can transfer almost all file types as well.   

I do recommend that if you want some material cut that is pretty out of the ordinary (either in thickness, material, etc) that you bring a piece of scrap. Cutting at 3 times the speed of sound is more of an art form than you would think. It's best to work out the right way to handle the particular requirements of that material on a piece that isn't the final product.

Offline kattz

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #15 on: December 05, 2011, 18:51:14 »
I use AutoCAD all of the time, and the FLOW cutting system probably uses a .dxf to .mc9 conversion.  If you send me a sketch, I can CAD it for you for no cost when I have time. 

We have 42 six-axis robots doing waterjet cutting 3 shifts/day 6.5 days a week.  Myself and another engineer do the lion's share of the robot programming, and I buy all of the waterjet systems for our facilities in four different plants.  The technology is neat.  Been using it for about 15 years.

WuSue, pm me and I'll send you some info on FLOW replacement parts from another mfgr that are better, last longer, are less expensive, and are a direct drop-in replacement for FLOW parts.  Might be useful for your dad if he needs to or wants to trim some costs. 

Kev
90g SPS and LPS reef tank, 35g sump, ceramic rock by The Alternative Reef, Neptune Apex w 2 X EB8's, Moonlight module, ATI Sunpower Dimmable 8 X 39W T5's, Octopus Extreme 160 skimmer, PM Kalkwasser Reactor, 2 X Vortech MP40's, Geo 618 Ca reactor


Various thriving montipora, acropora, stylopora, wellsophyllia, blastomussa, hammer, anchor, and frogspawn, lobophyllia, rhizotrychus, pavona, scroll, and pagoda SPS and LPS corals, but no fish because I was too stupid to QT...

Offline cbell56

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Re: Waterjet Cutting
« Reply #16 on: April 16, 2018, 07:28:03 »
i used a waterjet where i work to cut the baffles for my sump. it work very well.

 

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