Above: Pictures of various items cut with an abrasive waterjet from various materials.
Above: A spring machined from 1/8" brass. This took about 10 min to make. I made this same spring out of rock, and it actually worked!
Above: Company name machined from a file. The abrasive jet machines from hardened steel as easily as the soft stuff, without almost no decrease in speed.
Above: A rack and a gear machined with an abrasive jet. Material is 1/2" (13mm) steel.
Above: Some sort of friction plate made from 1/4" (6mm) stainless. The circle pattern was etched into the material using the abrasive jet with a feed rate so rapid that it would not cut all the way through.
Above: OMAX Corporation logo etched in thin glass plate using low pressure.
Above: Saw blade, or weird gear? 3/8" mild steel.
Above: Cheese cutter demonstrating how thin you can machine. There are very little side forces generated when machining with an abrasive jet. Blade is less than.020".
Above: Rack and gear in 1/8" aluminum.
Above: This cool part was cut from wood with a water only nozzle. Obviously on an Ingersoll-Rand system. I got this part in a literature package they sent me. The narrow kerf width of a water only nozzle allows for this type of machining.
Above: Part assembled from 1/8" aluminum. All pieces machined with an abrasive jet, and pressed together. I think this is part of a blower.
Above: Another example of thin wall cutting in 1/2" (13mm) aluminum. Walls are about .025" (0.64mm). Useful for storing honey.
Above: Here is a cut in 2" (50mm) Plexiglas. This shows corner blow out when the machine does not compensate by adjusting feed rates in corners. Modern abrasivejet controllers address these kinds of problems, allowing for much greater precision than pictured above!
Above: Here is a picture of the the same part, taken from above. The right hand side shows the cut with compensation turned on. The middle is with some compensation, but not full compensation, and the left with no compensation.
Above: (This is supposed to be ugly!) Side view of what the jet does when doesn't cut all the way through. This is 7" (177mm) thick Plexiglas, which was purposly cut at too fast of a speed, in order to make this picture. Notice the way the jet wiggles all over the place near the bottom. This is a severe example; normally parts look much better than this!
Above: Pictures of various large parts machined on an abrasive waterjet. Parts in this picture are up to 3 (75mm) or 4" (100mm) thick.
Above: Finished product made from 3 main pieces machined with an abrasivejet, then assembled and painted.
Above: Picture of an older OMAX 2652a JetMachining center next to an Ingersol Rand SL-IV intensifier pump (on the left). .
Above: Close up of nozzle with automatic z-axis. This picture was taken at IMTS '98 (International Machine Tool Show. Held every other year in Chicago). The machine pictured is an OMAX 2652p, which is a slightly more precice version of the 2652a.
Above: Another picture taken at IMTS '98.
Above: Some weird composite.
Notice the slats that it sits on. Slats are 1/8" (3mm) thick by 4" (100mm) deep. As the jet cuts, the slats get cut also, but not all the way. Part way down the slat, the jet skips to the side, and cuts no further. Slats are rotated, and flipped upside-down to extend their life. Usually slats are made of Stainless steel (for cosmetic reasons), mild steel (for cost reasons), or galvanized steel (for a compromise between cost and cosmetics).
Water is in the tank to slow the jet down. Also the water level can be raised above the cutting surface for noise and splash reduction.
Above: Here is a logo milled in stainless steel. I did this by moving the machine rapidly so that it would not cut all the way through. Milling is possible, but not yet a practical application. Some people accomplish milling by using a mask, or using low pressure / feed rates, etc. It's ok for artistic stuff, but a pain to do on complex shapes. There is a company specializing in precision abrasivejet milling. (Waterjet Technology: Kent, WA). I wish I had a picture of that to show you, it's really cool. The above picture illustrates what you can do with a traditional abrasivejet cutting head.
Above: This is a further refinement of milling. 3/4" (19mm) aluminum. It is difficult to mill aluminum because it is so soft. Therefore, this was done at low pressure (15,000psi). By reducing the pressure and abrasive flow rate, you reduce the cutting effectiveness. By reducing the cutting effectiveness, you can reduce the feed rate of the machine to get a given depth. By having a low feed rate, you don't have to accelerate the machine. If you look at the stainless picture above this picture, you will notice that the edges of the mill are extra deep. This is because the machine has to slow down for newtonian accelerations. When you slow, the jet has more time to cut, and thus digs deeper. By reducing the pressure, you can move slowly for the entire mill; therefore, the effect at the edges is reduced.
If I made this part in Steel, which is much harder, the results would be better.
Above: This is one way to provide a reference point to machine from. Bolt down a plate to the machine, then cut the plate using the machine. This gives you a known corner to reference to if you plan to do secondary machining on existing parts.
To measure the thickness (Kerf) of the jet itself, you simply cut a part with a known dimension, then measure the error.
Above: 1/2" (13mm) thick Glass Rose next to some 1/4" (6mm) thick Marble rose heads. This picture illustrates the technique of "tabbing", which is useful for making small parts that might otherwise fall into the machine. Simply leave a small bit of material holding the part in place, and break it off later. I made these tabs way thicker than they needed to be because I was paranoid that the marble wouldn't be strong enough. As it turned out, I could have made them much smaller, and saved myself the work of filing the tab by hand. When done, I glued the heads to stems cut from green marble, and made the girls happy on Valentines Day. (Worth getting a machine for)
Above: SeaCatch (tm) A complete part made almost entirely on an abrasive jet. It is intended to safely release heavy loads under tension (like fishing nets, things in tow, special effects, etc.). They come in various sizes and are available through McMaster. To visit the SeaCatch web site, click here: SeaCatch
Above: 2" (50mm) thick concrete. Beautiful, eh? It's pink because there was a pigment added to the concrete.