Waterjet and
Abrasivejet pictures (Page 4):
This
page contains a
bunch of miscellaneous pictures I have gathered over the years.
Pictures on this page are mostly courtesy of OMAX Corporation
Above: This is
3.01" (76.5mm) thick mild steel. You can expect a
part like this to take between 1.5 and 4 hours to machine, depending on
the particular machine setup used. In this case, this part took
about 1.5 hours.
Notice that it is quite a good part down to about 2 inches, but
the
bottom inch has some visible loss of tolerance.
Above: Multiple
cutting heads can increase productivity on long
production runs. In order to run multiple heads you need either
double the pump output with a really big pump, use two or more pumps,
or run smaller nozzles.
Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of
cost,
reliability and cutting speed. Multiple nozzles is one way to
compete
with high-production work that might otherwise be done with a laser
(thin
stuff).
Here are some
gears, racks, and sprockets machined from various
materials with an abrasivejet. For many gear applications the
tolerances are quite adequate, but for ultra-high precision gears you
may still use the abrasivejet to cut the majority of the job, then
finish on a gear making machine. This saves time and tool wear.
(The software for making these gears is shown a few pictures down on
this page.)
I cut these tiny
parts using a "mini-jet" nozzle. To prevent the
parts from falling into the tank, I cut them over "waterjet brick" (See
below)
Above: "Waterjet
Brick" is an optional way to support the parts.
Its advantage is that it is very dense, so it offers a lot of
support for small parts. It is also soft, which prevents the jet
from "splashing back" and creating "frosting" on the bottom of the
part. The disadvantage is that it does not last long, costs a bit
of money, and fills your tank with gunk as the plastic turns into
plastic powder. I highly recommend that you at least try it.
On the machine in the above picture, you might notice that
waterjet-brick is on one half of the table, while traditional slats are
on the other side. This is a great way to get the best of both
worlds. Waterjet brick comes in various colors. I
personally prefer black, because it makes the tank water not quite as
ugly as the white stuff does.
Above: A trip to
your local computer store can get you a cheap remote
pendant for PC based machines that have keyboard equivalents for
jogging the machine. This one cost me $60.00. For a little
more money, and a little effort searching, you can get one that is
water-proof. Note that you may also want to buy some keyboard
extension cables. If your computer supports USB then you can use
a USB based keypad as well.
Above: Quartz
glass dragon demonstrating the extreme level of detail
that can be done for glass work. Stuff like this is a lot of fun.
Unfortunately this part only lasted a few days before someone broke the
poor
dragons toes off.
Above: Yet
another amazing piece of glass. This spring was cut
from 1/4" (6mm) plate glass. In school you were probably once
told that glass is flexible. Well, it sure is!
Above: Ebco
Closed loop filtration system. Water quality effects
the life of many high pressure components. It is recommended that
you test your water quality, and buy something like the above if
necessary. These kind of systems can also be used to recycle the
waste water from your tank in areas where water or sewer costs are
unusually high, or if you are cutting a lot of toxic substances such as
lead. Check with the manufacturer of your equipment for advice in
this regard.
Another tiny
waterjet part made with a mini-nozzle.
An OMAX 2652
JetMachining® center. Just about all the machining I
do is done on a machine like the above.
Here you see a
lot of weights on top of the brass sheet. I tend
to favor "over fixturing" to prevent any motion of the part during
cutting. Always fixture in the X, Y, and Z directions with enough
force that the part cannot wiggle. I always test this by trying
to move the part by hand - if it can jiggle at all, then it needs more
fixturing. The force from the jet itself is not very much, but
thin parts will tend to float, and any vibrations from the cutting
process may jiggle the part. Generally speaking, though, it is
very easy to fixture stuff on an abrasivejet.
Above: Another
way to fixture thin materials. Note that all of the
fixturing that you see in this picture were cut using the waterjet
itself.
Above, another
picture of fixturing. Notice the white box next to
the nozzle. That is a microscope video camera used to locate
features on existing parts, inspection, and reverse engineering.
Kind of
a nifty tool. (There will be a picture of the software side of
this
further down this page.)
Above: For thin
parts, especially small thin parts, it can be useful to
leave small "tabs" of material to hold them in place after cutting.
Then, pull the entire sheet out of the machine, and break the
tabs to free the parts.
Above: OMAX
Layout for Windows. This is software that I am proud to
have worked on. It is used for creating tool paths to be machined
with abrasivejets and waterjets. The basic process of creating a
tool path involves drawing the part (or importing from another CAD via
DXF or other file type), then drawing leads and traverse lines (or
letting
the computer do so for you automatically, then saving as a tool path
file
to run on the machine.
The picture
above happens to be showing the "Gear" command which is
useful for creating gears or racks to specification. This
particular command is a lot of fun. You may notice a lot of other
gear pictures on this page which were programmed with this tool
Above: OMAX
Layout for windows showing the "Image tracing" command and
a pop-up window for automatic tool path creation. Layout contains
both Manual and automatic image tracing features. The manual
features are most useful for reverse engineering scanned
parts, or doing other operations where the highest precision, or a
human "eye" is required, while the automatic mode makes converting
detailed artworks relatively easy. Image of the Vashon Island / Tacoma
/ Seattle area of
Washington State (USA) courtesy of Nasa.
Above: OMAX Make
for Windows. In this case, Windows 2000.
Again this is software that I had a major hand in writing.
In the above picture you can see a video image of a part on the
machine that is being referenced optically for secondary machining.
There are many ways to precisely locate on existing parts for
secondary machining operations. Optically is just one way that is
particularly sexy.
Above: Another
picture of OMAX Make for Windows showing a preview
of the cutting speeds that the tool path will use to maintain optimal
tolerance and adjust for various jet behaviors. In the above
picture
the software is being run off-line on a PC in my office, which is a
useful
way to pre-compute part times for job quoting, etc.
If you have
pictures you would like to share, send
them by with a short description of what it is, what it is made of,
and any special or interesting notes on how it was made.
Copyright © 1994-2006
Olsen Software, LLC