Waterjet and
Abrasivejet pictures (Page 6):
Here is a
project I helped a friend out with. The project is to
ultimately make a waffle iron for making custom ice cream cones with
native american designs on them. These waffle cones are sold to
tourists along the inland
waters of Alaska (Juneau Alaska, to be precise.)
Above: The
waffle irons started out as black and white artworks, which
were then chemically etched onto a sheet of magnesium. Our task
for the
abrasivejet was to cut along the edges of the etching to free the
individual
etching from the master plate. We also were to make some
additional
pieces of the waffle iron itself.
Because the
etching cost over $600.00 to make, and they were a one-off
item, we wanted to make sure the parts came out perfect the first time,
and there was no room for error. Therefore, we took some special
precautions and
setup, which I will show below.
Above: We
started off the project by first making sure the machine was
all set up and properly configured. Since the machine we were
using was one that is shared "publicly" across the company, we had no
idea what state the previous user left it in. Therefore, to be
safe, we started by first
double checking to make sure the nozzle was in good condition, the
abrasive
was flowing correctly, the software settings were right, etc.
Pictured above is the nozzle fired into air, while I checked the
stream quality, pump pressure, and abrasive flow rate to insure all was
working to specification, which it was.
Above: We then
connected a video microscope to the nozzle (The white
box to the right of the nozzle). This we would use later on in
the project to precisely locate around the artworks, and to verify our
tool path before cutting into the expensive material. Since we
had to line the nozzle up precisely to the existing artwork, this tool
came in very handy. More on this later...
We then cut a
few miscellaneous parts like the above. These would
be used for lids to the waffle iron, and misc. other purposes.
Above: Next, we
were ready to cut the expensive part. This
picture really does not do it justice - it was a real work of art.
The freshly etched magnesium sparkled like platinum. It was
really gorgeous.
Above: Here it
is, loaded into the machine.
Above: The
engraver placed a pair of scribed lines along the edge of
the plate to reference the artwork file against the etching on the
plate, so that
we could precisely locate our cutting against the part, even if the
plate
was not square to the table. It's kind of hard to see in the
above
picture, but we lined up the microscopic video camera over the scribed
lines,
took some measurements, and the software rotated the part path to fit
the
plate. As it turned out, the tool path needed to be rotated by 0.0297
degrees
in order to be near perfectly square with the scribe lines on the plate.
Above: In the
lower left corner of the screen, you can see the
microscope image lined up over the scribe lines. The yellow
circle in the center of the image represents the width of the jet.
Above: As a
final check, we did a "dry run" with the nozzle guard
removed, to insure that it was really following the path we expected.
(Dry Run means "run the tool path without the jet on"). All
looked good, so we
proceeded to start machining:
Above: Cutting
in progress.
Above: Some of
the final parts. They came out great!
Above: Tony, the
person who designed this custom waffle iron thingy,
with a
part of the assembly.
All the parts
will now be assembled into a final assembly that will
used to cast the final waffle iron from bronze (I think bronze), and
then be teflon coated. If you happen to be in Juneau Alaska, keep an
eye out for the waffle cones.
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.
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