Water Jet experiences

[35WINDOW]

Hi Guys!

The heading under this topic is "experiences with shops that offer Lazer of Water Jet services". Boy, I sure do hope this is within the context of this Forum . I manage a John Deere Construction and Agricultural Dealership, and we do a lot of fabrication and repair of customer's Equipment, Tools and Attachments. We have a local Water Jet Company right down the street and use them quite often-the quality of the cuts are nothing short of amazing, almost machine like. They have cut steel as thick as 3" for us, and it saves us and our customer's a lot of time. But bring your wallet, as the cost for having items water jetted is quite expensive!

Craig

[hardtailjohn]

I've used them for cutting instrument panels for aircraft and never cease to be amazed... but the cost is right up there for sure!
John H.

I just left a job working in a waterjet shop so if you have any questions drop me a line and I will help you out as best I can. As far as the price goes it sure isn't the cheapest option in many cases but, sometimes it is the only option. I feal that the greatest aspect of a weterjet is the versatility that it offers. To name a few things I have cut: .01" stainless ribbon, .5" titanium, and .75" kevlar. Show me a machine that can cut all of these materials.Ask your local plasma guy to cut some plastic or glass for you and see how he reacts. :shock: For most applications the quality of the parts is good enough to avoid any secondary operations, which can be a cost savings. Just glad to see some action in this forum.

--Brian

[Gonejunking]

In one of the back shops, we have a water jet that can cut up to 7" in steel. we use it for prototyping, and tooling.
I was in collage when the guys at Flow research first started working on this. We had a shop tour, and the one thing that still stands out in my mind from the tour, was their Alister computer!! All 16k of memory, and a lot of orange switches on the front that you had to flip in order for the computer to calculate. I think there was 5 people total, that worked there!
unfortunately, I can't use the water jet at work. Company policy.

[Prostreet]

Hi Guys
I have not had anything cut as yet but a friend of mine works at commercial stainless in Bloomsburg and all they do all day is fab restraunt equipment. not to be taken litely its allot of work and there equipment line up is mouth watering 12 or 14 foot press brakes 12 ft shears notchers and so and so on. and in the back room is a water jet that is controlled from an up stairs office . One day Dave stops in with a harley davidson emblem in stainless . About 4" square every were the jet started and stopped it had some what of a starter hole . I mentioned that to him and he pulled out another one and said the first one was a set up the second was perfect . right down to the detail in the feathers . he said it was tuff because it had so many cut outs . Whew it was neat
and he told me his boss said to call him if I wanted something cut .
the next day his boss Mike quoted me 3.00 a minute . I spoke with Dave that evening and he said the particular type chassis brackets I wanted they would cut out of a hole sheet 4x8 in less than 20 minutes pluss materials that would be around 125 dollars total .
my profit would be some were around 300 percent
Steve

One of the best features of a water jet is when you need to ream or drill a hole. With a lazer it eats your cutters up. The waterjet leaves no hard edges. You also don't have to sand the edges to remove slag on steel before welding. Save tons of time in cleanup. I 'm lucky to have a friend that has 2 machines. We build all the race car brackets with them. It allows you to make shapes you couldn't do in a punch or machining center.

[Jason93]

What does a water jet machine usually cost? I'm sure they range in price but where would the entry level ones start at and what range would they end up in? Thanks.

[Doug98105]

Jason,

I'd say around $50K+ for an entry level machine, the sky's the limit at the top end. Plus they're expensive to run.

I know of one individual who has a water jet in his basement. Couple years ago we went to a job site to finalize details of some stainless architectural details of a house under construction. In talking to the onsite foreman I mentioned we'd need to have some of the parts water jet cut. His reply was they'd do them on site. Since the guy didn't seem to know much about other aspects of the machining that needed to be done I figured he didn't know what a water jet machine was. He takes us down into the basement and there's a huge Flow water jet machine the house owner had installed. Oh well, if you're spending $30 million on your house what's a hundred thousand for a water jet?

Doug

for alot of cool pictures and capabilities of water jet go to www.waterjets.org

[Tony Sanchez]

---Tim, Do either you or your friend take in outside work? I am looking for some one to cut some parts for an e-wheel.
---Tony.