Clean Cutting og Shape From 1/2" Plate?

water jet, and yes. you could also retrue them after flame cutting.

water jet is about $1/inch. there may be a setup fee.

I send work to a waterjet place. I cannot say enough good about it. I am having fairly intricate parts cut from plate that USED to be machined, brazed, machined. Now all I do is clean up the slight draft on one surface where I have to, throw them in the vibratory tumble for a day, and they are all done. The parts are 304 SS cutting from 1/2" thick plate. Most places I have seen, you e-mail them a DXF or DWG file, and then they load the machine and the drawing and go off and do something else. A Mach 1 jet of water loaded with garnet abrasive does not seem to care much what the anneal condition of the metal is, and the nice thing is that unlike torch or plasma, no annealing happens at the cut. It punches its own starting holes, too.

Water jet cutting is the way to go for you. One thing that concerns me is the fact that you do not know the composition of your steel. If this is a critical part (Like a brake disk) rather than a sign base or something, you might wish to consider the material selection carefully before you make it.

Cutting Edge ____________________________

Work: 909-948-1496

Rancho Cucamonga California.

Waterjet and other types of materials cutting.

tell em Gunner, the OmniTurn tech refered you.

It's better to be a red person in a blue state than a blue person in a red state. As a red person, if your blue neighbors turn into a mob at least you have a gun to protect yourself. As a blue person, your only hope is to appease the red mob with herbal tea and marinated tofu.

(Phil Garding)

Thanks! I will look into local cost of water-cutting. Working from an autocad-output file is perfect. If I draw the small desired through holes at "finished" size, for example 3/8" id, how close could I reasonably expect them to be? If I need good enough accuracy for threading, do I need to ask for them undersize just to get computer-accurate locatioin, then ream or drill? Will the water-cut holes be noticeably tapered?

Mart> >

the measurements will be spot on if the guy running the machine is good.

it won't cut tapered holes, see item 1. the precision has to do with the pressure and linear speed of the jet. if it moves too fast, the cutting hole wanders and it doesn't cut all the way through, messing up the end (bottom of the hole) where it runs out of steam.

you should ask these questions of the person you contract with to see what their requirements are.

To learn the basics of waterjet / abrasivejet cutting and machining, visit:

- Carl. Waterjet Web Reference

Mart> Thanks! I will look into local cost of water-cutting. Working from an

VERY informative site. Many thanks.

Mart> To learn the basics of waterjet / abrasivejet cutting and machining, > visit:

through

water-cut

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