Waterjet- good, bad or ugly?

I've seen them on American Chopper, the Orange County Chopper show. LOL

I'd love to have one if they work as they appear to. Leave a great edge so they appear.

 

Ask the people at Gemini - they do waterjet cutting and they claim it gives a smoother edge and can cut more intricate shapes. We've had some waterjet cut metal from them that looks very nice.

 

I worked in tooling at a DOD plant & they had just installed a water Jet they bought untested & was size of small house the cut was excellent it was getting there that was the problem. OCC'S was a proven unit & one of the installers worked with my wife & he told her theirs was uncrated & setup & running in no time. being a self contained unit I would expect it to be like running a cutter once programmed ,loaded & watch the fimgers
at the DOD Plant I watch ed an actual demonstration of the cutter going through .5" steel into angle foos cake & all was smooth, awesome demo

 

I've actually run a FlowJet water jet at a machining company. We cut glass, granite, ceramic tile, 3" thick stainless steel, plastic, plywood, anything really. They are a blast when they are running but the maintenance HAS to be done and on a very regular basis. Ours had an 80K psi pump on it. That much pressure and things wear out quickly. I haven't been around one for a couple years though. Good luck!!

 

Get the word out and you can cut other peoples materials all day long and help pay the payment. A metal fabricator had a flow machine next to us that was 6'x12' but he charged $150 an hour. He cut alot of plastic sheet materials in stacks for business not sign related along with his aluminum cutting. His machine was $150k and he had $150k in a 12' brake and shear from accushear. I never understood how he could afford the payments given the work he was doing.

 

Andy,

Just like anything else, you can make money at it - that is until the technology get so cheap that everyone has one in their garage. I agree with what you said about solvent printers - as many think just click on "print" and that is all there is to it - vendors are to blame for this.

We have purchased many hundereds of thousands in equipment (not signage) and what we always looked at was: "Will it be profitable?". In other words will it be used or sit and colect dust.

If you believe that you will sell it - go for it! Remember that although the machine can be used in signage it is actaully fab equipment with much further reaches, such: cutting granite, stone, metals, etc.

I have personally noticed a trend that many of us are moving away from traditional signage (except electrical contractors) to even much more specialized and lucrative stuff, while still keeping our hands in it.

 

I thought about adding one to my CNC Router, But I have so many people with water jets around here in my area I can get stuff cut for $100-$125 per hour as I supply the materials. I found it best for my situation to sub out anything thicker than 1/2" on metals and anything like rock rather than use my router table. This way I don't have to worry about the maintenance on the machine. It's a great edge quality the slower you go and more passes just like anythign else. Laser, Water, Router all have advantages over one another Id be great to have all 3

 

looks like metal would keep ya busy if ya got a production contract water vs lazer water is by far superior in ease of use. in my opinion no smell or heat
waterjets are awesome.

 

I worked in a shop which ran one for years. If its affordable and you have the work. Go for it. Its a great niche market.

 

Is that possible to hang water jet to your current router? whos is manufacturing it and at what price, any info?
Regards
Ajay

 

Gemini has a number of very large waterjets. They are great and do provide a much smoother edge than a router. My only advice would be to make sure you have enough work to keep it busy. I have a couple of customers who have them and they are always out looking for anything and everything to cut on them. They are a lot of money and the ones that I know of are sitting idle most of the time. I can also tell you that maintenance is not cheap on them. If you have a piece of metal that gets raised up a bit and a nozzle hits it, be ready to spend 3 or 4 hundred dollars to replace a simple nozzle. They are great for a high production shop but there are a lot of downsides also.