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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: canuck750 on November 16, 2015, 09:49:59 PM

Title: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: canuck750 on November 16, 2015, 09:49:59 PM
I have had some parts made up from a shop who offers water jet cutting, making up repro signal light brackets for the V7 Sport,

2 day turn around service and smooth perfect cut pieces (3mm thick steel plate).

(http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg217/canuck750/CRASH/IMG_0434_zpswpflra0n.jpg) (http://s249.photobucket.com/user/canuck750/media/CRASH/IMG_0434_zpswpflra0n.jpg.html)

Rear brackets before and after bending to shape

(http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg217/canuck750/Moto%20Guzzi%20750%20S3/IMG_0441_zpsjujtc6gg.jpg) (http://s249.photobucket.com/user/canuck750/media/Moto%20Guzzi%20750%20S3/IMG_0441_zpsjujtc6gg.jpg.html)

Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Demar on November 16, 2015, 10:12:10 PM
Nice work Canuck.... looks good.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Sasquatch Jim on November 16, 2015, 10:24:30 PM
 So they cut steel just by hosing it with water,
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: canuck750 on November 16, 2015, 10:54:26 PM
So they cut steel just by hosing it with water,

water and grit in a very concentrated jet at very high pressure computer controlled, very quick and each one is exactly the same, the holes are water jet cut as well and there are no sharp edges.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Triple Jim on November 16, 2015, 11:25:45 PM
Nice parts.  I get a lot of parts laser cut.  I tried a local water jet company once, but it didn't work out.  Not because of the quality, but because of the poorly run company.  Laser cutting can be really good too, of course, but with any CNC work, a lot depends on the condition of the equipment and the skill of the operator.  Here's a photo of some of the parts I've had cut.  The holes were finish machined in this case, of course.  The material is 3/16" stainless steel, and the parts are under $3 each, material and labor, without the machining and finishing.  Accuracy is well within plus or minus 0.010"

(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c327/triplejim/Lakeland/Kaw%20Parts/exAdapter_zpsocojacoi.jpg)
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: tris on November 17, 2015, 01:30:58 AM
..... and if you want mega accurate profiles  - look at wire cut EDM

We're looking at it for cutting the fir tree root in gas turbine rotor discs for fitting the compressor blades 

Cheaper and much more available these days than good old broaching


The interesting thing these days that with parts similar to those in your 1st picture Canuck is that with modern CNC machining centres in some instances its as cheap (or cheaper) to sling a big ole block in the machine and just chommer it out of the solid
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Orange Guzzi on November 17, 2015, 10:55:33 AM
The irony of water jet cutting is, Flow Robotic, used the machine shop/fab shop I was plant manager of to make there parts for their machines.  They are an assembly plant and do not make their own parts.  We used convention machinery to make parts.  We sent part to be plasma cut and oxy/act. cut along with mills and band saws.  I spend many days in there Jeffersonville, IN plant. 

The process is very flexible.  You can cut toilet paper with it.  Various media's are added to the water to make it more abrasive.  Garnet is use primarily.

Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: oldbike54 on November 17, 2015, 11:05:22 AM
 Ain't new tech great  :thumb:

  Dusty
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Chuck in Indiana on November 17, 2015, 11:22:49 AM
Ain't new tech great  :thumb:

  Dusty

It's actually old tech, Dusty. Been around since the 90s I think..
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: oldbike54 on November 17, 2015, 11:29:18 AM
It's actually old tech, Dusty. Been around since the 90s I think..

 Yeah , but newer than bakelite phones  :evil:

  Dusty
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Demar on November 17, 2015, 11:30:16 AM
Ain't new tech great  :thumb:

  Dusty

Right out of college I started working for Schlage Lock Co. in San Francisco in 1983. I programmed the Charmilles-Andrews wedm machines to cut the stamping die inserts. It was a FANUC programming station that produced a punched paper roll full of holes. I would then take it down to the guys on the floor and they would load it into the edm machines. I had a few hobby parts cut back then. :thumb:

But yes, laser and water jet cutting are great tech.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Chuck in Indiana on November 17, 2015, 11:37:03 AM
My first programming classes were in Gotran and Fortran on a Univac.  :shocked: :smiley: 16K, IIRC. Filled up a fair sized room.


(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ89w_Fnx9BfAwt2aYh5gg2Ghj_mdEOnvDsYCr5uA1D3IidcxXl)
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Zoom Zoom on November 17, 2015, 11:44:21 AM
Yeah , but newer than bakelite phones  :evil:

  Dusty

Dusty, THAT was funny!

John Henry
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Triple Jim on November 17, 2015, 11:52:02 AM
My first programming classes were in Gotran and Fortran on a Univac.  :shocked: :smiley: 16K, IIRC. Filled up a fair sized room.

Fortran, punched on cards, run either on a Univac 1106 or 1108 for me.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: canuck750 on November 17, 2015, 12:00:16 PM
The last batch of rear brackets I made was using a hack saw, a drill and a file, it was very slow work and not very accurate!
By off chance I asked a steel shop I was in if they knew if water jet cutting was available locally and if it was fairly cheap, the guy behind the counter said, sure we do it here and there is no real minimum order but count on at least $150.00 a job with set up, turns out an order of $200 covers the set up and works out to the most economical small batch run; 75 items at $2.66 CDN or $2.00 USD.

Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Chuck in Indiana on November 17, 2015, 12:09:57 PM
Didn't know which Univac it was at the time, I was just a kid. Apparently it was a Univac II  :smiley:
 (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Univac-I-Navy-Electronics-Supply-Office-BRL61-0992.jpg/220px-Univac-I-Navy-Electronics-Supply-Office-BRL61-0992.jpg)

Tubes   5,200
Tube types   20
Crystal diodes   18,000
Magnetic cores   184,000
Transistors   1,200
Separate cabinets   4
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Triple Jim on November 17, 2015, 12:43:41 PM
...there is no real minimum order but count on at least $150.00 a job with set up, turns out an order of $200 covers the set up and works out to the most economical small batch run; 75 items at $2.66 CDN or $2.00 USD.

It sounds like the laser shop I use is a little more suited to small orders.  They'll do $50 jobs without complaining.  Of course they might complain if all my jobs were $50 jobs.   :laugh:
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: V7Record on November 17, 2015, 07:34:43 PM
Univac/Unisys 1100 & 2200 for me.  Worked for them 25+ years but eventually volunteered for a layoff.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: jabberwocky on November 17, 2015, 08:04:12 PM
Looks very nice! So you're making a batch of them? Are you going to sell them yourself, or are you supplying them to a retailer?
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: canuck750 on November 17, 2015, 09:23:29 PM
Looks very nice! So you're making a batch of them? Are you going to sell them yourself, or are you supplying them to a retailer?
I will be keeping two pair of front and back for myself, two other pair are spoken for. The rest are up for sale. Pm me if you are interested. I am going to ask $90 a pair for the front brackets and $35 a pair for the rear. The big cost is the chrome plating.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: keuka4884 on November 17, 2015, 10:15:07 PM
I was on a sub tender that serviced ballistic missile subs in the early 70's. I was in the weapons department so I had access (past a marine guard) to the area where the missiles were offloaded. There was a computer in the bottom level in a room about 12X12. They kept it really cold with high volume fans. In the center was a total analog computer. At least that's what I call it. All the switching going on was mechanical. A constant high noise din. They fed it boxes and boxes of IBM punch cards to reprogram a missile's warheads to new targets. At that time I was told that a warhead could hit a target 3000 miles away within 25 feet. I thought that was pretty impressive considering the technology they had at the time.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: tris on November 18, 2015, 01:20:49 AM
My first programming classes were in Gotran and Fortran on a Univac.  :shocked: :smiley: 16K, IIRC. Filled up a fair sized room.


(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ89w_Fnx9BfAwt2aYh5gg2Ghj_mdEOnvDsYCr5uA1D3IidcxXl)

Fortran - now there's a blast from the past

We did that at college and we had to send out punch card programmes up to the main site to run. You get the result back 2 days later and find that it had crashed on card 197 out of 204 and have to start again  :angry:
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Triple Jim on November 18, 2015, 07:57:11 AM
...and find that it had crashed on card 197 out of 204 and have to start again  :angry:

Only if you put a print statement on cards 196 and 198.        :grin:       Usually you really had little idea why you didn't get the results you wanted and had to start putting in test cards to narrow down the problem.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: charlie b on November 18, 2015, 08:01:23 AM
It sounds like the laser shop I use is a little more suited to small orders.  They'll do $50 jobs without complaining.  Of course they might complain if all my jobs were $50 jobs.   :laugh:

Many CNC/laser/etc shops will do small jobs, especially if you set up the files exactly like they want them and you use a material that they routinely stock.  Some may charge you for a full sheet/block of the material so talk to them first and see what is easiest for them.

It does depend on what their main use is.  A purely production shop probably won't touch small jobs, but, these days you can usually get a small job put in line.

We do a lot of custom work on our little laser (cuts wood, not metal). 
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: charlie b on November 18, 2015, 08:02:14 AM
Only if you put a print statement on cards 196 and 198.        :grin:       Usually you really had little idea why you didn't get the results you wanted and had to start putting in test cards to narrow down the problem.

Yep, debug routines in your program.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Orange Guzzi on November 18, 2015, 10:50:03 AM
Application and secondary process is a determining factor when cutting a shape with water, plasma, laser or oxy/act.  The finished sides and the hardening of the cut edge will affect how two pieces will weld together or the tapping of a hole.  Since the water doe not use heat, the applications move outside of metal into the areas of material that will burn at a relative low temperature.  I helped build a machine that cut carbon fiber cloth used on the Stealth Fighter plane and cardboard tubes for toilet paper. 

A side story, when we were building the frames for the cutting head to move on the x,y,z axis, the weldment's would stress and twist. 
I sent the frames to a company that would stress relieve them by placing them in a large oven.  The frames would go out of our shop with on leg 1 inch off the floor and come back with another leg off the floor and the original on the floor.  Then when we would put the frame in the very large machining center, the cutting tools would relieve more stress causing more twisting.  This was huge problem.  I made some phone calls and a guy showed up with a his "special tool".  I was reluctant to believe his stress relieving tool would work. 
Off to the shop floor we went.  The tool consisted of an angle plate made of 1" plate with 12" square sides.  On one of the sides a D.C. drive variable speed motor was mounted.  In the black box of tricks was several steel disc with a mounting hold located at different distances off center.  The motor was connected to a control panel that would control the r.p.m.'s.  He mounted a random plate to the motor and two knock sensors several feet apart on the frame.  The control panel had a tachometer and two needle gauges connected to the knock sensors. He C-clamped the angle plate to the frame and started the motor.  The frame started vibrating at the frequency/rpm he set it at.  The two knock sensors had different readings on them.  He let the motor run until the two knock sensor had the same reading.  This would take several hours and lots of noise.  When the same reading was reached, he moved the angle plate to a new location and started the procedure over again.  After several cycle, the same reading was achieved no matter where the angel plate was mounted or the knock sensors were mounted.  The frames would twist  and change shape thru out the stress relieving process.  Doing the same thing as the heat process, causing one foot to raise and another to lower.  We still had problems with the machining process, but it was never as bad as the welding.

The vibration from the angle plate was very aggressive.  We had to place large dense rubber pads under the frames (weighting over 6,000 lbs) to keep them from destroying the concrete and walking across the shop floor.  The salesman said not to stand on or sit on the frames because it would cause bodily harm.

This tool had another use that was a real time save.  One of the components of water jet cutting is a water tank.  We fabricated the tanks out of 1/4 h.r.s   When the welders would get to a corner of the tank where the bottom and two sides come together, they would get air bubbles from the hall affect/magnetic field/polarity in the three sides.  This was a big problems because of the dye penetrant testing process was very messy and the air bubbles would move around the corner.  Lot of grinding and re welding.  This may sound like hocus-pocus, but he claimed that the vibration of the tank caused the magnetic field to neutralize allowing for the Mig welding process to work properly.  Which it did.  I was the hero for finding this process and reducing our labor.

This process always made me wonder how much stress is in a motorcycle frame.  It has to be wound up like a rubber band.  Which leads to the next question, if a motorcycle engine vibrates the frame, are these stresses relieved over time causing the bike to be twisted and the wheels out of align? 

I hope I explained this all right to you.  My Southern Indiana Dialect is hard for some to understand.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: bigtex on November 18, 2015, 11:21:51 AM
It's actually old tech, Dusty. Been around since the 90s I think..

Older than that.  Used it to cut composite wing panels on the B2 bomber in 1984.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Triple Jim on November 18, 2015, 12:38:26 PM
Which leads to the next question, if a motorcycle engine vibrates the frame, are these stresses relieved over time causing the bike to be twisted and the wheels out of align? 

I would expect the stresses to be relieved only if the vibration caused the steel to reach its yield point, so probably not.  As one example, I crashed my H2 decades ago, and a few years ago I loosened the engine mounting bolts for some maintenance.  It was obvious that there were stresses from the crash that had not gone away after years of vibration.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: charlie b on November 18, 2015, 12:48:15 PM
Older than that.  Used it to cut composite wing panels on the B2 bomber in 1984.

Electron beam welding was used in the early 70's.  EDM and waterjet was in the late 60's IIRC.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: twhitaker on November 18, 2015, 12:48:28 PM
We're looking at it for cutting the fir tree root in gas turbine rotor discs for fitting the compressor blades 
Cheaper and much more available these days than good old broaching

Wire burning does have its limitations. We are preparing for shipment one 30 ton horizontal disc broach that has 3 rows of tooling 30 feet long. 5 axis CNC.  :thumb:
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: charlie b on November 18, 2015, 12:52:18 PM
Wire burning does have its limitations.

Yep, it is relatively slow.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: twhitaker on November 18, 2015, 12:53:40 PM
Quote
My Southern Indiana Dialect is hard for some to understand.

That's why I read it slow.  :azn:
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Chuck in Indiana on November 18, 2015, 01:13:09 PM
I type slow when I know Indiana guys are reading it..
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: canuguzzi on November 18, 2015, 01:55:42 PM
Yeah , but newer than bakelite phones  :evil:

  Dusty

Have you seen the prices of old Bakelite bowls and other dinnerware? Crazy, who would have known?

Good Bakelite is practically indestructible, light and can be made into almost anything.
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Orange Guzzi on November 18, 2015, 02:44:45 PM
That's why I read it slow.  :azn:

A Woman just called me from Georgia regarding work.  She sure helped me with my insecurity when it comes to speaking with my Southern Indiana Twang.  Amazing the dialects we have in this English speaking country.  Tom, I have to re read my post slow also. 
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: Chuck in Indiana on November 18, 2015, 03:45:57 PM
Quote
Amazing the dialects we have in this English speaking country. 

Yep. When we picked up the Aero engine, the owner spoke southern Alabamian. I confused Union creek Baptist church with Indian creek Baptist church, and almost never found the place. We used sign language when I finally met up with him.. :smiley:
Title: Re: Water Jet Cutting very cool
Post by: tris on November 20, 2015, 01:49:45 AM

A side story, when we were building the frames for the cutting head to move on the x,y,z axis, the weldment's would stress and twist. 
I sent the frames to a company that would stress relieve them by placing them in a large oven.  The frames would go out of our shop with on leg 1 inch off the floor and come back with another leg off the floor and the original on the floor.  Then when we would put the frame in the very large machining center, the cutting tools would relieve more stress causing more twisting.  This was huge problem.  I made some phone calls and a guy showed up with a his "special tool".  I was reluctant to believe his stress relieving tool would work. 
Off to the shop floor we went.  The tool consisted of an angle plate made of 1" plate with 12" square sides.  On one of the sides a D.C. drive variable speed motor was mounted.  In the black box of tricks was several steel disc with a mounting hold located at different distances off center.  The motor was connected to a control panel that would control the r.p.m.'s.  He mounted a random plate to the motor and two knock sensors several feet apart on the frame.  The control panel had a tachometer and two needle gauges connected to the knock sensors. He C-clamped the angle plate to the frame and started the motor.  The frame started vibrating at the frequency/rpm he set it at.  The two knock sensors had different readings on them.  He let the motor run until the two knock sensor had the same reading.  This would take several hours and lots of noise.  When the same reading was reached, he moved the angle plate to a new location and started the procedure over again.  After several cycle, the same reading was achieved no matter where the angel plate was mounted or the knock sensors were mounted.  The frames would twist  and change shape thru out the stress relieving process.  Doing the same thing as the heat process, causing one foot to raise and another to lower.  We still had problems with the machining process, but it was never as bad as the welding.

The vibration from the angle plate was very aggressive.  We had to place large dense rubber pads under the frames (weighting over 6,000 lbs) to keep them from destroying the concrete and walking across the shop floor.  The salesman said not to stand on or sit on the frames because it would cause bodily harm.


Aha - the good ole "vibro stress relieving process" I was never sure if that actually worked !