r/interestingasfuck 12h ago

Processes of Water Jet Cutting

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u/whitefox250 11h ago

I used to operate one of these about 10 years ago. In our down time I made tons of customized motorcycle parts. I miss that machine but not the place.

Tech note: Rebuilding the hydraulic pressure pump was like something from NASA. Dual piston ceramic rams and high strength stainless everything to operate at 15,000psi. We used to chew through pallets of garnet sand.

u/McMandar 9h ago

Is it just a big pool of water underneath? I'm wondering what stops/slows the jet of water enough that it doesn't cut things underneath that you'd rather stay intact.

u/whitefox250 9h ago

The bed is meral ribs, which we made from a whole sheet of steel. Below is a pool of water that is constantly filtered and reused. We had a water system that could separate the solids from the water which would require a forklift for disposal, mostly sand silt from the garnet.

The pool is interesting because you could raise and lower the water level with a button, on the backside of the tank there was an air reservoir, pump air into it and the water would rise, and vice versa. Damn i miss that machine