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- Dec 1, 2010
- Messages
- 161
What diameter hole is generally best for spotting holes for drilling. And could you just water jet cut out a hole for detent balls? Out should that be drilled out as well?
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dimensions for spotting holes with water jet?
- Thread starter clockworkfish
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- Oct 20, 2008
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I'll let folks more experienced with waterjet chime in about hole spotting. I will say though, that I'd personally want to drill the detent hole. Waterjet is not quite precise enough, you want a solid press fit for that ball.
For example, if I want my final hole to be .250" I have the hole spotted to say .220". I would drill the detent though, no water jetting on that. Just get with H2o Knife at Leading Edge Fab, he can better explain things. He is the man when it comes to water jetting.
Remember that the waterjet leaves a taper.
I had some Ti frames waterjet with the pivot hole cut to 6mm, by the time i drilled and reamed there was just enough on the taper side for a tight fit.
In future im going to just have all the holes spotted with the smallest size just for location purposes and drill them to size. You gotta run a drill through them anyway so its not like it takes much longer.
I agree with Salem, the detent location and size is too important to rely on waterjet
I had some Ti frames waterjet with the pivot hole cut to 6mm, by the time i drilled and reamed there was just enough on the taper side for a tight fit.
In future im going to just have all the holes spotted with the smallest size just for location purposes and drill them to size. You gotta run a drill through them anyway so its not like it takes much longer.
I agree with Salem, the detent location and size is too important to rely on waterjet
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2010
- Messages
- 455
Depends on what you plan on doing with the hole makes a difference on what size to waterjet.
Clearance hole or tapped and reamed??
We can do holes within +/- .003 or better but takes more time to set up, normally it's easy to just cut under by ~.020" and drill, ream etc.
Pilot hole in in the .060" range is about the smallest we do. The cutting focus tube diameter is .035" in new condition and grows with use.
Our Flow waterjet has a Dynamic cutting head so the taper is eliminated with a little set up time. Or run fixed head and accept a very slight taper that will disappear with your profiling operation, not a big deal.
It also makes a difference on who is doing the waterjetting, lots of shops out there who don't know or give a shit. Make sure you specify notes and tolerances regarding critical features. Also consider edge quality, feed speeds and price go hand in hand.
Clearance hole or tapped and reamed??
We can do holes within +/- .003 or better but takes more time to set up, normally it's easy to just cut under by ~.020" and drill, ream etc.
Pilot hole in in the .060" range is about the smallest we do. The cutting focus tube diameter is .035" in new condition and grows with use.
Our Flow waterjet has a Dynamic cutting head so the taper is eliminated with a little set up time. Or run fixed head and accept a very slight taper that will disappear with your profiling operation, not a big deal.
It also makes a difference on who is doing the waterjetting, lots of shops out there who don't know or give a shit. Make sure you specify notes and tolerances regarding critical features. Also consider edge quality, feed speeds and price go hand in hand.
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