Waterjet cutting for knife blanks

greatlakeswaterjet said:
Dan, very nice talking to you this evening and it was great to see some of my work in a finished product. You do some great work and I look forward to our future business. So just so everyone knows that the first design is Dan Gray's. So please don't ask for one of his.;) The very short time I've been on this forum, I sure have met some great people. Thanks everyone.:D
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Hi Dave thanks for the call.
as you could tell at the first of our conversation I had already fingered that Emachineshop farmed that job out to you. I'm glad to hear you didn't do the first one.:D
yes it was a good talk and you will get more work from me..

the next time you are up in this neck of the woods we'll have to get together and I'll show you where the real Maine lobstah is ;), you Know, down
around the Bath aria they water theirs down :confused::eek::D

KnifeWerks, Well Dan, how did he do?
Decent finish?
Sides pretty prependicular or really tapered?
Round holes?
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yes a good job, but keeping in mind there is a +&- to it. so I have any holes cut under size and size them myself.
tapered?
they looked good and again I'll finish up the profile to my liking anyway.
 
I was just wondering how tapered the sides were because I just had some parts done locally, and I have .017" per side taper from the draft of the waterjet.
I too undersize the holes, but just for an example the holes are .035" bigger on one end than the other, and this is in .125" material!
This is my first time using water on a knife part, and I am less than pleased with my vendor.
I've had a lot of parts cut on the job, and had much better results...
 
KnifeWerks said:
I was just wondering how tapered the sides were because I just had some parts done locally, and I have .017" per side taper from the draft of the waterjet.
I too undersize the holes, but just for an example the holes are .035" bigger on one end than the other, and this is in .125" material!
This is my first time using water on a knife part, and I am less than pleased with my vendor.
I've had a lot of parts cut on the job, and had much better results...
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I've had spotty results from my local vendor too. He managed to scrap a bunch of expensive material and ended up more than 1/3 above the quote. (A few thousand $ difference!)
There are tilt-a-jet heads that presumably eliminate taper/kerf. I don't have experience with that.
I have seen them cut big chunks (3-5 inches thick or so) into complicated profiles with really straight edges--all done with conventional (non-tilting) machines, so I don't know why my 5/32 thick 17-4 comes beveled--even at high-finish. :mad::confused:

Waterjet is still an intermediate-accuracy process. If you sweat the details you may find yourself cutting things oversized on the WJ and machining to final. :thumbup: That's what we do, but it's two processes ($) to get the parts right on. :thumbdn:
 
David,

I have a CAD file I'd like to send you. Can you work me up a quote?
(I'll include more details in the email)

I can have the steel sent to you from Admiral, then have you ship it to me.



What's your typical turn-around time?



Thanks!

:thumbup:


Dan
 
I have the same questions as Dan

What kind of turn around ya got and what kind of in stock steel ya have?? PM me if ya want to bro

D
 
Man, freaking AWESOME! I have a 1/8" piece of O1 that I've been meaning to make into a pocket fixed-blade for a loooong time... but I don't have the tools to profile it, and will just be doing the bevels with files.

$10 is WELL worth it to get a custom blank or two cut out of this block of O1 that's been sitting in my room for over a year. I'll get in contact with you when I have the designs worked up.
 
Ok, first things first. The taper can be controlled if the operator knows how to adjust for it. You have to set it up correctly. Yes you can do a "tilt-a-jet" but its a $40k attatchment. Set it up and slow it down and you should not have hardly any taper on anything up to 1" material. Dan, did you notice any taper? I don't keep a lot of materials in stock, but can usually have what I need in a couple of days. I cut jobs as soon as I have the material! I don't like stuff sitting around. That doesn't make me any money and make for unhappy customers. If you are still not convinced or just want to see what a part would look like, I would be happy to cut just one part for a sample. You can definetly have Admiral ship me material. I was told by them that if you use the on-line store and pay by card, you will save a bit of money. You can e-mail me any CAD file and I will send you a quote with a sample pic to make shure it is correct. KnifeWorks, if I scrap your material, I bought it! You will get quality parts. I'm am operator, quality control, designer and anything else you can think of. I'm not trying to say I know everything, but I can run this machine and I'm good at it! Give me a shot. I think you will be suprised.:cool:
 
David,
would you ship to Montreal, Canada? If I were to buy steel from Admiral, have them send it to you and you ship the job to me after?

Mike
 
miden said:
David,
would you ship to Montreal, Canada? If I were to buy steel from Admiral, have them send it to you and you ship the job to me after?

Mike
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Mike, I ship a lot of parts to Canada. No problem.
 
Thanks David, I have a couple of projects in mind I could definitely use your help with. I just need to finalize the designs first.
 
Heres some samples I cut this morning. They are from .065 420 stainless and .250 1095 steel. Hope you like!:D
e796ca6f.jpg

I have to buy a belt sander!
 
That just frikkin' rocks. those designs are NICE, i like that 3rd one down you came up with, the 4th down is awesome too!!!!
 
Thanks Sam. I'm no knifemaker, but I like to design and make parts. I can see already I'll be buying more tools for this.:rolleyes:
 
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