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16. Wildcard week (Water jet metal plate cutting)

This wildcard week, I chose water jet cutting of metal sheet material which also is used in my final project. Ari Vuokila is an instructor who taught and guide how to use the tool and preparation in Fablab Oulu.

1. Design

For the preparation of water jet cutting, I draw a sketch of the base board which is used for my final project tele 5G tripod. The base board has to carry the 1m class size of tripod object which includes mobile phone or camera. So the base plate material has to be rigid and plan to use 3mm thickness aluminum. And make the holes to support NEMA17 stepper motors, cabling and support other PCBs and mechanical tripod function.

Tripod mechanics overall.

first sketch

first sketch

2. Water jet cutting

1. Test by MDF

The time of wildcard week lecture, the machine couldn’t be used but meanwhile, I had checked by MDF laser cutting created a sample board. Good results of the side of board and clearance of NEMA17 stepper motor.
However, the board by MDF is not rigid enough to support all components of total 1m size big object with mobility. And good for review by MDF laser cutting.


2. Water jet cutter

Next week of the lecture, finally I got a chance to use water jet cutter by assistance from technician in Machine shop at the University of Oulu.

I used Aliko abrasive water jet cutter, which is powerful tool that can cut metals even 10cm thickness board.

Very thick metal material can be cut…

Sand, not only water, water and sand together creates jet stream for cutting.

Data preparation

For Water jet cutter, it requires DXF 2010 format file. My original data is made by Fusion 360 and exported as DXF file, then converted to DXF2010 by Autodesk Inventor.

Toolpath creation

The toolpath is made by IGEMS R2017 before going to machine room.

Material thinkness is set to aluminum 3mm.

Cutting quality is set to medium.

Cutting line is set inside or outside.

Set the cutting order.

And set the fiducial point.

The data is transported to the machine.

Cut!

Results

The cutting was done very nicely. I couldn’t make this by hand cutting of course :).

Wheels are mounted well.

And other electronics, mechanics are mounted well on the screws holes on the board. Very nice!

(Note:) The bars supporting mechanics as three columns towards tripod elevation, has been changed from 4mm to 5mm rod, to make the machine more rigid. The holes for these 5mm rods were made bigger by drilling.

Reflections

Due to water jet cutting machine was not available in the week, I tried to make the board by composite way. I cut the fibers (natural fibers for environmental friendly) by laser cutter but the result with small details were not satisfactory… Composite is good for make the bigger shapes not for small details. Also small details laser cutting has a risk of catching a fire in the machine. I gave up to make a composite board by this way but good experience.


Water jet cut itself was quit nice result and this made my machine more rigid, especially this kind of rigid mechanics is required for these mobility machines. The cutting itself was very fast, around 15 minutes to cut, however there are many preparations for data conversion and time reservation for the machine. Need the planning!

Used Files


Last update: June 20, 2021