For water jet cutting I did the beginner level assignment as I had no previous experience with the cutter and wanted to walk through the steps to gain a good understanding. The assignment was simple, it just consisted of me prepping my file for cutting, and changing the settings of the machine to fit the aluminum I was cutting, and making sure the machine was zeroed at the correct spot. I was successful in cutting my pieces on the first try as I made sure that I was cutting a simple image that would not be prone to mistakes, and also by performing dry runs to make sure that the cut would go where I intended. Once the cut was finished I washed it off as it was very sandy, and then proceeded to file it down excessively as the edges of the cut were very rough. After the aluminum was filed to an acceptable level, I finished my post processing by applying a blue spray paint finish which I liked due to it’s strong color and as it covered up the scratches on the surface of the aluminum. Overall, I was successful in creating 2 finished water jet cut pieces and am now comfortable using the machine.

Cost:

Negligible sand and water cost; 2 2.5×2.5 inch or 12.5 sq. inch aluminum parallelograms:

~$22.64 for 1296 sq. inches, 22.64*12.5/1296 = $0.22 of aluminum

~1.25 hours total, 45 minutes prepping + cutting, 30 minutes post-processing