Design

I spent some time designing the shape of the cut I wanted to produce, composed of a car and flame from thenounproject.com combined with the supplied diamond in which to cut.

 

 

 

Once the design was finished, I took it to the waterjet. Due to the amount of fine details, the cut took about twelve minutes to cut. The detail was absolutely mind-blowing, and there was very little material to be cleaned up.

 

 

I sanded what little remnants of the cut remained using 220 grit sandpaper, then sandblasted the entire piece.

 

 

 

 

I cut out some shapes from the vinyl cutter to use as sticker covers and used spray paint to paint the flames before hand painting the outside frame. There were a few instances where the sticker did not adequately cover the metal underneath, but these errors were minor.

 

 

To finish, I took the metal piece to the laser cutter where I used the fiber laser to etch the steps I took to complete the design and then applied a clear coat. After allowing the piece to dry, it was complete.

 

 

 

 

Comments

I was really pleased with the performance of the water jet because I was warned by multiple people that I was pushing its capabilities a little bit with the details of my design. I do wish that I had been more patient with the paint application. I think a more careful application of the vinyl would have led to a cleaner appearance. Due to the midterm project (along with a number of high commitment action item that took place during the time I spent working on this project), I was a little rushed in the process.

Cost

• Aluminum Sheet (small portion of one sheet): $4
• Spray Paint/Vinyl: Negligible
• Machine Time: Shared resource
• Labor ($15/hr for 3 hr): $45
• Total: $49 ($24.50 each)