For this assignment, we were tasked with water jet cutting 2 identical diamonds with a design in the middle, then we had to post-process our pieces in 3 different ways.

I decided to cut out a fish for my design since I already had the file prepared. I then imported the c vector file into ProtoMAX layout so that I could prepare the machine for the drawing by choosing the material and thickness I was using. Then I did dry runs before the actual cut to make sure that my diamonds would fit on the piece of steel. I chose to cut out 3 diamonds just in case I ended up messing one up.

Once the diamonds were cut, I first chose to file the edges with a metal filer. I spent about 10 minutes filing the inner and outer edges of the diamonds

Then I chose to use the sand blaster to take off any debris on the surface of the diamond and to smooth out the edges a little bit. I spent about 10 minutes using the sand blaster. The difficult part about using the sand blaster was that the gloves were very big so it was hard to grip the diamond pieces. I decided that I was done with a piece once I noticed the surface of that piece had completely changed color. The pieces felt very smooth after using the sand blaster.

Finally, I decided to powder coat the fish because I have never used the device before and I didn’t really know what it does. I first preheated the oven, then a lab assistant and I hung my pieces on a rack and used an air compressor to add air into the powder gun. I then shot the red powder to cover my pieces. I had to press the trigger very lightly. I ran into some problems because at some point the gun was blowing away powder instead of the powder sticking to it. We couldn’t figure out if I ran out of powder, if the gun was running out of air, or if the steel wire was affecting the powder from sticking to the piece. Then I put my pieces into the oven so that they could set for 20 minutes.

I was very happy with how smooth my pieces came out and how glossy they were. I do wish I was able to coat the pieces completely. Two of the pieces were at least 98% coated.

Cost Analysis: Sheet of steel = $2.26, Cost of labor = $30, Lab assistant help = $12, Cost to use the water jet = $2, Cost to use the metal file = $0.10, Cost to use the sand blaster = $2, Cost to use the powder coat stuff = $10

Total cost: $58.36