For my diamond, I chose to do a California flag-inspired diamond with a bear cut out of the middle and two colors.

First, I made my file with a California bear from the noun project.

I think transported my file to the waterjet cutter and cut my pieces. The software had an issue with finding my file and ran very slowly, so it took about an hour to cut both of my pieces. This is what the pieces looked like fresh out of the water jet cutter. The metal was a little scratched, but overall the cut was pretty clean.

I then sandblasted the diamonds to try to remove the scratches.

Then I spray painted. When I did this, the spray paint was VERY bubbly and uneven, despite shaking the can for awhile and trying to hold it at a good distance.

I tried to do a second coat to try to fill in some of the gaps, but this did not work super well. Looking back, I probably would’ve sanded the surface a bit before attempting a second coat.

Deciding spray painting was not for me, I sandblasted the paint off.

Then I decided to wire brush….

Sand with 220 grit… (I didn’t really notice much of a difference with this step)

And then finally powder coat! I originally wanted wanted to have the diamond be white, but I think black actually looks better. I left the strip at the bottom by taping (with masking tape) the bottom portion of the diamond. After powder coating, I very carefully peeled off the tape trying not to disturb the powder. One issue I had was fully powder coating below where the wire it, as it blocked some of the powder and left the color a bit uneven. For the future, I might just have to be more careful around the wire to make sure it is fully coated before heating it.

Cost:

Labor: 5 hrs ($10/hr)

Metal: $12.50 (.06″x1’x2′ steel from Metals Depot)

Waterjet cutter: $20 for 1 hour

Sandblaster: $40 for 1 hour

White spray paint: $3.98

Powder coat: $65

Wire brush: $2.49

Sandpaper: $1.24 ($4.97 for a 4 pack/4=$1.24)

Total cost: $195.21