Now we are getting to it. Instead of conceptualizing things out of cloth, cardboard, and wood, we finally get to bite and savor metalwork. As of today, I will show you my journey of how I used the OEDK’s ProtoMax Water Jet cutter to seamlessly transform a sheet of metal into two identical diamonds.
1. Aqua Jet
Since the plasma cutter was out of service, we were forced to prepare ourselves to use the water cutter. Just like the plasma cutter, we simply create a designed file and follow the operation instructions to be able to receive our cut product. I downloaded the template from Canvas and decided that my special flair would be a bow with a loaded arrow to represent an emblem from one of my favorite games.
Constructing my Diamond in Adobe Illustrator
Importing, Pathing, and preparing the machine and file for cutting
After creating and machining my diamonds, I would be able to post-process them! I do not have a graphic of the recently cut aluminum diamonds, but the sheet of metal had a lot of sand, calcium deposits, and other imperfections that made the cut look rough and unprofessional. Below I go over the methods I used to post-process my pieces.
2. Post Processing
Right after cutting my diamonds, I decided to file away the ugly edges left by the water cutter. To efficiently file and round my edges, I clamped the pieces down and went for about 30 minutes. The results were satisfying, as I was able to give the edges a nice round chamfer on all sides. To clear up the metal bits left by the file, I sanded the edges with 60 grit and then 400 grit sandpaper to leave the intrior edges smooth.
My diamond was inside the clamp as I was filing the edges. If you look close enough, you can see that the edges are shinier.
After filing, my next step was to sandblast my pieces. To create a grainy texture, I uniformly went over the diamonds with the sand gun. This left the desired texture and cleared the metal of impurities, rust, and precipitates from the water jet. Additionally, I sed the sand blaster to further smoothen out the internal edges, which can’t be reached by a file. This prepared the metal for painting.
The outcome of sandblasting my metal diamonds!
After sandblasting, I was ready to coat my metal with paint. Since there was no paint variety at this point, I decided to coat my diamonds blue. After applying a few layers, I get the end result:
The water-cut metal after post-processing.
3. Takeaways and Improvements
This was a relatively easy and short task with amazing yields. Though my diamonds came out well made, I experienced some difficulty when it came to post-processing (specifically spray painting). After I was done painting the first time, I noticed that there were some white paint splotches when I left them to dry outside. I do not know how those got there, but obviously, I had to paint it again, but now, the paint would end up a bit uneven. After applying the second coat, I let it dry and attempted to remove small paint bubbles with sandpaper, but despite the paper being 3000 grit, it still tore the spray paint off and I had to strip off all the paint and apply a fresh coat to re-create the smooth surface I originally had. Despite these issues, I was able to complete my diamonds professionally! I do not know why the paint stripped off the metal, but in the future, I have to make sure how well do acrylics bind to materials so that I do not encounter the same problem again.
4. Cost Model
1 sheet of 12″ by 12″, 3/16″ Aluminum = $53.33 (GetMetals.com)
Metal Worker – $19.48/hr for three hrs = $58.44 (Zip Recruiter)
Rust-Oleum Spray Paint = $6.19 (Amazon)
Any other tools/programs supplied by OEDK
TOTAL = $117.96
