Water Jet Yakuza Diamond | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

I downloaded the diamond file from Canvas and swiftly made 6 diamonds to ensure that I would have enough leeway for potential mistakes.

I added a symbol from a french artist named Lous and the Yakuza. I thought it would be an interesting symbol that I could give to my brother.

I send the file to the waterjet cutter and got 5 out 6 working pieces from a 0.125 aluminum sheet. There was a lot of abrasive build up throughout the cut. After each diamond was cut, I had to pause the machine and spray the top down.

The lab tech suggested that I use the grinding tool in moderation and the sandpaper to smooth the edges, but there wasn’t much to smooth out, to be honest.

I then made a really elaborate design in illustrator to later cut into a sticker. This was the final post-processing element. It was supposed to show butterflies flying out of the cut in an essence of the album cover. However, the sticker software did not like my design so I settled for a plain cover to go around the metal.