Hello everyone! I recently used the water jet cutter to create a metal piece with star cutouts. To begin this process, I started by downloading the diamond shape adobe illustrator from canvas. Then, I used the shape tool to draw varying shapes to represent a starry night sky as shown in Figure 1.

After adding all the shapes I wanted in my starry night sky, I selected all these shapes and the diamond and clicked the “exclude” button to create cut outs for each of the shapes as shown in Figure 2. This resulted in the file shown in Figure 3.

Then, I went to my tutorial and learned how to use the water jet cutter by using the following steps:

1. Fill the water to right below the piece (~1/8″).
2. Ensure the tip of the water jet cutter is 0.08″ above the metal piece you are cutting using the calibration piece attached to the water jet cutter. Use the black knob to adjust the height until the tip sits snug with the piece.
3. Import your file into Potomax LAYOUT.
4. In Protomax LAYOUT, first click “size” as shown in Figure 4. Ensure the piece will be cut at the correct scale with the correct dimensions.
5. Next, click “clean” to clean the adobe illustrator drawing as shown in Figure 4.
6. Then, click “autopath” to visualize the path the cutter will take to cut out your piece as shown in Figure 4.
7. Finally, click “post” before switching over to ProtoMax MAKE as shown in Figure 4. After you click, post, a pop-up box will appear that allows you to click the start point from the automatically generated path and the piece thickness.
   

   Figure 4: Steps in ProtoMax LAYOUT

8. In ProtoMax MAKE, open your file and jog the tip of the cutter to a good location to make your cut using the buttons shown in Figure 5.
9. “Zero” this location as your path start using the button shown in Figure 5.
10. Click “Begin Machining” and right click “start” to initiate a dry run to make sure your cut will be in a good spot as shown in Figure 5.
11. Once you are sure about the placement, you can click “Go home” and “Start” to begin cutting once you close the lid of the water jet cutter as shown in Figure 5.

After creating the 2 metal pieces, I ensured the workspace was clean as per OEDK staff instructions as shown in Figure 6.

For post-processing, I first sand blasted as shown in Figure 7. This made a drastic difference as shown in Figure 8 which shows a before and after.

Next, I used a file to help get rid of sharp edges as shown in Figure 9.

Finally, I hung my piece on a paper clip to spray print and dry.

Below is a cost summary for the piece:

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	0.08” Steel sheet	$42.32 for 1ftx1ft sheet	onlinematerials.com	1 sheet	$42.32
	File	$4.48/set	walmart.com	1 set	$4.48
Overhead	Waterjet (Machine Time)	$20 – $40/hour	clients.wardjet.com	1 hour	$30
	Sandblaster (Machine Time)	$45 – $80/hour	homeguide.com	1 hour	$60
Design	Prototyping Engineer (me)	$0 (free)	Myself	1 engineer	$0
	Iterations	$0 (no iterations required)	Myself	0 iterations	$0
Misc.	Waste and Scrap	$0 (scrap recycled for other student use)	Myself	0 disposal fees	$0
Total					$136.80