When starting this project I chose to not start with adobe illustrator but to actually design my diamond within the Wasterjet Software. In the past, I have tried using their super cool flame font but due to the complexity of each flame I was unable to make the design very accurate. This time I decided to only use the capitol E (for Emmie) and upscaled the font as to create less potential failure points.
I then sent over my file and properly set up my piece but unfortunately, my cut FAILED.
Someone had dropped a clamp into the watery granular pit in the bottom of the water jet and I was left with only 1 clamp. I then went through the OEDK stock and found a replacement clamp and teamed up with 2 other 210 students to cut all our designs at once.
We also noticed some drain issues due to the Lab technician Karl’s new system. His new draining system did not work and we accidentally did not have the drain low enough when we began cutting. We then stopped the cut and had to drain the water and spray off all the excess granular that was not able to drain during the first 10 minutes of our cut.
Here is the final cut! In this image I am showing the difference before and after sand blasting. The left image shows how after sandblasting and filing the dross, rust, and dirt was removed. This helped me prep before spray painting. I very gently used a file to remove the slight dross created while cutting with the waterjet but I did make sure to keep a clean 90 degree edge.
Next, I went outside to the loading dock and sprayed my E’s with black spray paint. I waited about an hour before flipping it over, then I waited another hour between the clear top coat on both sides. Unfortunately, while my diamond was drying between hours I noticed someone’s excess spray paint flew over onto mine and left a white residue as seen on the far right of this image. In the future, I hope to use the powder coater and make sure that my project is isolated from other OEDK users during the drying process. Unfortunately I did not have enough time to respray my diamond black and was nervous about adding too much to cause uneven surfaces.
Post top coat drying update: Another takeaway from this project is that sometimes I need to step away from rushing to help others and make sure that my project gets finished and done well. After I returned to pick up my dry piece I noticed that it was covered in dust and even more spray from others and someone had probably dropped my piece and my E looked more like a square as shown in the images below. In the future I really need to make sure my piece is out of harms way.
In the end, I am disappointed in how my diamond turned out. I hope to recreate one in my free time and try out the powder coater once that gets all fixed.
Cost Analysis:
- 1×1 foot Metal Sheet: $10.00
- Rented WaterJet Cutting Time (10 minutes): $5.00
- Rented Sand Blasting Time (15 minutes): $5.00
- Spray Paint (1 Can): $8.00
- Clear Coat (1 Can): $8.00
- Labor (6 hours at $12/hour): $72.00
Total Cost: $108.00
Cleaned up work area image:
(My group helped the next person set up their workspace before we left)
