Does anyone on Orchid have experience with FREE-HAND water-jet
carving in stone?
Experience?
not in the personal sense, but indirectly, yes, My laser profiler a
couple of weeks ago, took me on a conducted tour of the new water
borne aluminium oxide abrasive 2 axis 8ft by 4ft piece of kit he has
just installed.
Water doesnt do the cutting, is only the transport medium for the
grinding powder that actually does the cutting.
this is on average 80 grit in size.
The water and grit discharge head is only an1/8in above the material
being cut.
His setup will cut up to 6in thick, tho ive yet to see the results.
The whole purpose of going down this "cold" cutting route is to
avoid distortion and slag and back spatter that the "hot" as in
melting the metal and blowing it away with high pressure gases in
laser profiling. Oxygen for ferrous and nitrogen for everything
else.
As for doing it freehand on stone for carving, you would need to see
someone doing it before trying it for yourself.
The water below the cut material is some 3ft deep to adsorb the
energy from the water jet.
With stone carving you would get as much water and grit coming back
at you as well as the lack of control.
See videos of fire fighters holding a high pressure fire hose!! I
think you would get better results with a 3d axis either via a 1 to 1
pantograph or a computer controlled diamond water cooled cutting
head engraving machine.
Think cnc metal milling.
also the pressure on the aerage system isnt low like you mentioned,
its 30,000 psi!!.
