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Waterjet Costs?

2K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  fj40guy 
#1 ·
I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with waterjet machines? I am looking into a smaller machine probably 48" x 48". Anyone know what the operating costs are for these machines? What about a fair market price for a new one?
 
#3 ·
It the most expensive way to cut steel. I ran a calypso for about a year. I hated every minute of it. The thing was stupid expensive. I'm guessing mid $100's for the machine, daily costs were expensive.

I would use it as a last option. (unless of course you need to cut rubber or lexan or something like that.)
 
#4 ·
To cut metal you'll need to buy garnet sand, not sure on the price, you'll have to poke around the net for that. They also need the pumps/intensifiers reworked frequently. Programming them can be a pain, most manufactures with they operating software and programming software. What do you want to cut?
 
#6 ·
I think it's one of the things where if you have to ask you are either a. not ready or b. can't afford anyway :flipoff2:[/QUOTE

I'm both a and b!

I was at a local guys warehouse a couple days ago where he stores all his machinery and he had a cnc plasma he got at an auction. I bet it could have heald 5 sheets of 10x5 plate at once!!! It was the biggest I have ever seen! He really hurt me wheb he told me he picked it up for 400 bucks!!! It wsa complete with its own ventalation system too.

I pick up some good deals from time to time just cause I keep my ears to the ground and have limited budget but this guy had machinery everywhere and he was telling me where and how much he spent and it just sick!

One day I will have all my toys

JOSH
 
#8 ·
I am looking into waterjets because of the precision. I am looking at doing alot of plate work that is +/- .005 and a good waterjet has no problem hitting that. I went to WESTEC last week and it looks like its about $180k for a 4x8 and about $30 / day to run it. I was just curious if anyone here had any expierence with them.
 
#11 ·
We have a Flo and a custom built 5X Huffman. I don't think you can come close to running them for $30 a day. The intensifiers have 30HP motors, you need garnet sand for cutting any metal and it's not cheap. The intensifiers have to be rebuilt frequently and the parts aren't cheap. There's filters to remove the hazardous material before you can dump the water, filters/D.I. water system for the water going into the system. Then you need hazmat to get rid of the sand/metal that builds up in the tank. And you need to replace a thing they call the jewel and the tip nozzle frequently, these I know are $300 a set. And after some use they get nasty/shitty dirty and you might guess break a lot under heavy use.

Cutting feedrate for .250 steel is about 10-12 ipm if the you want the kerf straight, I'd say you may hold +/-.010. A salesman will tell you anything.

The good thing about a H2O jet, no tooling, simple programming (did you consider programming software?)(flow uses proprietery software thats about 4X worse than the worst cad system you can think of), better edge finish than plasma.

If you want some real prices on parts reply to this post and I'll get some prices from our maintenance crew and post them late tomorrow.

Tell me where a $30 an hour h2o jet is and I'll take a couple.
 
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