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View Full Version : Small waterjet or cnc machine



James Meagher
12-29-2006, 11:38 AM
I am wondering if there is a small waterjet or cnc machine that I can buy to cut out marble round coasters?

thanks in advance

James Meagher

Jim A. Walters
12-29-2006, 12:00 PM
I don't think I have ever seen a "small" waterjet". They are usually hugh, horribly noisy, and create huge mess. They add a grit to the 60,000 psi of water, and you can imagine the grit/mist that sprays everywhere!

I will PM you a site to check out for CNC's

Keith Outten
12-29-2006, 12:15 PM
There is a small cabinet style waterjet. The TV series Orange County Choppers had one. They have since ugraded to a new larger model but the first one was a table top model that might be of interest.

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James Meagher
12-29-2006, 2:03 PM
Do you know the name of this waterjet.

Tim Goldstein
12-29-2006, 2:27 PM
I did a fair amount of research on water jet as I was considering purchasing one. Ended up deciding I did not have enough applications to give me a reasonable ROI and instead bought the X2 Superspeed load with 120 watt of tubes. What my research revealed was that even a small water jet (like the one on OCC) starts out at about $65K with the absolute minimum of features. Then the maintenance costs are pretty high with some expensive components deemed as consumables (nozzles, mixing tubes, pump seals and pistons, etc). Plus even the smallest have to have 3 phase power (not a problem as my Haas CNC machines use that) with anything but the smallest needing 440V (I only have 400 amps of 220 3 phase).

For cutting stone I am not aware of any CNC machine other than a water jet that is appropriate. I do have a customer that cuts jade are pieces on a CNC Taig mill I sold him with diamond bits, but it is a very slow process. My suggestion would be to contact some water jet job shops in your area and see what they would charge to do this work for you. Let you get your feet wet without investing huge $$.

Joe Pelonio
12-29-2006, 4:43 PM
For cutting stone I am not aware of any CNC machine other than a water jet that is appropriate. I do have a customer that cuts jade are pieces on a CNC Taig mill I sold him with diamond bits, but it is a very slow process. My suggestion would be to contact some water jet job shops in your area and see what they would charge to do this work for you. Let you get your feet wet without investing huge $$.
Good suggestion, a neighboring business does some shaping of granite and marble for kitchen counters with diamond bits, they are very expensive and don't last long. If you are going to need a large quantity of the coasters the "setup" charge will be absorbed and it may not cost as much as you'd think to have the cut. I had some aluminum waterjet cut into shapes for signs and it turned out to be less than the wholesale CNC guy wanted to charge me.