RE: Water Jet

In another job long ago my office mate went to a
show for converting equipment for the laminating and paper treating
industry.
He brought back the catalog of the show, which was a 3/4 inch thick
paperback book. Someone at the show was demonstrating a water jet
cutter. It put 50000 PSI water through a 1 or 2 thou hole in a
piece of
saphire. They had to filter the water so as not to get crud stuck
in the
nozzle. He had cut the corner off the spine of the book in a sort
of an
"S" curve. It was as clean as a razor cut with almost no kerf and
he said that
when he'd checked right after the cut was made he couldn't see any
sign
of moisture on the paper. I'd expect the right water jet unit would
work
very well on balsa.

A friend worked up a model boat kit using laser cut ribs. It worked
out
very nicely but the edges of the ribs were all black from the heat.
It was
a very nice effect on the inside of the varnished hull with the
black edge on
all the ribs. I thought it looked nice and asked him about it,
which is when
he told me that it was from the laser and not something he'd planned
on.

Stephen C. Lovely - Milford Massachusetts USA

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