Wildcard Week¶
For this weeks assignment I decided to learn to use OMAX 5555 water jet cutter.
Omax had two build in softwares, OMAX MAKE Premium for controlling the machine and OMAX Layout for drawing. I used OMAX layout for designing.
Hero shot¶
OMAX OPERATION¶
There are several machines to turn on before starting the operation of OMAX wate jet cutter.
- Turn on the main power supply and then turn on the stablizer as shown below
- Turn on the chiller ON which keeps the water cold
- Turn on the pressure chamber ON by switching the two switchs ON in order.
- Turn on the machine control and computer ON using the switch below. It also has other controls as shown below.
Controls
There are alot of shorcut key on the key board that can be used with OMAX LAYOUT and OMAX MAKE. But to control the machine, we can control the position of the Nozzel using the keyboards as shown below.
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ARROW keys to move X and Y direction with SHIFT key.
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Number 1 and 7 to control the z direction and also page up and page down to control Z in slower direction.
OMAX LAYOUT¶
In the interface for the OMAX layout, one can also import any .dxf file for cutting.
Using the letter option, I wrote my name and number, and gave scale of 1.
After writing my name, using the AutoPath to generate the path, you get the interface for selecting the quality and other option at the bottom of the screen.
After selecting the quality, we generate the path using the Post option in the right to send to OMAX MAKE software by selecting Open ORD Path in MAKE.
The file is ready for OMAX MAKE and we can preview the path as below before confirming.
OMAX MAKE¶
Before Starting the cutting and using the OMAX MAKE, firstly we have to Home the nozzel to its initial position always.
This can be done by selecting the Auto-Home XY option in Homes. The nozzels positions itself in the top left side of the machine.
Now fix the cutting material on the bed of the water jet.
After homing, move the machine to the job piece postion, in my case I wanted to use wood.
Now find the location where you want to cut by moving the nozzel using the arrow keys, bring down the Z till it is around 1 cm above the job piece. We can use the computer interface to move the nozzle but key board is much more easier.
Make that the new HOME using the button on the right as shown below in the picture.
After homing we select the material we are going to use by selecting the butterfly logo and also need to give the height of the job piece.
After doing this when we press the play button, the machine starts cutting.
Because my name was small it didn’t come out well.
Next, I tried cutting a circle of 10mm in Mild steel. I drew a circle following the same procedue as I did for my name but this time I used circle option.
I also gave a tap avaliable in AutoPath, as the job piece would fall in the water, otherwise. Problem with this is that there is only one tap size.
After material selection, I run the machine with the same procedure as mentioned above.
Below is the image of the the circle I cut using waterjet with TAP. Water jet is usually used for making precise holes and through cuts in our lab. I kept the tap intact to show the path of the cut.