1" extruded polystyrene

Greetings!, I can run the test but polystyrene is so soft/not dense compared to the other items that come preloaded into the software that I feel like the test is waaaay too long/slow for this soft of a material.
I ran the cut test on 1/2" ceramic and felt like it was gonna cut through the bottom of the tank it took so long to pierce the material and cutting was so slow. I’m trying to avoid that here.
Any suggestions?

I ran into a similar issue cutting 1/2" corrugated plastic, i didn’t want to run the 1/2" plastic settings for the same fear of boring thru the bottom of the tank. I ended up starting with a .060 Polycarbonate setting, when that didn’t quite cut all the way thru, i bumped it up to .125 Polycarbonate, and that cut just fine and wasn’t that slow at all.

1 Like

Thanks for the info. I’ve got it going pretty great at a 2sec pierce time and 20in/min as my FINE cut rate.
That said, have you ever manually placed your tabs? Every time I try to relocate the WAM provided tabs it changes the cut time from :30 sec to 23hrs…for all cut qualities.

Great question! Interestingly enough, when working with foam like material we have found that cutting without abrasive works pretty well. The water pressure is enough to pierce and cut the foam. If you would like to test this, simply disconnect both wire connectors underneath the abrasive drawer and perform a test cut. Also, keep the abrasive hose removed from the cutting head to prevent any potential backflow.

As for the cut rate testing, it can certainly be worrisome during the long pierce time. If using the fast test cut file, the pierce should only be 20 seconds long before moving onto the arcs. If you are experiencing longer pierce times, please let me know.

The tank is built to handle that sort of pierce time so long as it is not performed multiple times in quick succession or in the same location. It is a good habit to always move cuts around the surface of the tank so the pierce does not hit the same location every time - this is what most likely causes a tank piercing. If concerned at any time, remove the cut bed and check on the condition of the anti-pierce plate at the bottom of the tank!

1 Like

That is interesting. I was actually gonna ask how to do that as I’ve heard it works with foams.
While trying a few things with the foam the need to relocate my tabs has come up . When I try to manually place the tabs (according to this page: Tabs and Leads Background — WAZER | The First Desktop Waterjet. )
the estimated cut time jumps to 24 hrs. When I use the poorly placed automatic tabs the cut time is under a minute, and has been proven. The tabs are just in a bad place.

Thanks for any suggestions,
n.

There is a known bug in WAM regarding inaccurate cut times. Manually placing tabs along the path will sometimes create very crazy cut time estimations. Please note that these cut time estimations are not correct, and do not reflect the actual cut in real-time. It is the estimation that is getting messed up, not the speed or feed-rate.

For most accurate estimations, please check the cut time before adjusting or applying any setting changes in the tab step of WAM.

1 Like

Yes, that was my experience. THANK YOU.

1 Like