Abrasive Feed Issues

Help & Support
1

When the cut begins, abrasive material starts coming of the open side of the boot that connects the abrasive feed tube to the solenoid on located on the bottom of the abrasive bin.

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2

Hi @Childepk welcome to the Forum!

This can be a tricky one, there are a lot of things that can cause abrasive to not be delivered to the cut.

During cutting the waterjet will create suction to carry abrasive through the abrasive hose. If this hose is clogged the suction may not be strong enough to carry the abrasive, make sure the hose is clear first!

Also make sure the abrasive hose is inserted into the catcher properly, otherwise it can obstruct the hole and cause feeding issues.

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To test for the suction please follow the instructions on the page below, if you are unable to feel suction please open up a support ticket so that we can help to troubleshoot this issue!

I hope that the information above helps to get you cutting, if you are still having issues open a ticket and we will continue our troubleshooting there!

3

I found that I needed to cut an acrylic shim on a laser cutter to increase the distance from the mounting surface to the pinch valve. There’s now a straight drop from the hopper to the slipcover & hose. Since doing this, I’ve had no piles of abrasives under the unit. It also stabilized the mount.

I hope this helps.

4

You have a picture of that? I’ve been thinking about removing the whole drawer, and moving to an external hopper for the abrasive.

Something that only flows downhill to minimize the amount of suction needed.

5

Sorry, was away from the forum for a couple of weeks. I’ll post a picture tomorrow.

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6

Hi, hows about that picture? Please.

7

Hi,
My abrasive suddenly stops flowing every time the head moves between cuts. When the cut resumes only water comes out…ruining much material. I’ve talked to phone support and have made sure my bed is leveled to the cutting head. I’ve cleaned everything. Water pressure and grit flow rate are fine. Nothing has changed and my weekend of potential progress is wasted. Every fourth clog is remedied by removing the boot and hose and blowing air through the line. 3 out of 4 times the clog persists. I can see wet sand at the opening of the grit hose where it inserts into the cutting head. Interestingly, this started happening as soon as I started cutting more soda-lime glass. When cutting (softer) ceramic tile it never seemed to happen. This could be a coincidence but I’m wondering if the harder materials are causing more backsplash/backflow and causing the grit to gunk up at the end of the hose? PLEASE HELP ME. (thanks)

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9

Sorry, I posted pictures in this post.

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10

You are correct that it sounds like these issues are due to backflows. There are a few things we can do to prevent backflows:

  • Make sure the cut bed is level to the travel of the gantry. If it is not, there will be high and low spots on the bed and the nozzle may become obstructed if it hits one of the high spots. (Leveling the Cut Bed — WAZER Support | The First Desktop Waterjet.)

  • Set the height of the nozzle for every cut. The black height adjustment tool allows you to set the distance between the material and the nozzle to the correct height. Also make sure to fully tighten the height adjustment knob so that it cannot slide down. (WAZER Setup Videos — WAZER Support | The First Desktop Waterjet.)

  • Utilize tabs in your design. Tabs are small pieces of material left on your cut pieces so that they stay attached to the rest of the material and in place during cutting. If tabs are not used, they can pop up and get trapped between the nozzle and the material. (https://www.wazer.com/resources/maintenance/wam-procedures-/background-and-operation-on-tabs-and-leads)

  • Use the Dry Run to verify your cuts. The Dry Run will have the gantry travel along the cutting path with the waterjet turned off. This will allow you to observe the exact motion the gantry will follow and ensure that the nozzle does not contact the cut bed, material, or a fixturing screw during the cut.

If after implementing the suggestions above you are still seeing regular backflows, please reach out to us at support@wazer.com so that we can take a closer look at this issue!