Abrasive hose blow out

Help & Support
1

Hi there,
I had set up my wazer to do a job. I set it all up and walked away.
Came back, and found that the abrasive hose had been ejected from the nozzle, and I had water on the ground, and garnet seemed to have come out from the hose attached to the low pressure gauge and filter canister.
I’ve put the hose back into the nozzle, and I’m not getting anything. Garnet is not being picked up. Getting a lot of water but no garnet picked up.
How do I get my machine working again?

2

Hi Corsair_Pilot,

What you have experienced is a backflow problem. Essentially the high pressure water shot into the abrasive hose from the nozzle end and might have travelled all the way to the hopper end.

Whenever this happens, we need to check the high pressure system first. Please see the suggested steps below:

  1. keep the abrasive hose unplugged from the nozzle, go to “nozzle purge”
  2. conduct “nozzle purge” 3 times, each time pay attention to different things. (at the first time, observe if all water comes out from the nozzle tip, and none comes out from the abrasive port; at the 2nd time, pay attention to the pressure gauge on the pump box, make sure the needle is in the green zone; at the 3rd time, pay attention to the low pressure gauge on the filter canister, make sure the needle stays in the green zone)
  3. If the pressure is good, and no flow comes out from the abrasives port, use compressed air to blow the abrasive clean. There might be some wet abrasive clogging the hose.
  4. Then, connect the abrasive hose back to the nozzle, conduct another nozzle purge. This time we can do a suction check.
  5. If the suction check is good, then we can safely say the high pressure system is in good shape.

Next we can address the abrasive system.

  1. it is very likely water has back-flowed all the way to the hopper and wet the dropper, possible even the drop tube. Thus please follow steps on this page to clean the hopper use compressed air
  2. then you may conduct a quick abrasive check
  3. if the abrasive flow is weak, you can measure the flow rate, and check if all components are assembled properly.

Last but not the least, if the problem persisted, contact support@wazer.com immediately.

2 Likes
3

So this just happened to me. Went through all the steps, cleaned everything out, dried it, seemed good to go but then it happened again. I don’t have any gauges on my pump box (Kickstarter version probably) or I just don’t see them.

I’ve examined all the tubing and connections and I’m confused. Any insight would be much appreciated.

1 Like
4

Wanted to bump this topic since I didn’t see a reply to this. I have the same issue. We do have a gauge on our pump, but the backflow issue seems pretty bad. Mind you, we’ve only used the machine for an hour…

5

Hello @Aaron.MECHA! Thanks for joining the Community Forum and sharing your experience.

The abrasive hose ejecting out of the cutting head is a common water jet issue that occurs due to a number of factors! If the nozzle tip bottoms out along the material, a loose cut-out piece pops up, etc. the nozzle tip will become blocked. If the nozzle tip is blocked for a short duration, the water will travel down the next easiest path which ends up being the abrasive hole insert on the left. If the hose is ejecting out of the cutting head, this is an indicator that the nozzle tip is likely bottoming out as it travels across the gantry.

Typically these clogs occur from a water back-flow. To help minimize these back-flows, we recommend the following:

  • Cut Bed Level. During set-up and every 10-20 hours of cutting, it is very important to make sure the cut bed is level to the plane the gantry travels along. Has the cut bed been leveled following the procedure outlined in the link?

Additionally, we recommend setting the nozzle height 1-2mm higher than the stand off tool to make sure the nozzle does not collide into anything while moving. These two recommendations will help to minimize back-flows in future cuts and are common practices for water jet workflows.

775×487 251 KB

  • Loose Cut-outs. If making multiple cuts along the material, make sure all pieces have the appropriate tabs to hold the piece to the material. This way it will not fall into the tank during cutting or sandwich itself between the material and nozzle tip!

  • Material Properties and Flatness. Be careful to fixture the material appropriately! If the material is soft enough or pliable enough to bend/bow upwards due to the mounting screw, rough water in the tank, etc. it will push the material up and into the nozzle. Always set the nozzle height to the material at the highest point - if the piece has any sort of texture or discrepancy across it’s surface.

  • Cutting Head Leak. With the water supply left on, turn your wazer off. Remove the abrasive hose from the left side of the cutting head and inspect it for 10-15 seconds. Do you see any water leaking from the cutting head while it is idle? Check the nozzle tip and abrasive inlet hole for any continual drips/water build ups.

The final check here is more of a hardware check but can be overlooked if not familiar. I hope this information is helpful in minimizing a back-flow from occurring. Don’t forget that if a back-flow does occur, the dry abrasive system needs to be cleared before cutting can restart. Make sure both the dry abrasive hose is cleared and the dry abrasive hopper is showing a consistent flow.