5 axis head on a waterjet yes or no questions?

plutoniumsalmon · Nov 26, 2020

Hello.
We are in the market for a 5x10 waterjet. We can get an Maxiem without the 5 axis head or a Ward with one for almost the same money. I want to know if those of you that have it regret buying one and those of you who dont, the opposite. We are a job shop that will cut everything, mainly film and art work. I like the idea of one because I can take out taper without slowing down the machine. I know that doing so keeps the cut quality lower but at least in my case I would rather take out rougher cuts then taper. I alos like having that ability in reserve, chamfers an countersinks and so on.

I know that OMAX has good service and software and that Ward is owned by AXIZ so thats why OMAX is still in the game.

Thank you

Speedie · Nov 27, 2020

Omax is the market champ

bryan_machine · Nov 27, 2020

For what it's worth OMAX is now owned by hypertherm. And I wonder if you are over estimating how big a deal the taper is? I did once chat with a fellow who owned a 5-axis flow machine, and he wasn't so thrilled with it as a business deal - that basically the small amount of value from what it would do that a 3-axis didn't wasn't worth the cost.

Do you have realistic view of the actual delivered precision of these machines? (Which might be different with say the wardjet, I don't know.)

For illustration - if the cutting line for the 5-axis waterjet is plus/minus 0.003", and the head is taking out 0.001" of taper, was that a win?

On the other hand, if you want to cut weld bevels for fabrication, it could be easy to justify.

plutoniumsalmon · Nov 27, 2020

bryan_machine said:
For what it's worth OMAX is now owned by hypertherm. And I wonder if you are over estimating how big a deal the taper is? I did once chat with a fellow who owned a 5-axis flow machine, and he wasn't so thrilled with it as a business deal - that basically the small amount of value from what it would do that a 3-axis didn't wasn't worth the cost.

Do you have realistic view of the actual delivered precision of these machines? (Which might be different with say the wardjet, I don't know.)

For illustration - if the cutting line for the 5-axis waterjet is plus/minus 0.003", and the head is taking out 0.001" of taper, was that a win?

On the other hand, if you want to cut weld bevels for fabrication, it could be easy to justify.

Hello. What I like about the 5 axis head is that I can take out taper without losing speed. We are getting this machine for art and film work so precision I'd not key but speed is and it would be nice to offer a taperless option anyway. The ward 5 axis is coming out at the price of a maxiem with out one. Also it's only around 11k on the ward. The reason why I am asking about it is because omax is a known entity at least in so cal while ward is not.

bryan_machine · Nov 28, 2020

I understand your thinking - really cannot say. The guy who run fireball tool has a youtube channel and flowjet 5-axis - you might write or call him.

johfoster · Dec 2, 2020

What do you plan to cut with it? Taper on a 3" thick piece of stainless is a much bigger issue than taper on 1/8" aluminum for a sign. Also I would say that if "precision is not key but speed is" a waterjet would be the last thing to look into imo.

I have just about never heard a bad thing about omax from anyone, and do not know anyone who wishes that they didn't have a tilt head who does.

I will add that the one guy I know with the most experience on an Omax machine, was not as impressed with the Maxiem machine fwiw. (they are obviously not a cheaper line of machine for no reason, though I am not the one to go into detail about the differences)

tft1987 · Dec 2, 2020

For what its worth, I have a 2016 5'x10' bed 5axis Mach2b 93kpsi FLOWjet at work. For thick work, the taper compensation is very good. For thin stuff its not really necessary. 5axis programing with flow is clunky and time consuming (I usually don't bother unless I'm cutting 25+ of the same part...) Also, if i were personally buying a machine I'd go with the 60kpsi rotary pressure pump rather than the hydraulic intensifier required for the 93k setup. Buy in, maintenance and expense will all be more reasonable, and the sacrifice is not that significant lest you are cutting very thick, very hard stuff. Also, if you do alot of sheet work, the z axis height taster or whatever they call it is worth its weight in gold...

plutoniumsalmon · Dec 2, 2020

Thank you.
I understand that fast is an oxymoron on the waterjet to a certain extent. Mainly we will be cutting more thick stuff. I will also be doing hardware on it which is .375 or .5 plate. Can you please tell me why you would get the rotary pump over the intensifier. Everyone seems to prefer the other way around

Search

Largest Manufacturing Technology Community on the Web

Search

5 axis head on a waterjet yes or no questions?

plutoniumsalmon

Hot Rolled

Speedie

Stainless

bryan_machine

Diamond

plutoniumsalmon

Hot Rolled

bryan_machine

Diamond

johfoster

Cast Iron

tft1987

Aluminum

plutoniumsalmon

Hot Rolled

Similar threads