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Water Jet in CO?

GrayHawk

Well Known Member
The main waterjet company close to me in Northern CO will not do parts for aircraft, due to an insurance issue.

Does anyone know of a good waterjet company(for panel cut) in Northern Colorado?
 
I don't know why you need to spend the money on water jet cutting of your panel.

I used a sabre saw to cut my rectangular holes for my Dynon and will do the same with the radios. Use a file to make it final size. The bezal will cover any mild discrepencies.

I purchased a instrument hole punch from Aircraft tool & supply and will punch out my round holes with that. Cost of punch $129.00.
 
Aww, come on. Give me a break! Lots of others beside me have used water jet to cut a panel. In my case I have billions of other things to do in a short period of time. If I choose to design the panel in Autocad and spend money to water jet cut it, to expedite it, I should be able to.

To each their own.

Still waiting for a real answer.
 
I don't know why you need to spend the money on water jet cutting of your panel.

I used a sabre saw to cut my rectangular holes for my Dynon and will do the same with the radios. Use a file to make it final size. The bezal will cover any mild discrepencies.

I purchased a instrument hole punch from Aircraft tool & supply and will punch out my round holes with that. Cost of punch $129.00.


I don't know why you would spend $129.00 on a panel punch when you could have had the whole panel water jet cut for $50.00. That's especially true if you've already modeled the entire panel in your CAD package of choice to ensure everything fits.

Methods of work are up to the individual builder. I used this company in Albuquerque, NM. http://www.waterjetcuttinginc.com/home.html They're not in Northern CO, but they do nice work. Make sure you send them a full scale DXF, not scaled down.

Guy
 
I don't know why you would spend $129.00 on a panel punch when you could have had the whole panel water jet cut for $50.00. That's especially true if you've already modeled the entire panel in your CAD package of choice to ensure everything fits.

Methods of work are up to the individual builder. I used this company in Albuquerque, NM. http://www.waterjetcuttinginc.com/home.html They're not in Northern CO, but they do nice work. Make sure you send them a full scale DXF, not scaled down.

Guy

Thank you Guy, I appreciate it.
Will give them a try.
 
Water Cutting

Gray Hawk, I just put an email out to a friend of mine who recently redid his panel on a 64 Skylane. He was extremely impressed with the work. The guy that did the work is in Cincinnati. Let me know if you want the info and I will send it to you as soon as I get it.

Dave
 
not water jet, but great work

Stein Air made my panel. It wasn't water jet (CNC milling machine) but came out EXCELLENT. I sent DXFs of the panel and they nailed it. Very highly recommended and well worth the price. Came quickly via UPS. He used 0.080 aluminum (a bit thicker than Vans stock 0.063 panel) and put the same bend in the bottom. It droppped in the plane like it grew there. All the parts fit perfectly (except for the ones that I messed up on).

Only problem was that Stein sent the panel back empty. I was hoping to have him fill all the nice square holes.
 
I was in this shop in Greely (GXY) for a xponder check last summer. They had a CNC set up for doing panels. I inquired about them doing panels for individuals and homebuilt panels rather than a panel upgrade and they said no problem. I am not sure of rates.
Advanced Aero Technolgies. (970) 373-3295
I thought they were good people to deal with.
Ryan
 
Hi Gray..

..if Stein's too busy, there's also Aerotronics in Mn....they did my three piece modular panel on their CNC machine and it's a work of art,

Best,
 
DXF is simply a generic Cad drawing file. Most inexpensive computer drawing software will output a DXF file. I own a machine shop and have had several panels cut with water jet but I did mine in my CNC machining center. Both worked fine but the CNC machining center did a cleaner job and required less deburring. The water jet is much less expensive. A one piece panel cut with a water jet might cost only $75.00 but a regular job shop would charge more to CNC one out. I bet Stein would be a great choice for a CNC machined one as he would have his machine setup for doing panels every day.
 
DXF = Drawing Exchange Format?

I think it stands for Drawing Exchange Format. Any CAD program can output (or import) them - and the software that drives the CNC milling machines seems to like them.

BTW - I didn't use a true "CAD" program - just Visio. I imported the DXF that vans provides for the panel outline onto a layer. Then I made another layer called "Panel Cutouts" that had all the holes I wanted the CNC machine to cut.

Thre are lots of threads about panel design to read
 
Another SteinAir recommendation here. The only downside is that -- in my case anyway -- what started out as just "panel cutting" ended up (quite wisely, IMO) also buying the stuff from him to fill in the holes.

Be very careful dealing with that guy ... once you find out that he has the best prices, highest quality and is a super guy to deal with, you'll just buy the stuff from him like I did. :D

And I ended up with a good friend.

Seriously, call Stein and see how much he'd charge to cut your panel.
 
Another shop that does CNC panels is Plate Engraving Corp in Medina, OH. Talk to Mike Brobeck at www.pecorp.biz or 330-239-2155 or [email protected] .

I used to own a shop that screen printed dials for aircraft instruments & refurbished panels too. We used Mike exclusively.

Jim Butcher
 
Water jet

I recommend Omnicut in Denver. Talk to Nigel; he is a pilot and wanna-be builder. They do very nice work. Located at

602 W 62nd Ave
Denver Co 80216
Ph: 303-427-6255

Jim Berry
RV-10
 
We had the guy at Precision Cut & Design‎ in Glenwood Springs, CO cut our 7a panel for $100 a couple years ago. He used our cad drawing (.dfx) and it was very accurate.

Max
 
Both worked fine but the CNC machining center did a cleaner job and required less deburring. The water jet is much less expensive.

Interesting as the work I have had done by waterjet did not require any deburring. Most of the work I have had done was thicker material that 0.063 to 0.080. We used Laser for material that thin. We found the cost break was at 1/8". This was a while ago so waterjet may have pushed into the Laser's territory.

I have had trouble with DXf files from believe it or not AutoCad. They seem to have trouble being compatible with themselves. Third party DXF seems to work fine however.

Good Luck on getting your panel cut, waterjets are great.

Bob Parry
 
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