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Unread 04-05-2016, 22:11
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AKA: Ed Barker
FRC #1311 (Kell Robotics)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Rookie Year: 2006
Location: Kennesaw GA
Posts: 1,437
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Re: Waterjet vs. Manual Build Process?

There are merits to making parts by hand and to CNC techniques.

I think for our team, the approach we will stick with is to have team members spend time in the off-season learning how to hand make parts, and then during the latter part of the off-season and into the build season, then transition into designing parts in CAD and then water jetting them.

I can tell you from experience that if I owned a business that made stuff I'd have the employees CAD the part, then CNC it. It is a much faster and more accurate process ( if the CNC machine is available ). But again I think hand made parts are more of a rite of passage and learning. But not good for production work. Brackets that would take us an hour to make and not be accurate, we can CAD and cut in minutes, perfectly.

For fun, maybe your team may want to take both approaches simultaneously.... making handmade parts and CNC parts, in parallel. The resource is available to you and your team. If you want to follow up to learn how to access this resource, send me an email at edbarker@kennesaw.edu

It would be fun and educational to make parts both ways. I think it makes your student a better engineer.

This summer we will announce some workshops at KSU where you can come in and give it a try.

EDIT: right now you can bend parts on this brake Hopefully we will get a 50 ton CNC brake soon.

Good Luck with your team !!

Ed
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Ed Barker

Last edited by ebarker : 04-05-2016 at 22:13.
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