Quote:
Originally Posted by Cory
A legitimate water jet cutter is going to be $100-200k depending on how it's optioned out, plus a minimum of $45/hr (up to $60+/hr) to run in power/abrasive/water/amortized maintenance.
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The machine uses 20lb of abrasive per hour, so at the prices they're quoting, that's $20/hour by itself. Based on reading between the lines of the FAQ, you're also going to use 30 gallons/hour of water, 1/25th of your cutting bed life per hour (no replacement price listed), and an unknown fraction of your nozzle life per hour (also no price listed). They're operating at much lower pressure than a traditional waterjet, so the maintenance costs are likely to be less, the lower purchase price means that the amortized costs are going to be lower, and a large portion of the maintenance can be free student labor, but I still wouldn't be surprised for the final running price to be in the ~$30/hour range. That said, an hour on this machine is going to get a LOT less done than an hour on an industrial water jet.
My real concern with Wazer is that there are no accuracy numbers, just a promise that "your holes will line up from part to part".