So we recently got a waterjet bellypan back from our sponsor and it is not deburred. They can deburr small parts but they can deburr larger parts like a bellypan. What would be the fastest way of deburring something like this or any oddly shaped part? I was personally thinking to use a wire brush on a pneumatic die grinder. Does anyone have experience deburring large parts like a bellypan and if so what did you use?
Note: We do have a sponsor that powdercoats for us and that would cover up the burrs. But it would still be nice to have a deburred bellypan before powdercoating so when we assemble, we reduce the risk of cutting ourselves.
I’ve had good experiences with this $5 kit from harbor freight -
Chuck it in a drill and it’s quick work for oddly shaped parts, but know that they’re not the finest wires so it’s not the prettiest finishes. Perfectly fine for assembly or powder coating prep.
Definitely do use the rotary deburring tool listed above if you care about finish.
I do see some air tools, similiar to die grinders, that might have potential. We only use a regular die grinder, and it is not easy enough for that type of work for most students. However, I saw an air chamfering tool that limited how much you could take off the edges and possibly something like it would speed up cleanup.
for all of our waterjetted parts, we usually lightly sand both faces of the part, which gets rid of all of the burs on a part. it won’t make it rounded or chamfered, but it makes it not sharp.
Yup we always use a random orbit sander to debur waterjet parts.
Many we debur right at our wonderful sponsor, Waterjet Cutting of Indiana, so we can bend on their CNC break. A quick debur is important for the most accurate bends (plus it’s easier to do pre-bending)
Not going to lie, I’m a bit disappointed, not only that this post was made, but at the time of my writing of this it is the most liked post in this thread.
Nobody is above deburring, and there should be no such thing as a, “Freshman Job.” That culture is actively hurting the mission of this program, and we, as a community, need to stop considering what may be a monotonous tasks only fit for a freshman. It’s insulting. Freshman have much more to offer, and this surely doesn’t inspire them. In fact, in my experience, it does just the opposite.
Judging from the replies, the best way I can think of doing large parts is to use a palm sander. For small holes, we will continue to do what we do which is to use a deburring tool. For small parts that are waterjet, our waterjet sponsor is able to tumble them and deburr them which is likely the path we will take. On top of this, once we powdercoat our parts, then the powder coating should further be able to radius sharp edges and remove the coarse gritty texture where the waterjet ran its course.
We use a bench grinder that has had both of its wheels replaced with Scotch-Brite wheels. These wheels are perfect for deburring aluminum, especially thin sheet metal. These are commonly used by kit aircraft builders who need to debur aircraft skins that are sometimes only .020" thick.
We have something similar but instead of scotch-brite wheels, we have a wire wheel. It’s amazing for medium-small to medium parts but too big and it’s not very easy to move the part around to deburr it. At that point, we just use a deburring tool or a file.
My team just uses hand files for most applications, and a deburring tool for holes. A hand file is cheap, easy, and should be relatively fast with a waterjet-cut part.