Waterjet Cut needed in Los Angeles ASAP

FIRST General Forum
1

FIRST Community –

I am a mentor for Team 4276 (2nd year team) and spent a great deal of time this year teaching the students how to use CAD and other design tools.
The students were enthusiastic about it and we ended up 3D printing many parts for our robot, which will compete in next week’s Los Angeles Regional.

I assigned a group of underclassmen to design a nice-looking Control Board that we could waterjet-cut (a huge upgrade from our scrap-wood board last year). They took on the project, learned CAD, and made a great looking board with what they learned.
One of the team’s parents said we had access to a waterjet cutter at his company, but at the very last minute was told that we weren’t authorized to cut a piece of this size (about 42" long by 16" tall).

I know it’s not considered a “vital” piece for us to compete, but I was wondering if any teams in the Los Angeles area had access to a waterjet and were willing to cut this for us quickly? I have a .dxf file (or .stp). I was hoping that I didn’t have to tell the students that their time and effort learning CAD and designing this board went to waste.

2

I would start calling any waterjet shops you can find in the area. You should be able to find one that is willing to cut your parts for free.

You could also look for a company that works with plastic/makes signs. Anyone with a large router should be able to do the parts as well.

3

Be careful with it being 16" tall, refs/inspectors may hassle you over that.

4

What material? One of our sponsor may be able to cut it. You probably will have to provide the material. PM me and I will send it out to see if they are interested.

One can water cut or laser cut, another can laser cut.

5

How thick is the material? You can also get it laser cut. And yeah, be careful about the dimensions, as Adam pointed out.

6

We’ve found that lots of shops are hesitant to laser polycarb, apparently because of fumes.

7

Yeah its pretty nasty. One of our sponsor wants to get a fume hood so they can do that.

8

Mark - -contacting you privately.

For the rest, when I said “tall” I really meant “wide”. As in, this is a flat piece, and is 12" at it’s widest point, not 16"

Thanks for your responses!

9

Send me the .DXF file and the material specifications and I will manufacture your part for you. Unfortunately we are in NY, you cover the shipping back.