Entry Door Insert

hmmmm... I didn't register that he wants to cut 3-4" thickness. Water-Jet comes to mind also, but I am concerned the jet may 'wander' around in that kind of thickness..... but the water-jet folks are always improving too. I was involved in a huge project where they jet-cut a couple hundred feet of

1.25" granite in a freeform design ... awesome results!!!

cheers, Jacques Bordeleau

This can't be that different from cutting refractory tank blocks, that are fusion cast, and come in up to 12" thickness. They use diamond wheels with lots of water. Fundamentally it's a standard masonry saw. We used Clipper saws in the UK on site, but in the factories they have beefier versions.

Why not ask Vesuvius at Falconer NY what they use?

3 to 4" thick is fine for a waterjet.

Depending on the equipment used, and the edge quality desired, cutting speeds would range from about 1 inches per minute to about 3 inches per minute for straight line cuts.

If the part has lots of intricate shape to it, especially sharp inside corners, then the cutting speeds will be slower.

Some grades of glass (like tempered glass) are more difficult to cut than others. (tempered is impossible). Even bullet-proof glass can be waterjet cut, though not all bullet proof glass can be pierced.

In general, waterejets can cut just about any fancy shape you can draw. Here are some cool examples:

a few thousanths of an inch of "taper" on straight cuts, andperhaps up to 0.030" of "blow out" in sharp inside corners. If you need better precision than that, it is not hard, but make sure the equipment used is OMAX equipment, which has really good cutting models for controlling taper and corner blow out, etc.

If you need the maximum amount of precision, then find a shop that has a "tilt-a-jet" cutting head. Not many have this, because it's new technology, but if you call OMAX they'll tell you where you can find one. In most cases, though, I have trouble imagining that you need glass to such high tolerances.

For job shop listings, more info on waterjets, etc, visit my web site at:

info on OMAX, or to find shops that have precision capabilities,visit and contact OMAX. (By the way, I'm acomputer programmer for OMAX.)When looking for waterjet job shops to do glass work, make sure theyhave equipment that can do low pressure piercing, as it is essentialunless you are comming in from the side of the materail. Without it,the glass will crack durring the pierce. Also note that there are alot of different waterjets out there, and not all of them are capableof good tolerances.

If you have any questions, let me know. My email is snipped-for-privacy@waterjets.org.

======================== Subject: test From: Riordan7 To: rec.crafts.glass Date: 5/20/2004

Sorry, for the bandwith absolutley none of my responses are going thru.

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Subject: larger glass band saws, from Riordan From: Riordan7 To: rec.crafts.glass Date: 5/20/2004

Hi Folks, Sorry for start>Subject: Re: Need help on search for larger glass band saws