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We are a granite and marble fabrication shop. We use a Flow 60K Waterjet. Is there anyone out there that works with granite and marble who can offer any advice on setting the machineability for various types of granite slab material?
The answer to your question is not as straight forward as one would think. If your pump is producing a perfect 60k, and your abrasive is flowing perfectly then you can assume the following machinability numbers that we use Absolute black 8.5 Black pearl 9 Any other black 8.5-9 Tan brown, trop brn, coffee brn basically any brn 10.5 Bianco antico 10.5 Uba tuba, blue pearl, green prl 11 Kashmir white, gold 11 Giallo ornamental, fiaro 11 Santa Cecilia, Luna blanca 11 All quartz (caesarstone, cambria, chroma, silestone, diresco) 12 Marble 12(3cm) 13(2cm)
Now that's all with a .040 nozzle and .013 orifice, 80 mesh @ 1.3 lbs/min As your nozzle and orifice wear, the cut edge will show more of the cutting wake Also I run 40% feed rate on polished edges, and either 80-100% on wall edges, 40% for seams and sinks
I use 3" arc lead in, 1"arc lead out for sinks, and 2" in, 1" out for straight lines
Keep in mind that the faster you cut the more grinding you have to do, also heavily veined exotics or stones like bianco antico contain harder and softer areas, this inconsistency in hardness has the tendency to cause the lower part of the kerf to "wander" or blow out if moving too fast
When piercing marble or quartz I usually use low pressure and select the pierce all holes first option, set your dwell on pierce time to 10secs for 2cm marble, 15 secs for 2cm quartz and 20-25 secs for 3cm, I know this takes additional time, but it prevents topside blowouts in both and stress fractures in quartz, especially if your cutting smaller holes like electrical sockets in full height back splash
Compounding this cutting conundrum further is that slabs of the same color but different blocks can cut differently under the
Basically this is a guideline, only time and experience will teach you the finesse of cutting stone on the flow
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