When David Durgin of Mainly Metals from Vermont needed to expand out of the niche market he was in, he looked at new machining centers. After reviewing the benefits and drawbacks of lasers, routers, and mills, Durgin decided to adopt abrasive waterjet as the most flexible option. Now with multiple OMAX machines, Mainly Metals is able to take on just about any project, from decorative stone work at a city hall to custom metal parts for federal contracts to creative art projects such as the Time Cycle seen at Burning Man. For Durgin, the OMAX abrasive waterjet provides “the most versatile machine cutting with the most variety of materials.”
Mainly Metals can efficiently respond to a myriad of cutting requests from random industries Mr. Durgin had not considered working with before.
- Farming: Cutting steel replacement wheel centers for tractor tires
- Excavators: Cutting modified metal components so their equipment can accomplish different excavating tasks
- OEMs: Cutting parts associated with government or federal contracts
- Vermont’s City Hall: Cutting interconnecting mosaic granite pieces for decorative public road art
- Building/Bridge Construction: Cutting stainless steel hubs for a geodesic dome
- Ski Resorts: Trimming ideally flat, stainless steel diamond plate strips that were 8 feet long x ½ inch wide for installing as traction on pedestrian steps
- Burning Man “Time Cycle” project: Cutting customised brackets and gears for a self-propelled Ferris wheel financed by individual contributors, such as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (founders of Ben & Jerry’s)
Before he acquired the OMAX waterjets, Mr. Durgin conducted most of his metal cutting with a hand-held plasma cutter or hand shears. He admitted the process was time-consuming since it involved extra part cleanup, and limited him to what material he could cut for customers. The cold cutting process of the waterjet became an excellent application for making equipment parts in the soap manufacturing industry.
For more information, see: OMAX JetMachining® Centers