Next, it goes through a metering disc which looks like a metal circle with a hole in the center. This controls how much garnet comes through.

Garnet is the material used that is mixed with the water to allow the water to cut the material. The more garnet you use, the faster it will cut through the material.

This will optimize the amount of pieces one stock sheet that has a fixed size of 32×50 inches can make. By optimizing how it is cut you can use less material and have less waste.

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Once the tank starts to get full of garnet and other things, a septic tank company usually comes by to remove what’s in the tank once or twice per year.

You wouldn’t load up an entire sheet to cut one piece unless you need that super high tolerance, which is why 1 piece can cost as much as 30 pieces of the same size because once you cut into a stock sheet, the remaining pieces are considered cutoffs and may never be used for new orders that come in.

The cutting head has a diamond orifice that allows the pressure to build to make it stronger. Kind of like what happens when you put your thumb over a hose at home! The end goal is to increase the distance and pressure as the water comes out.

Most people don’t realize this but when you order a piece of custom size glass, there is a cutting tolerance. It is different from company to company and for our cuts our tolerance is +/- 1/16”.

When the computer control is asking for garnet, it gets funneled through a hose. Then it makes it way through the machine, getting pushed up by air pressure and vacuumed into the gantry. It then goes into a mixing chamber.

SMA is the name given to a number of genetically distinct conditions which all result in muscle weakness. There is a great variation in the severity and impact they have. The more common form of SMA is broadly known as 5q SMA (Types 1, 2, 3 and 4).

A CNC Machine is a specialized piece of equipment that allows those in the glass industry to cut glass. With a CNC machine you can get a really precise cut that would otherwise be impossible to obtain with regular scoring and breaking by hand. It also allows us to do special shapes with high precision.

This is a childhood onset form of SMA. You can find information about the condition on these pages. There are also some families’ experiences of when their child has been diagnosed with SMARD1.

While you do not necessarily need to use garnet to cut things, there is a rule of thumb. If you can cut the material with scissors, you can use straight up water to cut it with the waterjet. Since glass cannot be cut like that, it does require garnet to cut. This process produces a sanded edge that makes it safe to handle.

CNC glasscutting

If you are using 1/4″ float glass on a CNC machine, you have to dial the CNC in to be more gentle. Metal will take a higher setting. If the CNC is too vigorous, it can seriously damage the edge of the glass to the point of it being unusable.

Once you feed in the instructions to the machine and calibrate it you simply load up the glass and let the machine do its work. With different machines it will execute the instructions differently.

A waterjet CNC works great if you know how to dial the settings to work with glass. A waterjet takes the instructions and comes in from the edge of the glass and routes out the glass using abrasive water.

Once you have your diagram ready to go, you import that into the machine and calibrate the machine to the material you have.

Depending on the part being made, that could be a deal breaker on the edge finish. If you need a flawless mirror coated edge that fits into a robotic machine, you need to utilize every millimeter of surface area. If it is not calibrated correctly it could also straight up shatter the glass.

This is an adult onset form of SMA. We provide some information about the condition with links to further information and sources of support.

That means it really is great for any glass cuts like rectangles, trapezoids, triangles, pentagons, and weird shapes. Basically anything that does not have a square or sharp hole on the inside.

For example: If you have to create 100 pieces that are 2×3 inches, to get the most out of the material you’d need to figure out how each cut will be made.

There are other types of CNC machines that are designed specifically for glass cutting. Instead of having a regular head on it that would be used on a waterjet, it has a scoring wheel.

These pages provide information about some other rarer forms of SMA. For some of these, the information is very limited.

Glasscutting machine

For example, if you need something cut to +/- 0.001mm, that is basically impossible to do by hand. The equipment used to cut the glass itself has a lower standard of measurement, which could mean hours of sanding if the cut is too large. This would not be time or cost effective.

When the tolerance needs to be tighter it is definitely doable and depending on how tight, the CNC is the go to method for achieving it.

Have you ever wondered how intricate designs are cut into glass and metal? Surely no human can have that amount of skill and precision–that’s why CNC Machines do it!

This is very limited due to the small numbers of individuals affected by these conditions. No drug treatments have so far been approved for any of them. These pages give an overview of research into three of the very rare forms of SMA.

A CNC machine is also used to automate the glass cutting process. This is why some companies have high minimum quantities to order custom sizes! This is because when you decide you want to use the CNC to cut something, you have to feed it an entire sheet of glass.

This guide tells you how genetic conditions are inherited. It identifies the different inheritance patterns for the rarer forms of SMA (see below). It includes information about the chances of children being affected.

It’s really cool because you can still get a sharp edge even though it is a circular knob on the end. The only thing it can’t do is sharp holes within the glass because of the shape of the rod.

The garnet could be reused but it is not really recommended. Once it is used, it gets mixed in with any trace elements of what you were cutting. You want it to be nice and clean for the best result.

It also changes form a bit when it is first used to cut something– it explodes! It may not have as much mass the second time around that could be necessary to cut certain materials.

It all starts with a DXF file. This is just a fancy term for a diagram of a part that needs to be cut to a certain size and shape within a specific tolerance. It has to be in DXF file format because that is the type of file the CNC machine can take in to perform the action on the glass stock sheet.

The hopper has a warning light that lets you know when it is getting low. When the light comes on you have about 1 hour left before you need to seriously refill.

There is a hose attached to the cutting head that feeds the garnet into the water mixture. You can find it just below the diamond orifice. Then the mixture goes through the focusing tube and cuts the material.

This allows the CNC to score the glass directly which allows for more flexibility in the cut, specifically when cutting out holes within the glass. In this case the CNC simply scores the glass and then you have to break it afterward by hand.