Big Blue Saw Blog

General Updates

Details: Written by Super User; Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: 12 April 2017

We're having a sale next week on custom waterjet cut aluminum parts. This early announcement gives you time to prepare your designs.

You can place your order online for aluminum 6061 in 0.1875 inch thickness (that's 3/16 inch or 4.8 mm in metric) and you'll automatically receive a quantity discount. The sale starts on Monday, April 17 and runs through Wednesday, April 19. To take advantage of the low prices, fire up your CAD software now and get your files ready to upload to our waterjet cutting quoting system.

Details: Written by Simon Arthur; Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: 28 March 2017

You may recall our previous article showing the custom putter stand from Piretti Golf, makers of fine golfing gear. Bill Craig wrote in again to show us a new rotating putter display, made with waterjet cut aluminum parts from Big Blue Saw. You can see the finished display above.

Let's take a look at how Big Blue Saw created the detailed design and aluminum parts. Bill started by sending us a photo of a template he made as well as a diagram showing the dimensions he needed.

There are very few features on this part that require high precision. The part doesn't mate with any others except for the hole in the middle. It was much more important that the piece look good and be able to hold the golf clubs.

From this sketch and the photo, we were able to come up with a CAD drawing for the putter holder, plus a couple other discs which were needed to complete the display.

Using the CAD design, we waterjet cut the parts from 0.25 inch thick aluminum 6061.

Bill and his team did the final assembly and finishing. The results look fantastic!

Details: Written by Simon Arthur; Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: 10 March 2017

Create something new during Big Blue Saw's sale on custom aluminum and stainless steel parts. Any parts, no matter how audacious the design*, ordered online from the sale stock materials, will automatically receive a quantity discount. The sale materials are aluminum 6061 in 0.063 inch thickness and stainless steel 304 in 0.06 inch thickness.

If you're not sure what those thicknesses are like, note that a penny (US 1 cent coin) is 0.06 inches thick, or 1.52 mm, the same thickness as the sale stainless steel. The sale aluminum is slightly thicker.

The sale takes place on just 2 days: Tuesday, March 14 and Wednesday, March 15.

Both materials have a variety of uses including control panels, fan guards, stencils, drone parts, signs, robot mounting plates, and lighting brackets. But don't feel limited by what others have done: the flexibility of the waterjet cutting tool allows you to create parts for any application you can dream up.

The 0.06 inch thick stainless steel is particularly popular among custom keyboard builders, as it's the right thickness for standard mechanical keyswitches to clip in place.

If you're looking for some creative inspiration: Monday, March 13 is the 96th birthday of Al Jaffee, the Guiness record holder for "Longest career as a comics artist".

One of Mr. Jaffee's regular features in Mad Magazine are his inventions: solutions to everyday problems with an outrageously funny mechanism. There's the twist, though: some of his inventions actually ended up being made. For example, Jaffee imagined a self-extinguishing cigarette long before it became reality. His work is even cited in the patent. Another I noticed recently was the electricity generating sidewalk installed in Washington, DC last year. It relies on pedestrian footsteps to generate electrical power. But, of course Mr. Jaffee thought up the idea many years before. The Jaffee cartoon below is from a collection published way back in 1978!

Not sure what you'd like to create during the sale? Have a look at our example designs, projects made using Big Blue Saw, more projects made using Big Blue Saw, still more projects made using Big Blue Saw, yet again even more projects made using Big Blue Saw, and finally we've seen enough projects made using Big Blue Saw.

Have a design in mind? Get out your credit card and upload your design to our online quoting system now.

* Well, as long as they can be created by waterjet cutting!

Details: Written by Super User; Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: 07 March 2017

On Tuesday, March 14, and Wednesday, March 15, you'll be able to save on custom waterjet cut parts. All parts ordered online waterjet cut from aluminum 6061 in 0.063 inch thickness and stainless steel 304 in 0.06 inch thickness will automatically receive a quantity discount. (Note that this sale is 2 days instead of 3 days like other recent sales.)

Upload your designs now to our online quoting system to get ready.

Details: Written by Simon Arthur; Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: 24 February 2017

Customer Logan Reed wrote in recently to show us the beautiful table he made with help from Big Blue Saw.

The legs were waterjet cut from 1 inch thick aluminum 6061 using our low taper process. As shown in the outline of the CAD design, the legs are approximately 18 inches tall.