Winery Barrel Head Stencil: Waterjet Cutting 304SS
Let’s make a winery barrel head stencil by waterjet cutting 304 stainless steel!
There is nothing that beats the durability of stainless steel, especially when it comes to applications such as this winery barrel head stencil that will be spray painted and blasted with propane to brand custom barrels for eons to come.
For this specific winery barrel head stencil project, CNCROi.com employed the waterjet over the plasma… and you can see the reason why right away, we needed sharp tight lettering for the website address.
Our plasma is fantastic, but as the cut diameter is larger than the waterjet and it needs longer lead in/out pathing so this technology was the best way forward for this winery barrel head stencil.
If you are looking for a custom barrel head stencil that you can roll-up and if you are only using spray paint, polycarbonate makes for a wonderful option.
Additionally, the sharp detail required for the flames also necessitated the waterjet, but this come at a cost, it takes longer and costs more literally to produce items using the waterjet, so it’s a give and take project by project as to what technology CNCROi.com employs to produce any given job.
What you see in the photo below of this winery barrel head stencil project is hardboard or MDF, it’s put under the sheet of stainless steel to give it more rigidity, this is important as the high pressure water and garnet shooting down through the stainless steel has to come-up somewhere and that’s all around the area not being cut, this can cause vibrations, which would affect cut quality.
When it comes to CNCROi.com, having multiple cutting and production platforms, both CNC based and other, allows us to use the best technology for the job at hand, instead of trying to get everything to fit into one with so-so results.
Elaborate or simple designs, it doesn’t matter, we can make your custom barrel head stencils to suit just about any design style you may have and want for your branding purposes.
CNCROi.com has made a lot of custom winery barrel head stencils through the years, these are fun projects to do, each design is so different than the last and it all basically fits in the same area of a barrel head.
You can see as the project progresses, that the garnet is building-up on the surface of the stainless steel as the waterjet is cutting out the winery barrel head stencil, this is why this process is a cold one, there is always water all around, so warping isn’t an issue as it may be with very tight cutting using our plasma in this fashion at CNCROi.com.
As the water comes back up after being shot down with the waterjet, it clears out the sand that builds-up on the surface where the holes are already made, essentially washing that area of the aggregate, this is why you see a neat effect on this winery barrel head stencil throughout the cutting process.
When it comes to options that give you a lot more freedom branding your barrel heads, we can also make multiple insert parts which will save you money and storage.
Just like the plasma cutter, the cut isn’t instant, there is a digging-in that needs to take place first, in the case of the plasma, it’s melting through the metal until it gets all the way through while with the waterjet, it’s wearing down through abrasion to produce the cut through process.
This is why with the waterjet, you see a plume of water shooting upwards until it can cut all the way through for the initial piecing while for the plasma, you see sparks, though the plasma is so fast, it’s a hardly noticeable transition.
As material warping due to heat isn’t a consideration with waterjet cutting this winery barrel head stencil, the cutting process is optimized however the software controlling the waterjet decides things to be so, with the plasma, I have to be a lot more selective for such a process.
We can also custom fiber etch stainless steel, so if you wanted additional notes or details added to your stencil, not a problem!
Though the years, when it came to barrel head stencils, 9 times out of 10, we employ the waterjet… and now you know why we do so at CNCROi.com!
Cutting out stainless steel is the same as cutting any other material on the waterjet, it just takes longer the thicker the material is, whether that’s rubber or titanium.
You can really start to appreciate the beauty of these machines, they literally dance smoothly over the work until the job is done, is upmost accuracy and articulation, this winery barrel head stencil doesn’t just look fantastic, but the process of making it is just as fascinating – to me at least.
If you want to compare production processes between waterjet and plasma, here’s a great video to show you the sparks and fire of the alternative to what I’ve shown you in this blog post.
High pressure water and abrasive produces a nice sanded edge quality, while the plasma produces a nice melted one, both are wonderful to look at and for this winery barrel head stencil, perfectly acceptable, it was just the fine details that made CNCROi.com choose one platform over another.
Now this winery barrel head stencil is just about finished, you can see how great this is looking, and once the circle is cut, we can finally liberate this custom stencil from the sheet of stainless steel and ship it to our customer!
Of course, CNCROi.com can also make other branding items for your business, from custom stamps to solid surface signage.
It’s quite amazing just how much can be made by CNCROi.com using our multiple production platforms, whether it’s a stencil made out of polycarbonate or metal, we can do it all!
As this winery barrel head stencil will be spray painted as soon as the customer gets it, we don’t care too much about the aesthetic qualities of the metal, unlike our metal plaques we also make at CNCROi.com, the masking is removed front and back so that’s why you see some marks on the stainless steel surface.
Need custom winery barrel head stencils? Contact CNCROi.com right now!