Above: With the WARDJet, Mike Taylor can use the entire table. Nesting software enables him to make the best use of expensive material, like titanium, with preplanned cuts and less scrap.

Rather than being weighed down by a jangling key ring, one engineer invents a design to help lighten the load

November 2019 - An engineer’s mind observes a problem and then takes steps to resolve it. In the case of Mike Taylor, his years as a chief engineer for upscale historic hotels in Savannah, Georgia, led him to create an entire company devoted to keys, or rather, how to mitigate the cumbersome key ring. Trial-and-error led to KeyBar, a multi-tool that stacks keys atop one another. It also holds other objects, like small tools.

What began as one-off creations for family and friends quickly gained traction.

“I started KeyBar after I wanted to make key holders. I was already making pocket knives at the time so it made sense,” says Taylor.

Taylor taught himself how to fabricate pocket knives after following Instagram and YouTube videos. “After six months of making knives, I left my hotel job and focused fully on my knives and key rings,” he says. “Social media outlets helped open my mind to new ways of doing things. The second you figure out how to hold a part, you can make it.”

Demand took off and soon Taylor realized he’d need to supply his own cutting capabilities in order to keep up with orders. “Up until that point we were outsourcing metal cutting,” he recalls. “This operation started in my garage. I was paying CNC machine shops more than I was making, so I went online and saw how other guys with tiny mills no bigger than a bedroom were basically running their own full machine shops.

He purchased a laser engraver and a mill. “When it came to cutting small titanium parts, I realized the best way to do that would be to get a waterjet.”

Rather than outsource cutting, which meant Taylor paid out more than he earned, he sought out a 2-foot by 4-foot waterjet unit from WARDJet.

Smaller footprint

After talking to a few different waterjet manufacturers, Taylor selected a WARDJet A-Series “It’s an enclosed 2-foot by 4-foot unit with auto water levels and had everything I wanted, including a touchscreen,” he says. “It also ended up being more affordable than the other waterjet manufacturers I considered and, with those, I wasn’t going to have the enclosure.”

Taylor had no experience with waterjet cutting before his investment, so training was a must. “Right off the bat, WARDJet’s customer service person was really helpful. I bought my first enclosed unit and worked with their customer support to answer my questions or get any parts I’d need to get going,” says Taylor.

The A-Series is easy to use without compromising cutting power. “We use our Move control software on all A-Series machines, which is designed to look and feel familiar to anyone who has used a smartphone,” explains Benjie Massara, product manager at Tallmadge, Ohio-based WARDJet, part of AXYZ Automation Group. Move software allows the use of multi-touch controls, pinch-to-zoom and easy drag-and-drop part loading and placement. “We’ve given more advanced users the tools to perform more complex functions while still making the simple act of cutting a part as easy as possible.”

More customers are looking for the versatility of a waterjet with a minimal footprint, says Massara, adding, “The A-Series is perfect for this.” Besides the 2-foot by 4-foot, WARDJet has introduced a 4-foot by 4-foot model that “allows a customer to load a half sheet and run larger production runs while still having a fully enclosed machine that will not dirty or disrupt the rest of their shop.”

Compared with a standard waterjet, the A-Series “feels more like using a small milling machine,” Massara says. “We also offer options such as water-level control, for quiet and clean cutting under the water’s surface, and abrasive removal to ease in maintenance of the machine.”

The 60,000 psi intensifier pump is standard on all A-Series machines, which also feature a machine-mounted, continuous bulk hopper, he notes. “Our hopper allows for continuous cutting while you load more abrasive. There is no need to stop production and fill by hand.

“The integrated hopper can feed 85 pounds of abrasive without refilling,” he continues, “and you can load as many bags as needed without stopping. From quick jobs to long cuts on 7-inch-thick material, the A-Series is ready for anything you can throw at it.”

Each waterjet comes with WARDCam software that allows users to work from .DXF files quickly—“just a few clicks,” Massara says. Maintenance is minimal, other than the occasional greasing of the drive system, cutting head maintenance and abrasive removal from the tank based on the volume of consumption. “We offer our SmartRemove system to keep the abrasive in the tank at a very low level while removing the spent abrasive into bags for storage or removal from your shop,” he adds.

What started in Taylor's garage has evolved into a full-time business.

Cutting costs

Compared to laser, waterjet accomplished what Taylor needed. “The price of running a waterjet versus a laser for our needs was cheaper. No one would really tell us what the laser was going to be able to do for our specific needs. We went with what we had tried out and knew, and the waterjet was half the price of any of the lasers we considered.”

Setup and installation was easy, says Taylor. “The hard part comes with working with different materials and kerfs, how fast your frequencies are affecting the cut—how fast you can move it and how much sand you can put through it,” Taylor says. “The more we use it, the more comfortable we get.”

“Titanium is really expensive so we needed a way to make the best use of the 2-foot by 4-foot sheet we cut from,” Taylor says. “We use the entire table. We’re learning how to make the best use of the nesting software and preplanning cuts. The more we do it, the better we get at it.”

KeyBar cuts exotic alloys, most often titanium. In addition to the waterjet, Taylor purchased a CNC milling machine, two laser engravers, and his own blister package machine. With seven employees, the company has come a long way from Taylor studying social media videos five years ago. “I thought, ‘I can do this,’ and the more we make, the more people call.” MM