Ebay – time sink, hugely frustrating source of failed attempts to buy stuff (it’s mine, it’s mine – the price hasn’t moved in hours. WHAT? It jumped seven times in the final seconds).
Yep, that eBay. You can buy pretty much anything on it and, we were shocked (but maybe not shocked at the same time) to find – this includes water jet cutting machines!
Obviously, depending on when you read this exact listings may have changed, but we saw…
Two high-quality, if somewhat old water jet machines. Both said collection in person was the only delivery option and both were based in the United States. Being a UK company, we weren’t overly tempted – imagine getting a water jet cutter on to a flight home.
Both of these had photos that were somewhat out of focus, and there was no video of the machines actually in use. Make of this what you will! Maybe it’s just us, but if we are going to be spending thousands on something, we’d rather it worked (don’t start us on those eBay listings that say ‘untested’ – you mean you couldn’t have tried testing it? Come on, you know it’s broken…)
Then there was a water jet cutter which looked somewhat homemade! It was, we would argue, less water jet cutter and more pressure washer with a few adaptations. Let’s just say, we’d want a lot of safety equipment to be using it, it didn’t look the most robust of machines. In fact, it seemed to be modelled on the backpacks from the original Ghostbusters somewhat – still, useful if you find a Slimer in your garage.
We were also taken by the price – £2,000. Now, £2,000 would be cheap for an effective water jet cutting machine, but it would be a lot for a pressure washer with tweaks. We’re not quite sure where it fell, but maybe more towards the latter.
Oh, the listing also said it had not been tested – maybe this is fair enough, as not sure we’d want to be testing it. Buyer be aware seeming very apt.
In all seriousness, although you can buy a water jet-cutting machine off ebay, why would you?
These machines are highly specialised. Those who require their own, dedicated water jet-cutting machine (and this is a very small group) know what they need and would buy from a reputable source. They could even seek ones from professional water jet cutters that are reaching the end of their life where they are, perhaps as newer technology is brought in.
The homemade, adaptations. What are you getting? A machine that might cut? It might be safe?
Maybe that is the internet though. There are lots of things you can do on it, a lot of those would be ill-advised.
Anyway, if you do find yourself needing parts cut, and you want the results to be high quality, please do contact friendly, professional water jet cutters for a quote. It’s a lot easier than trying to carry a cutter back in hand luggage, or trying to explain why you spent £2k on a machine that is good for washing the drive but not much else.
At TMC, we are a water jet cutter who serve the whole of the UK and increasingly Europe too, with clients across the content trusting us to work on their projects.
Despite our success, we remain a company that focuses on every client and work on projects of all sizes. If you think water jet cutting might be of use for your project, please do get in touch for an obligation-free chat.
Call us on 01625 610 441 or use our Contact Form.