spark eroding

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gilessim

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I didn't want to hijack Boggies thread with the laser cut parts, so I'll put it here, Has anyone had any experience with spark erosion?, I saw some one off parts for an old engine the other day ,including 2 gears that were done this way, absolutely incredible!, they told me that it's only really economical for special one-offs as opposed to long runs.

Does anyone know anything about this technique, or of any good links on the subject?

Giles


 
Its a slow operation, can be very accurate and there no tooling costs in the traditional sense so for complex one ofs i can see why someone would claim that. It is more commonly referred to as EDM, electrical discharge machining. You might find some stuff out there but given its mostly an industrial process, there's not the EDM equivalent of Southbend's "how to run a lathe" ;D, at least afaik. There have been some great diy sinker edms (makes holes) but not much on wire edms (cuts out a shape or profile). Robert Langlois wrote a serialized article years ago in HSM about making a sinker edm that was reprinted as a book, i believe it is still available. contact Villiage press. However if its gears you're looking for, that's a wire not sinking machine
 
I have had some EDM work done. It is definately no a cheap process but its amazing te kind of stuff you can get done with it. sooner or later we will find them in hobby machine shops right next to your rapid prototyping 3D printers.
Tim
 
Thanks guys!, now I know at least that it's called EDM, I was really just curious,I don't particularly have any need for it but I'll do some googling!

Giles
 
HI
Had a lot of broken studs removed using EDM, its very impressive when you look into a stud hole and see the threads are still there after having a broken 80 year old stud removed!

THe people I use have been doing it for a good many years and lay claim to having scrambled all the TV sets in the area the first time there original machine was run.

It is slow but for some jobs its simply the best solution, would I buy an EDM machine well yes if I had the work for it id have one like a shot.

Cheers Kevin
 
There are a couple of books that I have in my library that pertain to spark erosion of metal. Both books are by Ben Fleming. The first is about building a "metal disintegrater". It's basically used to erode a broken tap. The power unit, if I recall right, it's been a while since I read the book, is an AC welder. The other book he has written is called "The EDM how-to-book". The second book explains how to use graphite masters to make parts. This process is called "die sinking" since you take a master made from graphite and slowly sink the die into the metal.

I saw one of these set ups at NAMES the first time I took in that show back in the early 90's. It was setup on a drill press. The guys that make miniature internal combustion engines use this technique to make complicated parts.

I can't remember where I got these books form. My usual source is Lindsay, but they could just as well come from one of the machinist magazines.

So there are home made EDM machines around. It's just not that popular.

Bernd
 

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