DIY wire EDM

[Malleus]

I am in love:

; not with him, with the wire EDM he came up with.

As soon as this is on the market, I'm going to be on the lookout for someone to print the parts for me. I've been waiting for one of these since I was an apprentice machinist, 45 years ago.

I have little or no use for 3D printed parts, as such, but this is the cat's south end.

I think most you tube DIY stuff is crap, or nearly so, but this is really very well thought out and, looking through the documentation on the wire tool add-on for a 3D printer, this guy really did everything like I would, if I bothered to do it

I could live with 50µ tolerance for almost everything I could want this to do, and I have a surface grinder for what I couldn't.

 

[Waorani]

Interesting.

 

[Malleus]

Wire EDM is the Shizz

 

[Malleus]

The best thing about wire EDM is the ability to cut through anything that'll conduct electricity. Hard or soft, large or small, doesn't matter. And, if you have a position controller, you can cut shapes that would impossible any other way. $2k for a new wire EDM is a steal.

Imagine being able to cut gear geometry into fully hardened blanks, and use them right off the table. And that's only an off-the-top-of-my-head example.

 

[PAToyota]

Reprints of the Home Shop Machinists articles: Build an EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining - Removing Metal by Spark Erosion - https://secure.villagepress.com/store/items/detail/page/2/item/797

Build an EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining - Removing Metal by Spark Erosion

By Robert P. Langlois

Remove metal by spark erosion through electrical discharge machining. Descriptive hand-penned drawings put the author at your elbow. Electrical Discharge Machining -- Removing Metal by Spark Erosion, first published as a series in The Home Shop Machinist. Fun to make, fascinating to use -- perfect results!
Softbound. 56 pages.

$18.00

 

[Malleus]

Home brew EDM has been around for a while, but the one I posted originally is the best I've seen.
This guy had me excited, a while back, until I realized I could buy a used EDM machine for what I'd need to put into his idea...