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| Titivating a Wire EDM Machine |
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| awemawson:
More playing about today. Really this is for PeteW who asked a few posts ago how I would accurately put centre holes in those 20 tooth gears that I cut earlier. I'd been playing with gear parameters in the FeatureCAM gear generating program, as I'd not been happy with the tip radius that I'd cut last time. So I generated a 25 tooth Mod 1.5 gear with what I hope to be the correct geometry, and to demonstrate the method this time put a 10 mm shaft bore and a 3 mm keyway - all cut on the EDM machine. A/ Having downloaded the G code to the machine I mounted the 1/4" mild steel plate in which I had drilled a 3.3 mm centre hole. B/ Then I cut the wire and threaded it though this hole. C/ Then using an inbuilt machine function accurately located the centre of this hole and set it as X=0 Y=0 D/ Next I inserted an M01 (Optional Stop) command between the G code cutting the bore and the rest that does the actual gear teeth. E/ Then I set the machine running with the 'Optional Stop' button pressed. (*) F/ This cut the bore and keyway then automatically stopped waiting for my attention. G/ Next I cut the wire, moved the table so that the re-threaded wire was outside the blank, and set it going H/ Several hours later I removed the gear and cleaned it up. (*) it was at this point I realised the the button was incorrectly labelled 'Option Skip' not 'Option Stop' as it should have been, so while it was making the gear I printed out another button label on overhead projection film and fitted it. Mild steel always comes out with light surface rust, which I usually take off with phosphoric acid - this time I used the wire wheel. |
| AdeV:
Tidy! How long is "several hours", and - when used in its original production environment - would the operator have been pushing the machine along faster? What's the maximum thickness steel it'll cut? Cheers! Ade. |
| awemawson:
Ade that took about 3 hours, but I know it wasn't optimised. Approximately 1 mm of cut per minute as it was set up. Theoretically it should do up to about 10 mm per minute on that 1/4" plate for a roughing cut. It will however do up to 200 mm thick tool steel :clap: |
| AdeV:
Thats quite impressive - especially if it can maintain its 20mm/min speed in that 200mm steel.... What about ali, brass, etc.? All cuttable? I may have to start watching eBay again.... |
| awemawson:
If it conducts electricity it'll cut it. Speed will reduce with increased thickness - think in terms of 'area cut per minute'. They don't often turn up on ebay. |
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