Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs
Titivating a Wire EDM Machine
awemawson:
So the first thing to do was cut a male spigot on the polycarbonate rod -
awemawson:
So having made that, parted it off, and made a second one (I had decided to make two new spools) I had to cut the female thread in the end. This was not only needed as half of the hubs, but also to hold the male threads for their 'second operation' of facing off and boring to size.
I realised that screwing the male into the female, then boring and turning the female would tighten the thread, so I made sure that the two mating faces were as clean and smooth as possible. Even so they locked up good and proper :bang: To get them apart I ended up knurling the unthreaded bit so that a strap wrench would have half a chance of gripping. I also used a thin parting tool to cut a slot between them in an attempt to relieve the tension. Eventually they came apart. The knurled bit is where the hub will be bonded into the cheeks so won't detract from the finished spool.
To avoid the same issue on the second one I hit on the idea of wrapping a soft copper wire round the junction between the two components, so that when turned on the lathe the wire could be pulled out with pliers to relieve the tension, and it worked quite well.
awemawson:
So tomorrows job is to start on the cheeks. I'll cut the profile and windows on the CNC mill, then taper the cheeks on the lathe
awemawson:
Bit of a late start today as I had to fell a tree that was threatening to push a wall over :bugeye:
Got the spool cheeks drawn up in CAD and into FeatureCAM to produce G code. Made a test cut / protototype from an off cut of Perspex that had been originally the splash guards on this machine. Perspex doesn't machine quite as nicely as polycarbonate but is was just to prove the process.
I wanted to engrave the word 'FANUC' on the reel cheek as per the dxf Phil kindly generated, but it produced more code than the TNC355 can gobble up - I'll run it as a drip feed second operaton - but at least this made a good prototype.
The perspex one may even get pressed into service to repair the original!
awemawson:
A bit more experimenting this evening, and I've reduced the G code of the logo from about 1500 lines down to 235 :ddb:
This has let me download it to the TNC355 Heidenhain controller and cut a test engraving, which has come out acceptably. Thanks Phil :thumbup:
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