Titivating a Wire EDM Machine

Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs

<< < (8/35) > >>

awemawson:
Being at that frustrating point of 'waiting for bits to arrive' I've embarked on trying to clean up and restore the concertina 'curtain' arrangement that is suposed to stop water splashing out of the working area of the machine.

When I got my machine the curtains were flapping about, the far one is torn in several places, and the sliding seal mechanism that surrounds the arm and holds the inner end of the curtains is missing

awemawson:
Now a few years ago I had the opportunity to rescue parts from a 'Model L' Fanuc Tape Cut (mine is a 'Model M') - the 'L' has a smaller operating envelope, so for instance the arm that I'm working on is a smaller cross section.

However I did manage to get the curtains, and although encrusted with detritus it turns out that they are the same size (110 mm tall) as the Model M. So after a week end soak in citric acid they've come out perfectly usable - a result :thumbup:

awemawson:
From the donor machine I also got the sliding seal arrangement, and although too small for my arm at least shows me how it's supposed to be. So this also was cleaned up for inspection - all these bits were very heavily encrusted in, presumably, whatever the machine had been cutting, which had then oxidised into a solid mass

awemawson:
The actual seals are 10 mm square closed cell neoprene foam, which eBay has provided me with :thumbup: And rather than bend up the complicated shape out of stainless sheet, I'm going to machine a version from 20 mm square stainless bar, with a 10 mm groove to house the seals.

What I hadn't appreciated, when I robbed the donor machine, was that I had obtained a pair of 'grooved ditch' wire guides and their mounting. I frankly hadn't recognised them as what they are. These are a slightly less precise method of location for the wire, but vastly easier to thread. Using them will need quite a bit of adaptation - the upper one will just bolt straight on, but the lower one will need a bit of engineering, and both will need provision for flushing nozzles.

awemawson:
Note the delicate 'salmon pink' copper deposits - these were covered in crud like everything else, and a dip in the acid bath has cleaned them, but I suspect this machine had been cutting copper, and the copper oxide crud, and the acid has plated the stainless steel ! It'll come off easy enough later.
Fitting these will be another project - they'll be put to one side for now.

When I got access to the 'Model L' it had already been pilfered sadly, but I did manage to get the entire Fanuc 6 cnc control with the exception of it's operator panel and screen as that had already gone. Poor thing was under a tarp in a back alley behind a factory when I got to it, and was in a very sorry state.

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version