Titivating a Wire EDM Machine

Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs

<< < (16/35) > >>

awemawson:
Well I went ahead and tapped the holes. Horrible in soft aluminium.

On assembly amusingly it became obvious that one of the 'inner' holes (ie nearest the table) actually isn't accessable in any position of the table to put a screw in :scratch: (See picture 'Bottom-Left') Anyway I went ahead using some stock 6 mm pan head screws packed with washers so that they don't project below.

It basically works - I did have one nasty moment when moving the table about and it caught - one screw was sticking down ever so slightly - had that been on automatic programmed movement it would have torn the cover apart I suspect.

Here are some pictures showing the limits of travel to illustrate how the cover is pulled about over the base of the machine

awemawson:
Now the cover rectangular hole is larger than the bit of the machine that pushes it about so there is deliberate 'lost motion' (or back lash if you like) - to illustrate this I've centred the table then show the cover able to slide a fair way back and forth - (same looseness is there side to side) :

awemawson:
Now I don't think that this method of joining the two halves is a satisfactory design. Currently there is a single joggle allowing the original half cover to rise over my new one. It must have been the top element evidenced by the counter sunk holes in it.

However I believe that a 'double joggle' so that the top cover is offset 4 mm and the lower one by 2 mm allowing a 2 mm stainless steel strip to take the threads would be a far better design.

I'll see how she goes 'as is' as forming joggles accurately isn't something I've done before.

Crap-O-Cad drawings depicted below

awemawson:
So what do you do if you've never joggled, haven't got a joggler, and want to joggle :scratch:

Well you do a bit of googling :coffee: then set to and make one - obvious really :ddb:

I need to joggle about 8" wide in 2 mm aluminium plate and have a 2x material (ie 4 mm offset) on the joggle. Finding a 22" length of hot rolled bar I halved it, then milled suitable steps in it to form the offset. Really the corners should be rounded, especially if the bent component is stressed, but this isn't and I didn't :ddb:

Then I drilled and tapped for a pair of 12 mm studs, so the joggler could be clamped in place while the (rather large) part is manoeuvred into place on the press.

awemawson:
Then we need to try it out. First a small offcut in the vice, and check the offset is correct

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version