Hey Giles! This is for you!

[Silverbullet]

At least I think it was Giles anyway

Many months ago (years even?) you mentioned that you are an agent for Sodick wire EDM machines, and I said we have one where I work. At the time I couldn't recall which model but that was before they taught me how to use it. Now I'm getting pretty good at running this temperamental old beast, can setup and run most jobs without having to ask 1 question of the expert operator...unless I press a wrong button or it throws up one of it's many error codes

So I present to you this video of a job I ran today, 120mm of hardened tool steel being cut on the Sodick 4530D with EX21 controller.

And for everyone else, enjoy the light show cut starts at 1:05

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yml33MyxjhY

[steptoe]

scrub the , memory served you correct, Giles yer man!

[sven '2']

At least I think it was Giles anyway

Many months ago (years even?) you mentioned that you are an agent for Sodick wire EDM machines, and I said we have one where I work. At the time I couldn't recall which model but that was before they taught me how to use it. Now I'm getting pretty good at running this temperamental old beast, can setup and run most jobs without having to ask 1 question of the expert operator...unless I press a wrong button or it throws up one of it's many error codes

So I present to you this video of a job I ran today, 120mm of hardened tool steel being cut on the Sodick 4530D with EX21 controller.

And for everyone else, enjoy the light show cut starts at 1:05

Looks really cool - could you explain how it all works to us 'civilians?!

Is it a milling machine on steroids? (milling machine being the extent of my knowledge)

[Silverbullet]

Hehe oh yeah forgot that part

It's called a wire EDM machine, EDM means electro discharge machining. Basically there is an electrically charged wire being fed into the work piece. As the wire comes near the work piece a small spark jumps across from the wire which vaporizes a tiny amount of material from the work. As you can see this happens through the length of the wire very quickly and basically eats its way through the work (but the wire never actually touches the work) The wire is under quite a bit of tension to keep it straight and is constantly being fed through by a spool up top and gets shredded at the back of the machine once it's been used. This process is extremely accurate (to within a few microns) and can cut through tool steels and dies after they've been hardened. The top and bottom "heads" where the wire comes through can move independently as well so you can cut angles and tapered holes.

It's a bit like a CNC milling machine but more accurate, and very very slow. I like to think of it a bit like a glorified band saw though