EDM (electric discharge Machining) Machine Walkthrough
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- I talk about my homemade EDM (electric discharge machining) machine built based on the book "Build an EDM" by Robert Langolois. The book is a series of articles that originally appeared in The Home Shop Machinist. I talk about some of the major parts used to build my machine and show a couple of parts that I cut using the EDM. At the end of the video there is a short clip of the machine in action.
Links to where you can get the book online:
secure.village...
www.artisanidea...
Mine was built to Robert's plans in the mid 1990's. It works well but is slow. A pulse supply with adjustable frequency would be the way to go, but I don't use it often enough to warrant the work.
For the vertical slide which carries the electrode and its holder, I used the carriage roller guide from an old office type writer. These are well made and quite accurate. One can pick one up at a flea market at very low cost. Just make sure the slide (carriage) moves freely but without much side play. Mine had some adjustment in the guides to eliminate side play.
Next consideration is flushing. I use distilled water with brass electrodes; this combination works well. For long work times I filter the water with a 1 micron water filter. For best results the flushing should be continuous through a hole in the electrode. I found that about 12 PSI flushing pressure seems to work well. Mine is a peristaltic pump driven with a variable speed motor.
The smallest tap I have burned out from a casting is 2-56. A friend of mine who built to the same design removed a 0-80 screw.
The machine is handy of course for removing broken taps, screws, reamers, etc. It is also handy for producing square, hex, and other shaped holes.
I'm not an electrical guy, but I didn't find it too difficult to built. I purchase the populated control board from Robert to speed up the work. One caution: Be sure to use AC service capacitors for the burning supply if you are planning to use the machine a lot.
This is real engineering, designing with the second hand parts you have, not brand new parts from the supplier !
Wow. He cut a big hole in a razor blade. You could probably only do that with EDM. This is so awesome. There are no enough good DIY EDM machines out there on youtube.
I can't tell if this comment is sarcasm or not. I choose to take it as a positive comment. :)
great video
This is awesome. I omitted the big resistor and used a flyback configuration from a switch mode power supply to charge the capacitor directly, meaning there's no loss of heat in the big resistor. It works wonderfully. What's the capacitor you used in this last video? those are huge sparks.
wow doing pcb work the hard way good for you bubby 3:30 that's determination
I bought this book. I bought all the parts. I got about 1/3 through assembly and life got in the way and I never finished. I'm mad because it would've been a great machine to have.
I understand exactly what your talking about "live got in the way" Have to say though, if you can spend time to watch this video....... Best of luck.
That was really interesting. Thanks a lot for sharing. An EDM is on my large list of things I would like to make one day. You have done a really neat job of a very non-trivial undertaking. What is the smallest diameter hole that you have successfully achieved to-date?
+Owen Giles I have not tried cutting small holes The smallest I have done was with the smaller of the two electrodes in the video.
2 questions: Did u really use the book shown, and what modifications did u have to make to the electronics, that proved to work better, than the original-book-layout (which i know well)? Not the changes u were forced to make (for example, because u couldnt find the exact electronic component used in the book), but changes that experience proved to work better... And I wanted to know how u connected the lead/cable to the tool-piece, cause through the 3d-printed-adapter it´s insulated, and I see how u flood it with water, but don´t see how u connected the lead/cable to it...
A remark: How satisfied are u with the cutting-quality and -speed? People insist on a high-spark-frequency and silent sparking... Is it the case for your machine, u think (video-volume can be misleading for us, and sparking-frequency is impossible to assess through a video... ) ?
Otherwise, what I saw looks great to me, seems to work like a dream (envy on 100%), but I could not assess everything based on a video. I didn´t know one can edm evem magnets, without de-magnetizing them, great!!!
I didn't modify the design for improved performance in any way. I just used an alogator clip to get the power to the electeode. (in the video you can see a hose clamp on the electrode. Yoi can also just barely see the tip of the aligator clip.)
@@ScorchWorks Thanks a lot for the answers, I know, it´s a very old video for you... Sorry, I didn´t look out for the aligator-clamp, and totally missed it, like a half-blind man... ;-)
would you be willing to share details about your edm. specificly the parts making up the actuator. square brass tubing sizes, thread size of the screw, lenth, how did you attach the ‘nut’ to the brass tube. basically anything that would help build one like yours. thx
how do you keep the MOT from heating up? mot generaly get very hot just running idle.
There is a fan for the power resitor which also moves the air around the MOT.
How many turns on the secondary for the microwave transformer?
Enough to get the desired voltage. After a few turns you can measure the voltage and calculate how ,any more you need.
@@ScorchWorks I guess that will work.
What about using EDM to make circuit boards? Etching away the copper with EDM. Any thoughts on that?
It is certainly possible to EDM a circuit board but it would be painfully slow with this machine. Chemical etch or traditional milling would be much faster.
Great build, any idea roughly what the cost would be to build?
+Welsh Dave I have most of the cost recorded. It looks like I spent about $110 on it. If I would have purchased the transformer and power resistors they would have been an additional $60 and $25 respectively. As I discussed in the video I got those items essentially for free (I didn't count the wire needed to rewind the microwave oven transformer in the $110 above)
How many minutes would you say it takes to cut to an 1/8" inch depth?
I would guess a few minutes. More with a bigger electrode.
Looks like lots of burning/carbon on magnet. Can you make cleaner cuts?
I don't know. Using something other than tap water as a dielectric would probably help.
👍
Suuuuper!
More details please
can you share the book with me
No, but here are links to where you can buy it:
secure.villagepress.com/store/items/detail/item/797
www.artisanideas.com/product/094165351x/Build-an-EDM-by-Robert-P.-Langlois---Electrical-Discharge-Machining---Removing-Metal-by-Spark-Erosion.html
$110 to build?? Man, I would buy that in a heartbeat for $500. Maybe you should think about going into business making affordable EDMs!