Have you ever noticed how everyone is nice to the mold repair guy who is also able to do micro welding or laser welding? No wonder, when a mistake is made with EDM machining, you need help, now!
The use of precision tooling helps immensely, when operating a sinker EDM or a WEDM. If you have sub-par electrode holders or ineffective set-up and inspection equipment, you job becomes vastly more difficult.
Hard as it is to believe, there are still shops out there that are using vises, angle plates or homemade tooling to hold electrodes. This might make sense in some remote case where nothing else works, or if your application is so specialized that it is the best approach.
Actually, I did work in a high precision mold making shop that machines graphite blanks and held them in little fixtures they had made. Because the product line was so limited and the machining was always the same but different, this worked quite well.
Whenever we got outside of that little box, it was different though. When I suggested that we invest in System 3R, they looked at me as if I was crazy. I also wanted to get a high speed milling machine and use the automatic tool changer, but this was not to be. They are no longer in business.
Randy Hough has a website: http://CompleteEDM.com that talks about EDM machining and how to get the best results.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
