Basics
- Stands for Electric Discharge Machining.
- It is simply a spark between an electrode/wire (Depending on which machine variant is used) and a workpiece that are separated by a dielectric fluid (Usually high purity water (Double Distilled or Deionized) or oil)
- It does super precise cutting and small hole drilling in electrically-conductive materials.
About
- Good explanation + Demo in this video at 13:26
- Uses 0.25 mm brass wire for cutting, Mcmaster has 0.5 mm wire - $30/lb - [1]
- Voltage is 50-300V. Current for 1" cut below is 35A.
- 1 pound of wire used per hour to cut a 1/2" hole in a 3" piece of hard metal. - [2]. that is $5 in wire cost. About $1 per inch of metal.
- 10x slower than waterjet - [3]
- Waterjet appears to be much better for the speed and cost. But EDM advantage is 10x more precise - [4]
Examples of EDM Cut Objects
- The following was cut using a high precision Wire-Cut EDM Device. The Cut is so precise that the shape can seem to disappear into the cube it was cut from when it is reinserted:
<a href="//imgur.com/DAs75ze">THE FINAL FORM</a>
<script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source
Existing Open Source Designs
"AndysMachines"
YouTube #1
- DIY, cuts 1" stainless at 2 mm/min - [5] (Dead Link) How to - [6] (Dead Link)
Book on DIY EDM machines
"Homebuilt EDM Machines"
Books and Starter Kits
MIT Design?
- MIT Machines That Make - [9]
Basic Design
BOM
EDM wire
Internal Links
External Links
