learning scale for wire edm

[ruger22com]

I am a pretty good home machinist (working with & making gun parts for several years & work in job shops and inside shiipyard shops.)
But I have never done any cnc work...instead all "by hand" on lathes and mills.

I am considering buying a used wire edm machine to start making gun parts with, but since I have never played with one, how difficult is the programming end of these things? DO I need to find someone to program it, or is it something I can tackle straight out of a manual?

Also, what is a good CHEAP and easy to operate wire edm for making small parts (gun hammers, etc.)???

[roysol]

The short answer is there's no cheap way to do what you want. The learning curve for wire EDM is quite steep, espescially with no factory support when you buy a used machine. Most people who have no EDM experience, and start with a used machine, struggle mightly, even with previous CNC background.

Unless you want to do it strictly for fun, and don't mind investing a ton of time and a fair amount of money, I'd advise against it. If you're determined, in spite of this, ask some more questions and I'll give you a few more things to consider.

Cheers!

Roy Solomon

[Mat-C]

also, EDM might not be a good idea for gun parts.
There was a discussion about this a little while ago, and I believe the conclusion was that EDM (esp. older machines) hardens and/or micro-cracks the surface deapling enough to lead to wear problems in high stress applications.

[roysol]

Mat-C, you are correct that EDM has metalurgical effects on workpieces, but I'd like to highlight your "espescially older machines", to point out that it's also true that newer machines cause less damage, apples to apples, and in either case, this can be mitigated by using conservative stock allowances, and multiple trim cuts.

Aerospace companies that used to prohibit EDM, due to hydrogen embrittlement, cobalt depletion, martensite conversion, heat affected zone, re-cast layer, and micro-cracking, are now more open to accepting parts made by EDM. I would not hesitate to use EDM for gun parts, if it's properly executed.

Cheers!

Roy Solomon

[mdynac]

i would suggest finding a Charmilles/Andrew ef-330 for a beginners edm, it is brain dead simple to run and program.

i have several customers that manufacture $20,000 dollar shotguns and rifles using an edm for making some of the components....

these guns are made for professional target shooting and very rich people.....

i never had a complaint about an edm process messing up the material being eroded....

the majority of my customers manufacture aircraft parts... and been doing it for years......jet turbine blades....engine seals and other things i cannot discuss here....due to propietary information.....

Argonne National Labs uses one of my machines to do "destructive inspection" of Zircalloy tubes used for fuel rods in nuclear reactors, the reason why they edm the part before electron microscope inspection, is that it does not alter the material very much, if at all.....


another one of my customers, Halliburton, uses a wire edm to also do destructive inspection of broken drilling heads.....they use the edm process as it does not alter the material thery are attempting to inspect....
when a drill head fails in the well core they bring them back to the lab to find out what caused the failure.....and the edm process is the start point of choice in this process.....

the US Army, and the DoD, use edm to do similar inspection.......


unless all these people are wrong, i would say that wire edm is THE choice for minimum material damage.

just my 2 cents.....