Wire EDM show and tell

[Graham S]

I promised a few pics of the sodick wire machine I commissioned and sometimes work on as a part time job, here they are:

1. The business end: The uprights are what jobs are clamped to, these are stainless as the dielectric used is deionized water. You can see the lower arm and wire nozzle with some thick cable attached to it, this is the ground. The lower nozzle does not move, the tank moves instead. On the upper nozzle you can see the attached hose for flushing. The nozzle can move up and down to accomodate different sizes of material and also left/right and back/forth. This is to allow taper cuts etc, these are the U and V axes. Above the nozzle is the wire threader.

2. Ye olde control system: inside is an NEC sort of PC thing and not much else. This has a duff back up battery which I must replace at some point, if the thing dies however we are stuffed so I am reluctant.

3. Part of the wire tensioning: The wire comes from the reel not in view, through a ceramic nozzle, around one wheel, around the other back around the first and then through an anti fluff felt thing. Better pic later

4. The wire threader: Quite complex sort of a thing. At the top are some rollers that can pull on the wire when needs be, the push the wire down the threading tube which has a flow of water passing down it. The tube lowers, passes through the upper nozzle (which opens) and either sits on top of the threading hole in the work or just above the lower nozzle. There is a constant flow of water through the tube and down through the lower nozzle that helps pull the wire through.

[Graham S]

And some more

1: more of the tensioner, still not reel in site, sorry. The black wheel conects to some tension control gizmos in the machine.

2: The wire box. Unlike the homebrew machines I have seen that for some reason do reel-2-reel this machine just chucks the wire in a box. The wire is very cheap and the whole point of having it continously running is that it gets worn by the cutting process.

3: The wire pulling thingybob, two big rollers.

4: The wire suction device. The two pipes go off the asperators which provide suction, they have special nozzle inside to aid the sucking of the wire during threading. This unit was origionally perspex but had been damaged through over tightening, I machined this replacement, being carefuly to add the relevant insulation. The wire is live comming out of the back of the machine so you don't want to short it to the chassis.

[Graham S]

I'll try and get some pics that show the bigger picture. I'll answer any questions I can.

[avs_nutz]

That looks alot like an A(W)350 I ran some time ago. Is that a Mark XI or EX21 Control on it? Aren't those drive belts for the threading tube fun to replace?!!!!

[Konrad]

Thanks for sharing Graham!

I get my wire cut by somebody in town, also on a sodick.

I'm in the look out for a older one......what year would this one be and what's the feed rate??

Konrad

[Graham S]

It is a 1991 A350 I think. The control is XI I seem to remember.

Not had to replace the metal belt yet, hoping I never do.

Konrad, the feed rate depends on what you are cutting.

Graham