ex8 mits sinker question!

[KANNON123]

Hello All!
Glad to find this site. I have had a problem burning high grade graphite to carbide. It seems the master packs I am using are wrong. If anyone has any helpful advice I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Brian

[roysol]

I have an ea8, and on this machine and others I've run my best success is using copper tungsten as the electrode material for burning carbide. Graphite is great for steel parts, but the wear and burn rates are really poor on carbide. It's also worth pointing out that on wire or sinker edm carbide will burn slower, roughly half the speed of steel.

[KANNON123]

I should have mentioned we do a majority of our work in steel, and the copper tungsten works great for burning both. The problem I have is there is so much detail in the punch I am burning that I cant run any shrinkage and I need to use a .015 flat endmill for my finish passes in making it. So, I can either machine the electrode fast with a lot of wear using multiple electrodes, or take 2 hours machining the electrode with minimal wear. I might try one in copper tungsten this morning. I found out yesterday from tech support that the master packs I have been using is actually for edm c3 graphite.( copper inpregnated) and we are using just a high grade graphite. So the masterpacks are not matching what I am actually using. I am gonna order some of the edm c3 graphite from intech today to give that a try also.

Thanks again!
Zapit

[roysol]

I have used poco c3 to good effect although not on carbide. Be prepared for sticker shock. I have some rectangular drops 1/2 x 7/8 x 3 7/8 if your interested.