It occurred to me I could use a stick welder, 220V AC (EU), as the power source and just make the electrode z axis go up/down as needed.

The welders are about 30-40V DC output as far as I know, and fairly safe, and rated for EU and electrical safety.
And extremely powerful in kW vs the typical homebrew EDM setups I have seen.

My spare small welder is about 5-6 kVa or about 4-5 kW, probably, in edm use as it will never see peak power usage like in welding.
30% rating iirc.

So if I use the welder for power and a shop built z axis to go up/down, does anyone think this would work or not work ?

My first idea is granite bases for isolation, etc., and essentially the spark is a cnc controlled welder.
Then put a graphite or maybe copper electrode in the welder stinger, and start adjusting the z axis +/- up/down movement based on results.

I don´t see myself trusting to diesel as the dielectric, but distilled water is cheap.


My 2nd vision is running a small adjustable offset turntable to oscillate the z at high speed.
A 100 mm D table would allow e.g. 0.002 to 0.01 mm offsets in Z as fast as the rpm of the table, with a few bearings.
The table run by an ac brushless servo, 400W, I have lots of.
0-3000 rpm.
This would give 3000 Hz or 3 kHz max .. and this might be slow.

Does anyone know edm frequencies and movement ranges, ballpark ?

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