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Metal working: plans for diy sparking machine(edm)
That's quite a promise, especially when you realize that a modern EDM machine costs $100,000 or more - far more than most small workshop owners care to invest even for the ability to easily produce complex metal dies and molds with which to stamp or cast metal pieces.
Of course a modern high technology EDM machine features servo mechanisism, auto feeds, etc. The small machine that is built with our plans (we call it an EDmm) is a fraction of the size of a commercial model - but it can do everything the big machines do. It's just that you operate the model shop EDmm manually with your eyes and hands (they're more reliable anyway!).
The tutorial is the result of extensive research from a number of sources and the DIY plans are simple and easy to follow. It works: I built and used mine for years and made beautiful stamping dies and molds for pennies (truth is, you can even use an electrically conducting penny coin as a tool for making a nice coin stamping die out of hard steel. It takes about 3 hours of sparking.
Sparking! That's what the EDmm does (we call it the Electrical Discharging Mitey Mite). Just like it's big, expensive brother, it also harnesses sparks - the stuff of lighning - by the millions to cut into a hard steel workpiece (charged positive) an accurate cavity that's the precise shape of the tool (charged negative). With Electrical Discharge Machining, you produce a copper or brass tool into the shape or form you want, apply controlled sparking (i.e., direct current electricity) from the tool into the metal sworkpiece - and millions of sparks later you have the tool's profile neatly cut into the steel workpiece.
If it sounds easy, it is with the tiny EDmm. Furthermore, making a EDmm yourself isn't all that difficult or demanding. The plans, instructions and blowup drawings (including an electrical diagram showing the setup's simplicity) are precise and easy to understand. You won't need an electrical engineering degree to get the job done.
The parts and components can be found in the neighborhood hardware and/or electrical appliance store.
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