CNC - Workshop
Galesburg, Illinois June 20 - 25 2005
Hosted by Cardinal Engineering
OK. Now we know. It is the EDM presentation. The fellow in the red shirt is the wizard that created this great little device. He estimates about $300 to build a machine that can do some GREAT looking EDM work.
The Z axis (up and down) is controlled, if I understood correctly, by a small DC motor. The electronics senses when the electrode is too close to the work and backs it up. When is senses that the electrode is too far from the work is sends it down. Up, down, and it pecks its way into the metal being machined.
A VERY dirt simple description to be sure.
The developer of the EDM tool is Ben Fleming and he can be reached at bnfATengr.uark.edu Please replace the AT with @ to email Ben. Snail mail can go to Ben Fleming, 1734 Viewpoint Drive, Fayetteville AR. 72701, USA
Update
4:30 PM EST Saturday 2 July 2005 Ben has sent the following corrections about the paragraph above. Thanks for setting me right!The EDM machine does not really "peck" it way into the metal. In a perfect world the Electrode should never come in contact with the work piece. Should it contact the work piece it will reverse until contact is broken and then resume the burn.
The reason I am clearing this up is because there are some plans for simple home built EDM that actually did use this pecking principle of going down until contact was made and then reversing and then on purpose going back down until contact was made again. This machines electronics control is more advanced than that technology. I would prefer it to read
The electronics since when the electrode is the correct distance from the work
piece and maintains the correct "Gap". Should a short occur the electrode is automatically retracted until the short is cleared then it reestablishes the correct gap. Through this process it Burns it's way through the metal being machined.
