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1:32 am
March 18, 2010
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Nothing like an EDM for die sinking. Stared making an "angle iron, pipe and square tube" tong and people started holding all kinds of things with it. Now it's being called the "universal" tong. Got the basic idea from Lillco plus the tong that Brain Brazeal makes. I was hand bashing them, but now I gotta make a whole bunch more so it's time for a die.
I carve the graphite in my CNC machining center, but it can be done many ways. This is the bottom die that will cradle the end, the top die will come down and press it into shape and put a small "V" groove in it. I'll add more pictures as I go along.
EDM's are available pretty cheap nowadays. 'Nuther great toy!
“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot,
but then there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence,
transform a yellow spot into the sun.” ~ Pablo Picasso ~
5:03 am
NWBA Member
April 19, 2010
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I guess I'm the "ignorantest" guy on here!!! What is an EDM??? Eric S.
1:36 pm
May 13, 2010
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Eric EDM is electrical discharge machining. Electrode is made from graphite or copper. The workpiece is placed in a special liquid and the electrode is very slowly fed into the workpiece. Very tiny sparks erode the metal and are flushed away with the liquid.
Are the grooves in the top of the die to help locate the top die Grant? How long does it take to sink something like this and will one electrode do the whole job? Are the little holes in the electrode for flushing away the waste?
4:39 pm
March 18, 2010
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Sorry Eric. No, I guess many people are not aware of Electrical Discharge Machining or Spark Eroding. Some people have seen tap burners for removing broken taps which operate on the same principle.
The grooves are just rough machining of the swept parting line. 1" ball cutter with an 1/8" stepover. I use graphite exclusively. Generate a program for my VMC. On something like this I can sink it in one go. On more critical stuff I re-dress the electrode and make a finish cut. Yeah, the holes are for flushing. This one took about an hour to sink.
“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot,
but then there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence,
transform a yellow spot into the sun.” ~ Pablo Picasso ~
5:07 pm
March 18, 2010
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OK, I'm all done! My Lillico inspired "pipe, angle iron & square tube" tongs are now "universal" tongs!
“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot,
but then there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence,
transform a yellow spot into the sun.” ~ Pablo Picasso ~
3:30 am
August 4, 2010
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Hi Grant,
Nice looking tongs. Thanks for sharing your experience with us on all matters. Do you sell the tongs retail?
Thanks,
Brian
3:56 am
March 18, 2010
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Hey Brian! Ya should go into your personal settings and put in where you're from, we got folks from all over. You can get all my tools from http://www.Blacksmithsdepot.com.
“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot,
but then there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence,
transform a yellow spot into the sun.” ~ Pablo Picasso ~
8:41 am
March 26, 2010
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Grant;1857 wrote:
EDM's are available pretty cheap nowadays. 'Nuther great toy!
Stop it now Grant .... where would I put one?
Why does the tip of the curved jaw extend past the V jaw?
What is the graphite stage for? is it template for the edm to make a "negative" from? Could you not cnc machine directly into the die block? is the block too hard? or is machining convex curves easier on cnc than concave with small radiuses? why is is a tortoise such an aerodynamic shaped? is there life on Mars?......
12:27 pm
May 13, 2010
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Thanks for showing us all this Grant. Nice to see how quick it is with all the right toys.
1:01 pm
August 4, 2010
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Grant;1884 wrote: Hey Brian! Ya should go into your personal settings and put in where you're from, we got folks from all over. You can get all my tools from http://www.Blacksmithsdepot.com.
Hi Grant,
I'm a teacher from San Jose, CA. I added that info to my profile.
Thanks,
Brian
11:45 pm
April 21, 2010
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Yeah Grant that is the pair I was looking for at Dave's swap meet. Gotta get a pair of those!
2:56 am
March 18, 2010
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david hyde;1886 wrote: Stop it now Grant .... where would I put one?
Why does the tip of the curved jaw extend past the V jaw?
What is the graphite stage for? is it template for the edm to make a "negative" from? Could you not cnc machine directly into the die block? is the block too hard? or is machining convex curves easier on cnc than concave with small radiuses? why is is a tortoise such an aerodynamic shaped? is there life on Mars?......
Tortoise's have an aerodynamic shape? Cause they flew here from Mars, which also answers question #2.
Yes, the carbon is like a model that you press into clay. The difference is the EDM jumps sparks from the graphite to the metal and removes a tiny speck of material where ever it is closest. Each chip is around 5-10 microns. It uses a very high frequency to spark 100's of thousands of times per second. Makes an exact reverse of the electrode. Oh yeah, I heat treat the die before machining!
Many cavities are difficult to machine directly. It's very easy for me to make a square graphite and use it to make a square hole, but very difficult to directly machine a square hole. Or, say, a splined hole.
Here's a little one: HANSVEDT-EDM
“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot,
but then there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence,
transform a yellow spot into the sun.” ~ Pablo Picasso ~
3:12 am
March 1, 2011
Offline
Nice work, the right tooling can sure make the difference in the right hands. I admit I do suffer tool, and experience envy, but remind myself the love of the craft is where it's really at. I think my favorite word is "context"...whats cheap to one guy may be a months gross income to the next, and I'm sure in the later catagory.
But that aside, die, or jig making is a great time, and work saver for anyone, when you need to produce more than a couple of anything, that concept applies at many levels.
I really appreciate when people don't hide their tricks of the trade, sharing these things in a forum like this is genuine generosity.
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