EDM (wire burn) blanks

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DukeHarley

Joined
Apr 11, 2014
Messages
644
Got a wild hair at work last week and threw a program together and burned out some D2 blanks. I think I need to smooth out some curves In the finger area. Double stacked two pieces of stock and cut 2 blanks out in about 15 minutes. I could even cut the bevels on this machine. Benefit of this method is a person could send their stock out for heat treat before any stock removal is done.

How do some of you guys feel about some of the higher tech methods of cutting blanks and stock removal on bevels? I don't think I don't think id do anything on this machine other than just cut my blank profiles. What constitutes a custom vs a small run production knife. How far could a person go with CNC machines and still be custom? I'm just curious what some of you think and what your opinions are?

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Nice work, Antlerhog.
I've also cut out a square hole in a fighter knife guard by EDM, more than twenty years ago. It worked really fine.
Looking at the machine, sounds like not much changed since then.
Its a well-established method used in the industries for decades.
 
If you are going to cut the bevels with wire EDM why not just use hardened stock to start with? EDM cuts hardened material just as easily as soft after all. Though I wonder if the machine can do that much of a draft angle. Though I suspect that this would be a more expensive method than water jet.
 
Ponderingturtle, I mentioned the fact of cutting after HT. Also yes this machine will cut that angle. Cost is not much of an issue. I can use the machine when i dont have any shop jobs in it, just need to buy my wire. Wire is cheap. To be honest I've enjoyed the filing of my bevels so far. In the process of building a 2x72 grinder though so I don't see myself using EDM to do anything more than blank profiles.

Jay
 
It would also be really good for folder pieces as it can hold very tight tolerances. We have two at work we use for making forms and such and frequently hold a .0001" dimension. Though that is with two or three passes.

We don't do job shop work and I have no knowledge about how we would quote that. But a lot of machine shops have wire EDM capacity so they could quote you on it.
 
Back in the early days of EDM our big job was to explain that EDM leaves a layer of hardened but untempered steel on the surface. This because the steel is actually vaporized in the cutting. They were using it to cut hardened die steel. Same for knives -after cutting always temper or you may find cracks .
 
This machine was brand new a few years ago, I can hold a .01 mm or .0003" tolerance with my roughing pass. Much more accurate than I need for burning profiles. The technology for these machines is older tech but what changes is the ability to hold tighter tolerances with less passes and easier set up.

PT Doc, I dont do any quoting so I wouldnt be able to tell you what a charge would be. If youd like me to find out for you I could. Just to give you a ball park before you start calling your local shops.

Jay
 
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