I was looking at some of these and while they are kinda spendy to have in your garage they aren't insane expensive... I was wondering if anyone has one on here. Part time I work on the farm equipment around here really cheap since they are really good ole boys. I had to replace a drive hub on an older Massy thrasher the other day because one of three final drive sun gears broke....you cannot buy one gear you have to buy the entire damn assembly which isn't made anymore and it was 3200.00....no kidding. We found one in a junk yard 6 hours away and hauled butt to buy it...anyway this gear was smaller than a baseball and no complicated at all. I wonder why no one has gotten into this market. I searched and didn't find anything. Are there other markets a wire EDM could be used for if not doing gears. Just curious and thinking out loud at 2200....Also sorry if this is in the wrong section.
Wire EDM question
- Thread starter OIF/OEF
- Start date
Gears like that can be cut with a hobbing setup of some kind. A wire EDM can do some cool stuff. Personally I've never operated one, closest thing to it I've ran is a Sinker EDM in tech school. Same basic concept but it cuts with a graphite electrode instead of a wire. A wire edm can cut a perfect round circle on one side of a workpeice and cut a star on the other. Pretty amazing
John
John
Wedm machines are awesome, but slow. Like said above those gears were hobbed. A WEDM can do it, they are also better for one off things also. Only challenge is matching everything, and that is why they sold the planetary in sets.
WEDM is one of the higher priced machines to operate also. I would love to have one myself. But I would buy a water jet before the WEDM.
WEDM is one of the higher priced machines to operate also. I would love to have one myself. But I would buy a water jet before the WEDM.
Toolbreaker
Gold $$ Contributor
OIF/OEF,
I program & operate wire edm's almost daily. You're right, they can do some pretty amazing things. They're capable of cutting geometry than would be a nightmare to mill or grind in.
I'm guessing you priced a used one online? Some of the older, no-frills edm's are priced attractively, but the machine purchase is only a fraction of the costs involved. Maintaining them is a full time job in itself and replacement parts for an older machine can be almost non-existant or at best, astronomical in cost. A good idea on hourly rate for edm work might be $80-$120 an hour, which seems extremely high, but alot of this is eat up in consumable and labor costs.
Just my opinion, but if you're thinking about one, I would research it thoroughly. Turning a profit from one is alot more difficult than it first appears.
BTW, just a rough machining time estimate on the ring gear alone in that set (assuming 4" I.D.) would be around 6-7 hours holding +/- .0015" with one cut.
I program & operate wire edm's almost daily. You're right, they can do some pretty amazing things. They're capable of cutting geometry than would be a nightmare to mill or grind in.
I'm guessing you priced a used one online? Some of the older, no-frills edm's are priced attractively, but the machine purchase is only a fraction of the costs involved. Maintaining them is a full time job in itself and replacement parts for an older machine can be almost non-existant or at best, astronomical in cost. A good idea on hourly rate for edm work might be $80-$120 an hour, which seems extremely high, but alot of this is eat up in consumable and labor costs.
Just my opinion, but if you're thinking about one, I would research it thoroughly. Turning a profit from one is alot more difficult than it first appears.
BTW, just a rough machining time estimate on the ring gear alone in that set (assuming 4" I.D.) would be around 6-7 hours holding +/- .0015" with one cut.
The cost effective thing to do is just have a gear shop make you a one off gear using yours as a copy. It is much more complicated to make a gear than it looks. Their price would likely be a few hundred dollars to make one gear but it will save you the cost of the set.
I'm pretty sure that you can find a shop local to you but if you don't pm me and I will give you a shop to call from around here to do the job.
good luck,
Joe
I'm pretty sure that you can find a shop local to you but if you don't pm me and I will give you a shop to call from around here to do the job.
good luck,
Joe
thanks JDH ill keep that in mind brother I think its kinda crappy you gotta buy the whole damn unit but you have to give yours back as a core.....then Massy will throw a single little gear in there and charge another few grand for a "new" unit....I get capitalism but darn man it sucks when im on the paying end lol
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
I bet they want a whole set to match up the gear lash. If not itll wear quick
Romulus said:
Good point...
One thing don't buy a dead machine unless you can work on it. There is usually a good reason a machine is dead and has not been fixed and making money. , I want a WEDM myself, almost pulled the trigger on a early 2000 Mitsubishi, but I want a bigger Cnc mill first.
Wire EDM is used a lot in making AR parts. It has become very common due to the fact that you can machine a part out of a hard alloy rather than having to machine then surface harden a softer material. Electrical arcs don't care how hard a surface is, only that it is conductive. WEDM can also hold some fairly tight tolerances. There is a guy in my town that owns 3 of the machines and does BCG's and trigger parts for a couple local AR manufacturers under contract (or he did when I talked to him last year about it). It sounds like an extremely fastenating milling process but I don't think it is really a hobby type of piece of equipment unless you know a thing or 2 about CnC machining.
butchlambert
Site $$ Sponsor
GerryM said:
Gerry,
They don't make receivers with them. The wire machine is use in some to cut the bolt race ways of custom bolt guns and the mag wells of the ARs.
missed said:
I toured a Tool and Die shop one time when i was just out of school. They had a room with maybe 4 or 5 WEDMs, and 1 operator. The guy could monitor their tool path, progress, and watch for wire breaks, on his Computer at home (probably can do it on smartphone now). Some jobs in 10 or 12 inch thick tool steel plates would take 1-2 days. These pieces (top and bottom of stamping dies) have to be perfectly symmetrical to each other, and only way to make them perfect is with a WEDM. No tool pressure with a WEDM, so no deflection, like cutting with an end mill per say. Pretty amazing what a little wire can do.
John
butchlambert
Site $$ Sponsor
John11-87 said:
You're kidding??
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