instructables

EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining

by alchemistdagger

Electrical Discharge Machining is a way of cutting
metal using electricity, Similar to a plasma cutter
except under water. The process is very common in
manufacturing of injection molds. The process can be
as simple as using a small diameter metal tube to cut
a precise hole in a metal block to using a carved
graphite block to machine a toy shape in a metal
block for injection molding. Here i will be showing you
how to make your own EDM machine using simple
hand tools and supplies from your local hardware
store.

EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining: Page 1

Step 1: What Is EDM
Electronic discharge machining is a method of
removing metal using electric sparks, similar to a
plasma cutter but on a much smaller scale and under
water. As shown in the above steps, the tool is
normally above the work piece and wired to the
positive voltage, the work piece is in distilled water
between the two pieces. This process is repeated
over and over, and will result in the work piece being
etched away as the negative of the tool shape.
The tool is normally held in place on a vertical linear
slide so its position can be very accurately controlled.
If the tool is too far from the work piece, no spark will
EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining: Page 2
and wired to the negative voltage. As the tool
approaches the work piece, it will develop a spark
before they touch. At this point the spark heats up
both the tool and work piece, melting a small piece of
each. The molten metal quickly cools in the water and
the water flow pushes the metal particles from
develop, if the tool is too close to the work piece it
can fuse or weld the two pieces together. The tool is
constantly moved closer to develop a spark, and then
moved away to allow flushing and reduce the chance
of fusing with the work piece.
Step 2: Make a Linear Slide Part 1

Material:

1 - 5 foot long, 3/4 x 3 1/2 inch wood pine

1 - 1 foot long 3/4 x 3/4 inch wood square rod
1 - 24 inch, 1/4 x 20 threaded rod
2 - 1/4 x 20 nylon wing nuts
1 - box of 1/4 nuts
1 - box 1/4 washers
1 - box 1 inch wood screws
1 - box 1.5 inch wood screws
1 - box assorted springs
1 - 14 inch drawer slide (full extension)

Tools:

Drill
hack saw
philips screw driver
pencil
tape measure
set of wood files

For the EDM to work properly, you need to have or make a linear slide (a way to control the tool position very
precisely). For this project I decided to make one (it sounded like a good idea at the time). I cut the wood plank
about 24 inches long, similar to the threaded rod. I drew a center line on the wood and screwed the drawer slide
down the middle, leaving about an inch of wood at the bottom, make sure the drawer slide is mounted so it
extends down, not up.

Next I screwed the two nylon nuts onto the threaded rod with the spring between the two. Then I tightened the nuts
to compress the spring. I measured the space between the two nuts and cut a piece of wood to fit. I had to use a
round wood rasp to file down the wood to make room for the threaded rod and spring. Once in place, I marked and
drilled holes thru the nylon nuts into the wood and screwed them in down with one inch wood screws. Leave one
nylon nut a little lose. This setup acts as an anti backlash nut.

EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining: Page 3

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Step 3: Make a Linear Slide Part Duex
Next cut a board about eight inches long, and screw it
to the middle of the drawer slide (the part that still
moves). Placing the nylon nut and wood on the 8 inch
base will let you measure how big the end pieces of
wood need to be. It turns out to be 1 and 5/8 inch (3/4
x 2 + 1/8 thickness of nylon wing). Drill a hole in the
center of each end cap (picture 2) and screw them to
the eight inch block (picture 3). Next cut a piece of
wood about four inch long and drill a hole in it where
the threaded rod lines up. Add two nuts and two
washers to the threaded rod and insert the threaded
rod through the hold. Then add two washers and two
nuts to the top. Tighten the nuts against the top and
bottom of the wood and lock the nuts together. This
will prevent the threaded rod from moving up and
EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining: Page 6
down. Don't tighten the nuts too hard against the
wood, this will cause the threaded rod to be hard to
turn. Cut another piece of wood eight inches long and
screw it to the top to cover the nylon nuts and act as
a base to attach the working tool. Finally, cut the
square rod to eight inches and drill a 1/4 inch hole in
the center. Place this on the remaining threaded rod
and lock it in place with two nuts and a washer. This
is the handle to turn the threaded rod and move the
linear slide up and down. Once it was together I
noticed that the base rocked side to side when I
turned the threaded rod. To reduce this I glued little
blocks of wood next to each corner to act as
stabilizing feet.
EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining: Page 7
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Step 4: Make a Linear Slide Part 3

You need a way to hold the tool in place and be able
to handle different size tools. I drew out a couple
rectangles and cut a large 'v' shape in the end of
them. I also had to cut 'v' notches on the side. I drilled
holes in these to handle wood screws so I could
attach these pieces to the platform since the back of
the base was not easy to access. With the linear slide
all done, I screwed another piece of wood to the back
near the bottom so I could mount it in my bench vise.

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Step 5: Build the Circuit
The circuit necessary to power the EDM is normally
very complicated for industrial equipment, but it
doesn't have to be. This design dates back to March
1968, in Popular Science, pg 151-152. It simply takes
110V AC electricity, sends it through a diode rectifier
to convert it to pulsating DC and a filter capacitor to
smooth out the DC a little. The 200 watt light bulb
acts as a current limiter and keeps the current from
EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining: Page 11
going much over two amps. The last diode is what
does all the work. It stores the electricity. When a
spark develops, the capacitor is able to provide the
full DC voltage and current to maximize the heat
production to melt the metal. The bigger the capacitor
the more heat the spark can produce.
EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining: Page 12
Step 6: Setup the EDM

Material:

bench with vise

plastic storage container
1/2 inch pvc pipe
1/2 inch pvc elbow (2)
5 gallon bucket
water pump (mine was 550 gal/hr)
about 5 ft of garden hose with male/female ends
shut off valve for garden hose
plastic nozzle for garden hose

tools:

3/4 inch hole saw

drill
hack saw
mini vise
3 disk magnets

Place the plastic storage container below the EDM machine. Drill a hole in the side of the container. Push a pvc
elbow thru the hole from the inside and have the other end point up. Cut a piece of pvc tubing long enough to drain
past the edge of the bench and press it into the elbow in the plastic container. Add the other elbow to the end of
the tube and have it point down. Add another length of pvc tube to drain into the 5 gallon bucket that is sitting on
the ground.

Connect one end of the garden hose to the water pump and the shut off valve to the other end of the hose. Attach
the nozzle to the end of the valve. Place the water pump in the 5 gallon bucket and fill with 4-5 gallons of distilled
water. Secure the other end of the hose with the nozzle to the table or plastic container so that it directs the water
to the end of the working tool. Once the pump is turned on, it will fill the container with water up to the top of the
drain opening. I reduced the flow of water by about 50% using the valve.

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Step 7: Cut Some Metal
I decided to use some 3/4 inch metal conduit as my
first test. I clamped the work piece of pipe in the mini
vice and the tool was a longer piece of pipe. I
positioned the tool over the end of the work piece so
that it would cut a notch out of the work piece end. No
need for a fancy welder or special tool here. Just a
simple yet versatile EDM machine. I turned on the
water pump and powered the EDM circuit and began
turning the handle to lower the tool. I don't have it
pictured here but the work piece is completely
submerged in water during the machining process, if
not, sparks go flying. The water keeps the sparks
contained and the metal cool. I slowly lower the tool
until sparks are generated. At first you will get a few
loud sparks but as the work piece is eroded, and
more surface are is exposed to the tool, you will end
up with many smaller sparks, it makes a sound like
sizzling bacon, mmMMMmmm Bacon. Each time the
spark is generated the light bulb will light up for a very
short time. If the light stays on, that means the tool is
touching the work piece and the two are fused or
EDM - Electrical Discharge Machining: Page 15
welded together, just back the tool up to break the
weld. The process is a lot of down and up, you are
trying to maintain a precise spark gap distance but
the position is constantly changing because the work
piece is being eroded away. As the work piece is
eroded the water will turn dark from all of the metal
particles in it. Even though it looks bad, it doesn't
affect the EDM process. When you start with D.I.
water, no electricity can pass through the water,
which means the light bulb is completely off, as the
conductivity of the water increases due to the metal
particles, the light bulb filament will start to glow very
slightly between sparks. When I finished cutting the
pipe, you can see that the working piece lost more
metal than the tool did. Since both pieces were the
same type of metal, this suggests that the negative
piece of metal loses more metal in the sparking
process. As you can see in the last two photos, they
fit together perfectly.
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