Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: EDM Fluid

I just had a plan, I'm going to buy one of those star wars caps off ebay
that charge to 15kv and use one of them for a home brew EDM. : ) I'll
EDM a plate away in one shot.

> GREAT TOPIC guys, I commented to Bill that I haven't seen too much
> in the way of EDM on here.

Watching a conventional mill is like watching Terminator 2 instead of The
Sound Of Music (And that's meant to be EDM).

> I noticed on this thread that the fluid gets contaminated and is
> nasty to dispose of. seems that if you are dealing with aluminum or
> iron or steel you won't have nasty effluent, but small metal
> particles.

I would think that the product of EDM is probably much more harmful to
people than normal coolant goop. Mechanical errosion of metal, i.e. an end
mill, produces sharp chips with little bits of metal dust. But EDM will
produce metal particulate fine enough to pass through skin. I love metal
working but metal working and I aren't at the intermite stage yet. I would
think setllement tanks would probably be the best way to remove the
particulate, filters won't really work at those sizes.

> Another observation is that most of us are home brew types and use
> what is at hand. we all can boil water (don't let the wives know
> that) so making distilled water is simple. and the added benefit is
> that by distilling your water, you reduce the volume and have a
> concentrated effluent. That and the cost of equipment is right.

Just boiling water doesn't distill it, your just turning the water into a
gas there. You need to boil it and then recollect the steam. Distillation is
heating a solution of gunk, finding the boiling point of the part you want,
then condensing that part away from the other. You could distill water with
a kettle if you got two corks, a bucket, a milk bottle and some tubing.
You'd fill the bucket with cold water, put one cork in the kettle and attach
the hosing to it through a precision pencilled hole. Then put two holes in
the other cork, fit the hosing to one of them and lower the milk bottle into
the water. When the glass gets cold, if you boil the kettle the steam will
flow down into the bottle and condense on the walls, the other hole prevents
positive pressure building up. This is probably quite a bum idea but you
know what I mean. The contaminants will be left in the kettle.

If you have a bit of time free and a lathe you could make a really nice
still for purifying water over a week or so. There is one detailed on a site
which will redistill I think. It looks like it's be fun to make.

You can always just buy a bottle of it from the local car garage for about
10p anyway.

John H.