Re: ECM, The poor man's EDM??

I have kept trying but have still not come up with the electrode of my
dreams. It is all down to the electrode in this simple gravity fed
system. The small part that prevents shorting causes the tip to pause
while enough material is undercut to release it, then it falls about a
mm or so. This is not very good for the insulator but also means you
end up with holes that have a sort of oscillating diameter. I want to
come up with a porous insulating tip that will etch sideways freely
just enough to allow the insulator to pass. Glass microspheres have
been suggested, bonded to the tip. I have played with fibre glass
cloths and braids as well and there is some promise.

Not a dead duck by any means ad if the worst came to the worst a
simple CNC control could be rigged up. Power off until a continuity
test indicated the electrode had touched the part, back off a little,
turn on ECM then repeat. Vary the time between feeds to try and
maintain a specific gap. Or you could control the height simply by
looking at the current. Either way it is easier than EDM.

Graham

> Hi Graham,
>
> Have you done any more on this ?
>
> It is very intersting and I was wondering if you have pics ?
>
> Dave
>