Re: wire edm, HELP!

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "glennandlily"
<glennandlily@...> wrote:

>
> Hello,
> I just entered the world of wire edm. We just got a charmilles 240sl.
> I went to Chicago for a weeks training on it. It gave me the bare
> basics but I need help. We will be using the cad system bobwire to
> load our programs, I'm trying to get some software from them to assist
> me with that progam. My question to you out there is could you give me
> a title to a good book to get me brushed up on writing programs,
> starters, for dummies like me. The only writing I did was in school a
> long time ago. I usually run a mill and a lathe (conventional). I've
> seen numerous books out there but I need the one for beginners. If you
> got a good title let me know. Much thanks, Glenn in TN.
>

A good practical book on EDM is:

The EDM handbook by E.Bud Guitrau
ISBN: 1-56990-242-9

Most people recomment "CNC programming handbook" by Smid for g-code
stuff and its full of info, probably more than you need.

BUT

The main thing to read is the manual, it should contain all the
g-codes for the machine and what they mean including the codes for
threading and cutting the wire and for offsets and "technology". As
far as writing programs the whole point of a CAM package like Bobcam
is that it produces the g-code for you from your CAD. Hopefully they
can sort the post-processor out for you so that the G-code does not
need much tweaking.

I used a trial version of BobCAD for a while on a Sodick machine, I
had to copy and paste the g-code from the program as it wouldn't save
and then do the post processing myself, that just involved a bit of
formatting and adding a few extra commands.

Really though get stuck into the manual and don't let the word
"programming" scare you, unless you are writing out code for a gear by
hand you are just telling it where to go with co-ordinates.

Graham