electrode to edm info

[Tim Pruett]

Those of you who machine electrodes;

how do you get the information for the burn like location and spark gap to the operator? I only have X4 with surfaces. What we do here is scribe the info on the trode, but it seems to me there is room for error. Thanks in advance.

[LA CAMmer]

3 pages follow every trode from birth to death. The first two are the setup sheet and tool list from x+, the third sheet is a drawing showing the burn location, trode name, overburn, EDM finish, etc. Currently I make this third sheet in Solidworks, but I used to make it in Mastercam. I would just bring in whatever plate I was burning into MCAM and make my drawing from that.

 

Instead of scribing on the trode get a Metallic Silver Sharpie or a Liquid Paper Correction Pen - these show up really nicely on the trode.

 

Every mold we make has its own 3-ring binder separated into sections labeled BOM, Mold Drawings, Part Print, Steel Programs, Electrodes, Quote, and Assembly Checklist.

[Tim Pruett]

LA CAMmer,

can you give me a little more information on the "setup sheet and tool list from X+" that you refer to. Excuse my ignorance, but what is X+?

[LA CAMmer]

x+ is a setup sheet that most of the people on this forum use. Download it from Here

 

It works really well, it is fast, and it is FREE!

[Tim Pruett]

The link on that web page for X4 is only in German. It says to download the language.dll to the c-hooks folder as well. Will this translate it so I can use it or do I need to download the english version somewhere else?

[LA CAMmer]

It has been a while since I installed x+ but from what I remember download x+ and the language.dll zip files. Run the x+ setup and then copy the lang.dll to the chooks/x+ folder. I just remember following the instructions on that web page and have been singing the praises of x+ ever since.

 

Thanks Gunther.

[Tim Pruett]

Thank you for all the help. I just got it working now I have to play with it and figure it all out. Thanks again.

[LA CAMmer]

Glad I could help with the x+ part, but it is only half of the solution. Here is a sample of the third page of my trifecta that shows the remaining EDM information. Again, this was from Solidworks, but I used to do the roughly the same thing in MCAM. It works really well for us. The EDM guys are really happy with all the info I give them.

 

Hope this helps.

 

[Tim Pruett]

It'll probably take me a while to figure out X+ cause I don't get that much free time to play with stuff like that. But I'm sure it'll be much better than the way I've been giving the edm guy's their info. The picture you posted above is really full of information, I may copy it and save it for future reference. Thanks again.

[shazam/TPP]

Tim check out this link, has the latest x+ and good information

linky

[Henk]

Moldplus