makino wire edm questions

[Rocketmachinist]

Im trying to wire out some parts on a making sp64. Im cutting through a 3.5 inch 6061 alum part and im just having soon much trouble with the wire breaking. Im wondering if. 008 wire is just too small. Any help would be great.

[Rocketmachinist]

Sorry Makino SP64. Sometimes I hate auto correct.

[toy4x4]

Is it breaking in the cut or in the take up tube?

[Rocketmachinist]

In the cut.

[toy4x4]

Sounds like the voltage is too high. May try dropping it a few notches. Also may try dropping your wire tension down a notch or two.

[SledGeek]

I'd use .01 when feasable. How's your flushing? Is it breaking right away or cutting a bit then breaking ? Sumbmerged or open air?

[Rocketmachinist]

Submerged machine

[Del.]

Drop your on time by 1 and raise your off time up by 2. adjust your sv until voltage is around 40.

[Brad St.]

We have run into that more so with our round "pico" guide machine than our v-guide. Flushing is crucial, it didn't seem to matter if we were de-tuning it or not. We'd clean the energizer plates, switch spools of wire to finally called in service to reload parameters.

 

The greatest thing that made the biggest difference of them all was flushing. I should note we are running 3R adjustable clamping vises that due to the clearance needed for the vice and the upper head it that was proving to be our biggest downfall. Great for setups and easy to dial in but not very kind for getting the optimal flush. The one Toolmaker here struggling with it then dropped his block onto the table and put the flush cups right to the workpiece and it was night and day.

 

I can be frustrating, we can do a 6" piece one day and have not ill effects and then drop to the smaller stuff and struggle. One thing you can try also is use steel settings.

[Del.]

Yes, make sure you carbide electrode pins are not grooved and move them also,

[Rocketmachinist]

The machine will cut for a little while before the break. But getting it to go anywhere after it breaks the wire is the hard part

[Brad St.]

That sounds familiar, try the steel settings for that material thickness with the "best applicable" flushing setup. One of the differences in the steel to alum settings is the feeds (slower) thus if you are bellying too much in the cut it may not be getting ahead of itself.

 

Also on your control in the E conditions tab:

Use your overide pressure and kick it up to 200% for the upper and lower. If the water settings above that is say at 8 put in 6 and see if increasing your flushing pressure up will help.

 

Are you set up with the heads and flushing cups flush or even sealed off on your part?

[Rocketmachinist]

That's one part I was having trouble with. I can occationally fumble through and change the e conditions but, when i need to do something specific I cannot figure out how to choose a different setting. I tried typing in 4554 and e4554 and many other ways but the setting never sticks. The book is no help. All it says is you can change the e-condition. How!?!?

[Del.]

That's one part I was having trouble with. I can occationally fumble through and change the e conditions but, when i need to do something specific I cannot figure out how to choose a different setting. I tried typing in 4554 and e4554 and many other ways but the setting never sticks. The book is no help. All it says is you can change the e-condition. How!?!?

 

 

Rocket, I'm not familiar with the Makino, but you definitely need to find out how to edit your power settings.

[Brad St.]

Del, they have a unique sort of logic but you can learn them if you have too. Your note above about on / off time reminds me of running our old ElT's in the first mold shop I worked for. Not the case here or I should say as simple here. They have the Initial and Secondary on times it uses. There are some things you can tweek and some you shouldn't.

 

Rocket, you can create custom E# files also easily. As you tweek an E file that is currently running you can save it to the power library on the control to an open E# usually in the 9000 block of them. If you bought these machines new your reseller should be able to to go through this with you easily in a day. If you bought them new and need more help maybe we can help you further.

 

Ideally though stick to the basics of making sure you have a good clean setup and optimal machining conditions.

 

Here is what I have for notes so far on what the condition codes are for inside the E files:

 

E #'s Reference only for labeling

WIRE DIA.

MATERIAL

THICKNESS

CONTENT N / A

MODE Three settings as follows (0=Roughing) (1=1st skim) (3=Final skim) (2 is for older machines and not used on sp43)

ONA Intial Ontime, used to initiate burn

ONB Secondary ontime, ramped up from ONA for optimal power.

ONC Related to adaptive control (NOT suggested to be tweeked)

OND

OFF Offtime

TS Higher value = more adaptive control

SCT Value for Polarity D.C. (when the SCT and the RCT are equal it means you are outputting an A.C. current) D.C. current is favored for materials similar to Titanium

RCT Value for Polarity A.C. (when the SCT and the RCT are equal it means you are outputting an A.C. current)

DCHG-S Avoid changing, this is for the ionizing spark volt setting

DCHD-R

SV

RV

IPM It's ideal to try for a constant value here on the operations screen for spinning applications

IPS N / A

SV. MODE Set to 31H

S.V. NO OEH (sets the machine to a constant feed control, minimal servo action)

S.V. SDJ Gap to workpiece, the Bigger the value the larger the gap. (ex for use, if constantly breaking wire increase offtime to allow cooling and flushing to help)

SPEED N / A

SM-REF Adaptive control parameters

PRG-ON

PRG0-1

PRG0-2

PRG0-3

PRG0-4

PRG1-1

PRG2-1

PRG2-2

PRG3-1

PRG3-2

PRG3-3

ADC0-1 Corner control

ADC0-2

ADC1-1

ADC1-2

ADC2-1

ADC2-2 Used by the control's Belly wizard functionality.

ADC3-1

ADC3-2

WATER The higher the value the lower the pressure.

OVERRIDE UPPER Fine tune water pressure to values inbetween the nominal value increments

OVERRIDE LOWER Fine tune water pressure to values inbetween the nominal value increments

WIRE SPEED Defined in centimeters / Sec

W-TENSION Increase in value =

CONDUCTIVITY Water conditions 15-30 is recommended

EST. SPEED Reference only for calculating cut time only. Not used for anything else.

[Del.]

Del, they have a unique sort of logic but you can learn them if you have too. Your note above about on / off time reminds me of running our old ElT's in the first mold shop I worked for. Not the case here or I should say as simple here. They have the Initial and Secondary on times it uses. There are some things you can tweek and some you shouldn't.

 

 

 

My Fanucs do what I tell them or I slap 'em around a little.

[Rocketmachinist]

Ok Brad,

 

When I get to the operations tab, and where it says e-condition how do I consistently enter in my e####, to be used in the current program. Every number I enter just disappears and it keeps the highlighted number exactly the same. Unfortunately, we didn't buy the machine new. It was transferred from another facility and it's not even my shop that has it.

[Brad St.]

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. The E condition that I'm referring to is shown in the attached jpg. It may show all of the paramter sets and it may only show some. they can be toggled in the control somewhere but I have dug into that yet. You can access the current and all other E files in the library (hard key under screen) to see what is currently running and or edit one that is not. For an active E file that is running you can change the settings in the library as it is running and if it is not protected you can save it if it's running better. Otherwise when the program ends it will go back to it's original setting.