Hello Royce and all,
At our shop we have "Bubba", who is pretty good with a torch, but his accuracy is
+/- "aw, about so much" and not very fast at that.
Depending on the erosion rate programmed, our wire EDM can hold +/-.0001" tolerance
without a problem. Our sinker type EDM can hold about the same tolerance. Both
machine's accuracy depends solely upon operator experience (and other factors that I
won't get into here).
We do not have a laser, but I have ordered parts that were laser burned and held
+/- .015" tolerance in .05" thick stainless steel. I would tend to think that they
are capable of much higher accuracies than that.
Parts from our oxy/ocetylene burn table are expected to be held within +/- 1/16" of
size, 1/32" parallelism within 36", and no more than 1/16" kerf in 2" thickness.
Flatness can also be effected by the heat transferred into the part during the burn
process. Our most experienced operator in the shop knows how to handle these problems
before they develope. Good guy to have around.
For those of you who are not familiar with wire EDM (Electrical Discharge
Machining), the parts are cut with a thin brass wire that is .010" diameter. It
doesn't matter how thick the part is, or how hard it is. The cutting is done by
eroding the part's material away at a VERY controlled rate and position. It still
amazes me every time I run ours.
Later,
Trent
Royce Woodbury wrote:
> Salty,
> The only CNC machining of steel, for example, was done by a EDM machine. I am
> told they will hold a tolerance of .010, or maybe better. How does this relate
> to laser or oxy/acetylene accuracy?
>
> royce
