Electrical Discharge Machining

[dimeN]

i would completely disagree with some of the flaws people have stated... i have magna porting on two rifles and they very effectively reduced muzzle rise ! not bad to clean, and resulted in no distortion of finish and flawless hole on the inside ... Accuracy stayed exactly the same ! It did make the rifle sound much louder ( but that is no big deal )

i have no regrets, and the rifles kept their nice looks and profile.... no ugly crap on the end of the barrel !

 

[Tack Driver Armoury]

Re: peachyprinter. Whopdeskip. More plastic ge-gaws.

I am fairly aware of what the capabilities are of the 3D printing industry. I am also fairly aware of the actual usefulness of the stuff. For what it's good for, it's good for indeed. Providing a physical representation of a solid model, so one can assess fit, feel, and form. Prototyping. OK. For providing useful, durable finished goods? Not so much, until you spend money that will make buying a new EDM look downright attractive.

The very few marketed products that I have seen that were made on a low-rent 3D printer, looked it.

I mentioned this only to draw a parallel. As for durability & "finished goods", you can have durable plastic products produced on your desktop if you choose the right plastic for your application. There are more plastics than there are steels, and some plastics are approaching the strength of steel. There are other considerations, such as how much it bends without losing shape, or operating temperatures -- lots to consider when engineering with plastic. But hey, you can replace a handguard if you need to, or a custom shoulder-thing-that-goes-up, or whatever. Some newer models, such as the 10/22, have plastic trigger group parts. So if those break, you can replace them with hopefully something stronger. The engineers will use this tech for rapid prototyping, but the home users will use it to replace broken parts when they're bored of making trinkets, dog toys, realistic doll-sized "bride and groom" for wedding cakes, ... This is so new that it'll change some aspects of life in ways we haven't fully thought out. For example, plastic AR-15 receivers. Last I checked they are able to fire over 100 rounds from their plastic lower before it fails, and where it breaks they make that area thicker or whatever and print another. A tube is stronger than a bar and weighs less, but they haven't incorporated that logic into their design yet as far as I can tell.

i would completely disagree with some of the flaws people have stated... i have magna porting on two rifles and they very effectively reduced muzzle rise ! not bad to clean, and resulted in no distortion of finish and flawless hole on the inside ... Accuracy stayed exactly the same ! It did make the rifle sound much louder ( but that is no big deal )

i have no regrets, and the rifles kept their nice looks and profile.... no ugly crap on the end of the barrel !

If you keep the debris clear, you won't get abrasion damage to your rifling as guntech mentioned. And I'm pretty sure an expansion chamber will allow the gas to blow any debris away before the projectile grinds them into the rifling. So, there are no "fails" to this tech, it is just pricey and slow. And your limitation to accuracy is entirely based on the size of your spark gap and how precise your milled electrode is.

 

[trevj]

I mentioned this only to draw a parallel.

What parallel would that be? That if you buy hobby grade, you get junk? Because that's what you get. Better than average obby EDM can be built, but still not anywhere near what can be bought for the money you could earn mowing lawns instead of mucking about with a home built EDM.

A $1000 (let alone $100) 3D printer is a toy, not a tool. If you need more cheap plastic junk in your life than the rest of us, fill yer boots. You are selling the fantasy pitch. I have heard it before, and it still isn't happening, nor is it likely to. Telling me all about all the cool plastics that are out there? Big deal. How many of them are readily available for use in a 3D printer? Not very many, and fewer still, if you discount having to have different machines set up for the different feedstocks.

You seem to be buying in to the fantasy that there will somehow be a Star Trek-ish replicator in every home. I don't.

Back to EDM. Price the real thing. Figure out a business plan that leaves you with money to pay bills as well as to eat on a regular basis, and get on to the banks to see if they will carry you.

There are LOTS of EDM shops around, and nobody to speak of, doing barrel porting. If there was money in it, there would be at least one, IMO. In a nutshell, that is what I think about the value of that as a business plan.

Cheers
Trev

 

[Tack Driver Armoury]

What parallel would that be? That if you buy hobby grade, you get junk? Because that's what you get. Better than average obby EDM can be built, but still not anywhere near what can be bought for the money you could earn mowing lawns instead of mucking about with a home built EDM.

For the record, there is a significant difference between a "home-built DIY EDM" and my quality-engineered EDM, designed and built by an engineer. To me, "DIY" or "hobby grade" means a teenager in a garage with little or no education. Or worse yet, an adult with little or no education, because people heal better when they're still young.

The parallel I drew was the fact that there is a team building a 3D printer that average people can afford. My prototype follows that line of thinking, that the millwrights aren't going to buy such a system, but people like myself would. And it is much more advanced than the hobby plans you find on the internet.