DEMAND FOR WIRE EDM?

How is the demand for wire edm machining. Is it easy to find work for a machine or more hit and miss. Can you start a steady business with only a wire edm and manual mill and lathe. Am I correct in thinking that if there is lots of work out there an edm could be ideal for a startup business working part-time while keeping your day job. Lower tooling costs and can run extended periods while you sleep/go to work with certain types of jobs. Thank you for any input

Take in account this is coming for me but-

My machine sits more than it runs. Its all about knowing the right people. Even though I feel I'm very good on prices, (typically much less than other wire shops) that still doesn't mean you can get work. Sometimes, when I know how prices turn out, I'm over 50% cheaper than other shops, but still don't get the work. One thing I've found is its simply too costly for people compared with other things (Ie. to try to drum up new wire work) and the people that send wire work out are happy with who they have.

Additional machines, I have found you need them...figure on surface grinder,lathe,heat treat equipment, CNC Mill, Sinker EDM, and a whole host of other equipment, lots of things I have ran across have wire work in them, but have got to have the other stuff done. Also, its hard to send out work to other shops and keep your prices cheap...

You can run your machine without supervision pretty easy, but depends on how much automation you have, ie, if you don't have a auto threader, you machines going to be sitting if the wire breaks, unable to move to different start points, etc.

Bottom line, if this was an easy thing to do, that would allow you to make $$$, everyone would have wires going...not trying to discourage you, but know exactally what you're getting into...

Hope this helps!

Eric

I am a 1 man shop and work at home I have a Charmilles 310 and just purchaced a hole popper.
I have a manual mill and lathe. It is hot and cold. Sometimes I am busy, it doesn't take much to be busy if you are a 1 man shop. I get work because of fast service. I will work all night on a job if I have to. I pickup and deliver. I am also there within the hour when they call.I can make a living, but it is costly to keep a machine well maintained. I am the only wire EDM shop in town that offers custom EDM work. I have a few good customers. I am also busy when everyone else is busy. When they are slow, even if it is better to wire they will use a mill or lathe to keep their guys busy. I also have 30 years experiance making extrusion tooling. So when they are busy I get the over flow. That good money because I charge for designing while the machine is cutting. There is also a learning curve. Water jet and laser have taken away a lot of work from wire. Wire machines are worse than women!!! They have good days and bad. Like E said, if it was that easy to make big $$ everyone would be in it. I do everything from key fobs to aerospace parts. Every machine shop could use a wire machine, but it would sit most of the time. I think there is always room for a custom wire shop. I don't think I could make a living with a stand alone shop. Working out of my house saves a lot of money.

I will second what's already been said, and add the trend is away from Edm specialty shops. The people who need Edm work done are more likely to buy their own machine rather than keep jobbing work out as it becomes a more accepted technology.

I have my current job because of a situation like that. This company used to send out a lot of work, but decided to start their own department 5 years ago.

Cheers!

There are to many factors, to say if it would be a good Idea to start your own shop. If there are allot of wire shops in the area, might not be the best idea. What skills you posses on operating a wire edm, What cutting speeds you can achieve, if you have one wire machine and cannot cut at 22sq an hour like most shops you might not be able to compete within the stamping die community, if it's extrusion or costum you would be allright with a slower wire machine.

baran3,

I have some recent experience that may provide a bit of information. I recently got into the wire edm business (about 15 months ago).

I've been a machinist my entire life, typically specializing in very precise parts and/or things others didn't want to do. Computer/CAD work has also been a fairly obsessive hobby for many years. This "base" of experience made the transition easier (I didn't say "easy"... only "easier").

I also had a very experienced wire edm person take me "under his wing" for a while which put me way down the road on the learning curve.

My plan was to buy a used wire machine and basically be in the position where I didn't "need" to make any money with it for a good while. I did my first paying job about 3 days after the machine was hooked up in my shop (someone overheard me at lunch talking to a friend about my wire machine).

Essentially though; I have not pursued work (yet). Work has come to me simply through word of mouth so far. Once again though; I have/had an existing machining business with a good client base that kept the money coming in while I was picking up experience. Pretty much all the money I made in the first year got put right back into more and more tooling, a hole popper, spare parts, wire, filters, resin, and a LOT of practice.

As far as lower tooling costs and running unattended:

Have you priced System 3R tooling? It is hyper-expensive compared to tooling any other type of CNC equipment.

Running unattended is a great concept... and one of the reasons I got into the business as well. However... it doesn't really work that way (or let's say; hasn't for me). A good part of my work is coming from a very high-end aerospace firm that has a couple of wire machines of their own. They send me overflow... and typically that means work that is too finicky, requires too much attention, and has to be too accurate for what they want to do in-house (not to mention the parts are typically fairly low volume). They keep pretty much all the more production oriented work (that runs unattended) for their own machines, and farm out the time killer jobs. I don't blame them -- I would do exactly the same if I was in that position.

The bad part about picking up work that way is that it's time-consuming, intensive, not-very-profitable work.

The good part about it is that you gain a tremendous amount of experience in a short period of time.

So to answer your question (or at least attempt to): I think it would be quite difficult to start out "cold turkey" with a wire machine and make a living. If you have other means of support (and it sounds as if you do), then it's a very interesting, fun technology to get into. The kind of work you get will be somewhat dependent on the kind of connections you may already have in other fields of manufacturing/machining.

If you have more specific questions, fire away and I'll do my best to answer.