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Tried a new tool to control slugs (parts) and it WORKED!

implmex

Diamond
Joined
Jun 23, 2002
Location
Vancouver BC Canada
Hi All:
I tried a new slug clamp design on the wire for cutting male parts from a stack.
It worked really well, so I thought I'd share.
It's pretty simple, a glorified C clamp that can reach in around the waste stock and between the upper and lower head and has a split pad on one side, each half of which can be adjusted separately.

Attached is a picture with it clamped on a bunch of parts that were held in the stack by a tab while the stack was roughed and skimmed.
At cutoff time, the clamp was slid in with the upper head down so it still cleared when the clamp was placed.
The back screw was tightened, then the head was raised and the jaw screw was tightened too.

The head was dropped back down and the parts were cut off the tabs.

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 

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Nice, I like the living hinge design. Do I see a second hinge and set screw just above the part to be clamped?
 
Hi Old Friend,

Looks like nothing less than I'd expect from you. I like the flexure jaw pads and adjustment screws. Circumstances being ideal, I expect that it will perform more than satisfactorily for you, and for a long time to come. I do wonder if you mightn't make the main flexure's pivot bar just slightly thicker to better prevent from twisting. Your thoughts on that matter? I have to admit that when I have made similar things in the past that I have typically used radii to create "pins" for the clamping surfaces, in effort to avoid having to get the flats "just so" and just rather rely on the pinching between the two radii. Love the execution. Job well done, as usual.
icon14.png
:cheers:
 
Hi pb1 and Zahnrad Kopf:
Looks like we're all on the same page...what I made is pretty much what you both are describing.

Do you remember the former moderator of this sub forum...The Metal Doctor?
He showed a picture of a precision Kant Twist clamp he'd made for exactly this situation, and I thought it was bloody brilliant.
I never had the time to duplicate it and the size of it always gave me reservations but I never forgot it and that's got to be ten years ago at least.

So fast forward to now and I'm making robot finger parts again... mountains of them so I have this problem.
I racked my brain for a simple solution not involving making anything elaborate and this is what I came up with.
Obviously its range is really limited, but I have a big plate of 7075 aluminum I can make more of, as I need them, and I don't even need to put in wire start holes to cut one out, so they're quick to make.

It worked so well for a problem I've always had to screw around with, that I figured if it can be useful to others too, everyone wins.

Sure beats strips of business card in the slots, and toolmaker's parallel clamps and hot melt glue, and light activated nail polish and all those other workarounds we've all tried.
It also beats parts dropping into the lower flush cup and jamming there, and scarf marks from when the parts dropped and got snagged on the wire, and cutoff tits and all that other inconvenient nuisance.
You can sneak it in pretty close to the flush cups and still avoid crashing the clamp into the heads which was always my biggest concern with The Metal Doctor's device.

Zahnrad Kopf, as you can see I did radius the adjustable pads, just as you recommend, so we're on the same page there.
I made the flexure bar 0.020" and yeah, it's a bit skinny for resistance to twisting, so good call there too.
The parts I'm making are pretty small so it doesn't matter for this job, but if the flexure were double the thickness it wouldn't hurt and it would certainly be more robust.

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com
 

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Hi pb1 and Zahnrad Kopf:
Looks like we're all on the same page...what I made is pretty much what you both are describing.

Do you remember the former moderator of this sub forum...The Metal Doctor?
He showed a picture of a precision Kant Twist clamp he'd made for exactly this situation, and I thought it was bloody brilliant.
I never had the time to duplicate it and the size of it always gave me reservations but I never forgot it and that's got to be ten years ago at least.

So fast forward to now and I'm making robot finger parts again... mountains of them so I have this problem.
I racked my brain for a simple solution not involving making anything elaborate and this is what I came up with.
Obviously its range is really limited, but I have a big plate of 7075 aluminum I can make more of, as I need them, and I don't even need to put in wire start holes to cut one out, so they're quick to make.

It worked so well for a problem I've always had to screw around with, that I figured if it can be useful to others too, everyone wins.

Sure beats strips of business card in the slots, and toolmaker's parallel clamps and hot melt glue, and light activated nail polish and all those other workarounds we've all tried.
It also beats parts dropping into the lower flush cup and jamming there, and scarf marks from when the parts dropped and got snagged on the wire, and cutoff tits and all that other inconvenient nuisance.
You can sneak it in pretty close to the flush cups and still avoid crashing the clamp into the heads which was always my biggest concern with The Metal Doctor's device.

Zahnrad Kopf, as you can see I did radius the adjustable pads, just as you recommend, so we're on the same page there.
I made the flexure bar 0.020" and yeah, it's a bit skinny for resistance to twisting, so good call there too.
The parts I'm making are pretty small so it doesn't matter for this job, but if the flexure were double the thickness it wouldn't hurt and it would certainly be more robust.

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com

Nice clamping idea! That's really slick with the spring pad. A little bit of your time is going to save you a lot of grief with all those slugs, good work.
 
We use very similar clamps here to hold small airfoils for machining. I don't have any off hand right now. They are wired from 2024. If it's magnetic material I like to use neodymium magnets to hold stuff.
 








 
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