What brand of wire?

What is your favorite brand and grade of wire for straight burning? I have been using Novotec from Ohio Carbon with no real complaints, but I was wonder what results others have had with other brands? I mostly burn 17-4 Stainless using the standard hard brass wire. I have ran some coated wires but never experienced a signifcant increase in speed to justify the cost. My machine is a Mits. FX10.

Steve

That's a good question and the answer regarding the brand depends on the materials you cut and your machine.
The justification however is very simple.
Say you get the Hard brass wire for $50/spool, and get Gisco Mega-D for $110/spool.
Gisco gives you an all around 15% < very pessimistic estimate > increase over the brass.
Typically an 5KG spool lasts 12 hours, and your shop rate is $50 / hour.
Calculate this:
1 spool of brass will get you 12 x 50 = $600 worth of work at the cost of $50.
1 spool of Gisco will get you 12 x 50 x 1.15 = $690 wort of work for $110.
Profit from Brass : 600 - 50 = $550
Same from Gisco : 690 - 110 = $580

Add in the fact thet your machine runs for 15% less time, parts are done 15% quicker, better wire gives you a more reliable cut etc etc..
I think its a no-brainer to go with ANY wire that gives you speed increase for straight burns.

Now to answer what works for me: I use Hitachi HBZ for brass < nowadays only for Aluminum cuts > for coated it's Gisco Mega D or Topaz, or Sumitomo SZR.
On the other hand, have had absolutely no luck with OKI or any of the Korean and Indian wires.

Again to remember: Your Mileage WILL vary !!!

I'm pretty impressed with the Topaz H. Excellent "bang for the buck".

For general use, I prefer Gisco MegaCut hard brass wire.
I tried OKI PSX "precision-speed" wire for a few months. The MegaCut hard brass performs better at less than half the price..

My shop recently convered from 1/2 hard brass to a zinc coated wire called turbo cut, We experienced about a 20 percent speed difference, and was able to slow my wire speeds down. Only thing is it doesn't work great for large tapers.

I use OKI PSX for the stuff we cut here, because that's what they always used here. But I'm going to have to try some other wire, too. WE cut mostly titaniumm, TZM moly, 17-4, and some Inconnel.
I had other fires to put out but now its time to see what I can do for profit margins. I think I'll try the Megacut and then... Who knows what.

I use only Gisco on my Agie's and have very good success. I stay with Cobra Cut A and D on everything from .004 up. I have tried OKI, did not work well for me.

TMD

Mike

You'll find that Zinc coated wire is great for cuts up-to 2" or so, but above that the performance will drop.
The Mega-D wire though seem to be the most stable wire I've used for any thickness. The price may scare you but for that read my earlier post.
OKI, I've never had any luck with.

Seymour,
For my shop I do mainly dowels and trim steels so the thickest I normally cut is no more than 2", However my shop is breaking into the deep draw die business. So I will definetly look into the Mega-d wire. But right now I have to figure out the whole mastercam X business. Man I hate change.

I recently switched to the zinc impregnated for my Charmilles 330F. I was running zinc coated, but it would clog up the used/chopped wire container's screen in the back of the machine. I had absolutley no change in speed and had no problems with threading. I love this stuff and am getting it for a great price. My other wire is a low end stratified wire called strati-cut. It works well for my tall pieces but is about to be discontinued.

what do you guy think would be the better choices of wire for very small work in NITI( nickle Titanium) We are only using hard brass .010 wire now, but have bought some hard brass .006 wire and the guides for it as well....I have never used any of the other wires. We cut small tubes and wires ...for example we cut some tubes only .028 OD with a .006 wall. we cut them at an angle and then put a needle point on the end.....any suggestions for better finnishes!!

bob

Bob,

You are already on the right track by using a smaller diameter wire. For a better finish, it is long documented that you get both better surface finishes and surface integrity by using a zinc coated wire. Use the shiny-silver version (pure zinc). The dull gray version is a zinc oxide, which will cut slightly faster but will not finish as well.

One other suggestion; when cutting feather edges such as needle points, cut ONTO the part, not off it. When you cut towards the end of the part, this will chase the heat ahead of the wire to the end of the part until it has no place to go and can "burn" the tip by changing its temper and chemical composition. Always cut ONTO the part - towards the larger body of mass - where the heat can be better absorbed.

Bud

Hey Bud,

Nice to see you here!

Steve

hello bud. I just read your article in edm today. you are right on the money. Let me know if Basic Carbide can do anything to help you and any further articles. We would love to help you in any way. thanks for mentioning our name at the end of the article. thanks, Jared P. Filapose, General Sales Manager Basic Carbide