rb07565
Aluminum
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2011
- Location
- Western Nebraska USA
Greetings all,
I know this subject has been talked about to death in this particular forum and I've searched and read many of the threads, However, I haven't really gotten the answers I'm looking for so here it goes.
For starters, please be gentle, I'm pretty much an idiot when it comes to wire EDM machining. I've only used one a handful of times and that was long ago. I used one in trade school back in the mid nineties and after that I think I maybe used one less than 5 times when I was doing tooling work. I left tooling work in about 1998 and took a job doing industrial repair machining. I'm a shop owner now. I have a couple machining centers, CNC lathe and and a bunch of manual machines.
Now that I've briefly explained my history, I have a new customer that is looking for us to do some prototype work that would really best fit a wire EDM. If I do end up looking for a used wire EDM, what brand, model, and vintage should I be looking into? I understand that used wire machines can be extremely problematic but a new machine would just NOT be in the budget at this time. If the relationship with this customer grows to that point then I would consider it but, as of now, it would not make financial sense. The prototype parts I've seen that they'd like me to possibly do are pretty simple 2 axis, really basic stuff. They are also pretty small in size, nothing very large at all. Also, being prototype stuff, I'm not concerned about cut time and that sort of thing at the moment. My main concerns right now, would be price, ease of use and simple robust design. I understand that a used machine will by nature lack reliability but I'm sure some brands and models are better than others?
All that being said, what type of recommendations or general advice can you guys offer?
Thanks for your time
I know this subject has been talked about to death in this particular forum and I've searched and read many of the threads, However, I haven't really gotten the answers I'm looking for so here it goes.
For starters, please be gentle, I'm pretty much an idiot when it comes to wire EDM machining. I've only used one a handful of times and that was long ago. I used one in trade school back in the mid nineties and after that I think I maybe used one less than 5 times when I was doing tooling work. I left tooling work in about 1998 and took a job doing industrial repair machining. I'm a shop owner now. I have a couple machining centers, CNC lathe and and a bunch of manual machines.
Now that I've briefly explained my history, I have a new customer that is looking for us to do some prototype work that would really best fit a wire EDM. If I do end up looking for a used wire EDM, what brand, model, and vintage should I be looking into? I understand that used wire machines can be extremely problematic but a new machine would just NOT be in the budget at this time. If the relationship with this customer grows to that point then I would consider it but, as of now, it would not make financial sense. The prototype parts I've seen that they'd like me to possibly do are pretty simple 2 axis, really basic stuff. They are also pretty small in size, nothing very large at all. Also, being prototype stuff, I'm not concerned about cut time and that sort of thing at the moment. My main concerns right now, would be price, ease of use and simple robust design. I understand that a used machine will by nature lack reliability but I'm sure some brands and models are better than others?
All that being said, what type of recommendations or general advice can you guys offer?
Thanks for your time