dgoodell
Plastic
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2018
- Location
- Cleveland, Ohio
I have a component required for a small stirling engine we are building that we are having difficulty manufacturing due to a 0.004" wall thickness. It's about 4" long and has a max diameter of around 0.630". There is a zip of the PDF drawing attached.
We have not had much luck getting this part quoted so we have put some effort into trying to get it made ourselves. We found that we can get the part made with all the right outer dimensions easily with just a blind hole drilled in the middle. Then we take that part and try to put the inner bore in via EDM but whenever we do this the thin wall section just disintegrates.
We have also thought about encasing the part in solder prior to the EDM to see if maybe supporting the wall outside would help but he needs the OD exposed to line up to. We have also considered about leaving the OD large, finishing the ID via EDM or whatever, filling the part with solder, then grinding the OD to the correct wall thickness.
3D printing is an option since we have access to one however it leaves a poor surface finish and we can't quite print thin enough so we still need to do something to finish it afterwards which leaves in the same situation.
We have not had much luck getting this part quoted so we have put some effort into trying to get it made ourselves. We found that we can get the part made with all the right outer dimensions easily with just a blind hole drilled in the middle. Then we take that part and try to put the inner bore in via EDM but whenever we do this the thin wall section just disintegrates.
We have also thought about encasing the part in solder prior to the EDM to see if maybe supporting the wall outside would help but he needs the OD exposed to line up to. We have also considered about leaving the OD large, finishing the ID via EDM or whatever, filling the part with solder, then grinding the OD to the correct wall thickness.
3D printing is an option since we have access to one however it leaves a poor surface finish and we can't quite print thin enough so we still need to do something to finish it afterwards which leaves in the same situation.