American 7260 crawler crane

[9W Monighan]

I never thought about a wire EDM for plates. That would be soooo much more accurate than a lazer. Boy would I like to have one of those. I've been toying with the idea of getting a old ram type EDM but I have never used one. I almost bought a couple last year cheap from a shop down the road but there was some electronic problems with them and I was afraid of not finding parts. Alot of the guys that make small engine parts use these to erode away metal to simulate castings. Usually they grind or machine the electrode to the form.

[eef7260]

Hi Steve

Wire edm are great machines and i am lucky enough to have access to them.
Once you start using them you see more and more applications for it.
In fact the profile of the bottom and top flange , the 6 bars and the tooth profile is also done with it.
it could also be done with laser cutting ( less accurate but accurate enough ).
The fact that i used it is simply because i have access to it.
If there was a laser cutting machine available for me i would have use that.
In fact wire edm is a bit over specified for the job.
Don't know how things are in your area but over here there a lot of company's that do laser cutting for real fair prices.
You only need to deliver a decent cad file and wait for 2 weeks or so.
The thing is now i don't have to wait , i do it myself and it cost me nothing ( only time )
But if i had not access to edm i would seriously consider laser cutting for some parts.

Eef