Wire EDM at home? RackRobotics PowerCore V2 FIRST LOOK

[@neverendingstudent]

Between FDM and Resin 3D printers, home desktop CNC, home desktop (but you probably want it in your garage) laser engravers and laser cutters, and now home desktop sized EDM, the barriers to entry for rather serious, professional manufacturing capacity (if low speed/volume) have become laughably small. This is wonderful for at-home makers interested in taking ideas in their head and making them into products in their hands without breaking the bank. I love seeing all these technologies progress as fast as they are.

[@IanFiebigwi]

Yeah I'm really excited to see the next ten years. Also the availability of cheap import tooling that allows for easy entry into machining.

[@ray-charc3131]

Also is diy injection molding machining。The barrior now for diy builder is the SLS 3d printer machine

[@ywsx6489]

being able to cut hardened metals at home with low noise and sparks/dust is pretty awesome.

[@DrGeta666]

The noise is absolutely a game changer for home makers.

[@chrishayes5755]

"pretty awesome"? PRETTY AWESOME?! this tech was owned by major industry players and had a barrier of entry of $100,000's and now it's decentralized to the point you can have it on your desktop for dirt cheap. you guys better use these machines to make some $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

[@DrGeta666]

@@chrishayes5755 why?

[@arbitrary_username]

@@DrGeta666because many people have neighbors. Plasma cutting is pretty quiet, too with a silent compressor.

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

I just had some funds reserved to buy a Carvera Air, but then I didn't buy it because of the noise and space is needs (including vacuum and all the additional tools and parts that a CNC needs). This wire EDM looks like a great machine to buy and build instead. I'll probably design my own machine around the power supply.

[@jljr99]

I've been programming and running wire EDM's for over 30 years. I have to say, this is impressive. I will probably grab one of these for home hobby use. Pretty cool. Impressive.

[@preppertechnicianee6013]

Hey I’m in the service field world right now but would love to get into machining mind if I pick your brain 30 years of experience is a lot

[@chrisgenovese8188]

what a time to be alive. i cant wait to be doing EDM in my home workshop!

[@davydatwood3158]

I saw Cooper's Iron Ring and thought "with a Canadian engineer as the face of this, this should be good." And it was! I'm not quite ready to dive into this but as someone who's been interested in exploring home CNC machining for a while this is definitely a thing I want to keep an eye on.

[@Jhongerage]

Looking forward to a Voron Design Wire EDM!

[@Tinkerer5888]

Why so you always have to tinker with it and rebuild every month they make a new revision. Voron is making a diy cnc as if we needed another one and they could never do this anyways because of they motto, easy to source, off the shelf parts so they will literally always be mediocre compared to a professionally made machine tbh. All this user error lol great idea to make a cnc to literally take a newbie’s eye out hope they liability clauses really good 😅

[@HarleyButlerMakes]

@@Tinkerer5888 You must be fun at parties.

[@mikescholz6429]

I just got my carvera about a month ago, and a pair of 3d printers 6 years ago… one of these is next on my list 😎

[@decurionreproductions2629]

I am about to commit blasphemy: I am more excited to see this than Voron Cascade. I ask a machine shop to make a precision gauge for me? They default to the EDM wire. I dream about CNC plasma cutter? This is far superior. Now, the question is: do I commit my ender3 to a Enderwire? Or an Ender....um, wire?

[@rolandomartin]

plasma cutters have a huge kerf... you'd better off using a laser or waterjet. This edm sounds good but is awfully slow

[@dev-debug]

@@rolandomartin Both of which won't find in your average home garage due to their insanely high equipment cost. Wire edm and cnc plasma are for different applications. A small DIY CNC plasma cutter build would be 2ft x 2ft, most are at least 4ft square but they can cut very fast. Wire EDM is better for small precision tasks but takes much longer. I have a good sized cnc milling machine (not a router) but I could find uses for this wire edm. I've broken plenty of tiny end mills over the years, this would solve that.

[@newmonengineering]

I would say, that every technology has its place, but it depends on the job as to which one to choose. For cutting metal, a cnc can do more depth 3d stuff like blond holes and shallow pockets while maintaining the bottom for 3d parts. Laser and edm and plasma are mostly for flat sheet work to cut all the way through. So it always depends on the job. If it's small precise work with thick material edm is great. Laser is thinner mostly but faster. Plasma can do a decent thickness at a decent speed but has a huge kerf and may need cleanup after. So the choice depends on the goal of the project. I don't do anything that would benefit from edm, but I do have a cnc and laser because they best solve my projects in the shortest amount of time.

[@JavierChiappa]

@@dev-debug A Wire EDM can make cutting tools and then if you need spped you just have to build a hydraulic press and just punch it as fas as you can, surely better than plasma CNC for many equal small pieces fast

[@theonlyfattnblack2723]

glad to see you getting the exposure you guys deserve with all the work you have done, coming a long way from the zurad 2 ;) keep up the good work

[@joetkeshub]

The most interesting interview of the LDOMotors. Thank you!

[@jakelesher2044]

This is absolutely incredible. I will definitely be purchasing once they start shipping kits. Bringing wire edm to the hobbyist is huge, great work.

[@MrTweetyhack]

this is revolutionary for the DIY market!

[@randytucker3083]

Wonderful stuff. Great to make motor laminates and machine permanent magnets for your own motors for drones and more.....

[@MaxMichel89]

Pretty cool, even though I'm not planning of cutting things, but who knows, Thanks Open Source!

[@ryebis]

Very interesting, well done Rack Robotics.

[@MrUntermieter]

Great video about great guys and a great invention - thanks!

[@mikebergman1817]

Wow, I finally have a use for my Cr10-s5! This is insane..

[@BerkleyJones]

wow this is very cool! i cant wait to see what the community does with this. 👍

[@PaulDominguez]

This has so much potential!

[@bguiles1]

I see what you did there.

[@PaulDominguez]

I guess I'm really amped up about it

[@TheSakzzz]

Maybe having a green/red light at the top would be good to avoid accidently touching the water.

[@1kreature]

Next step: Reduce that energy, tighten that gap and get those sparks polishing... Lovely project!

[@neverendingstudent]

With this being open source, I have no doubt we will see a community hivemind effect iterating and refining on the design and the software making it better and better.

[@abowden556]

They think that they can tune this thing up further with better characterisation and firmware. It's still very early days! Once the community at large gets their hands on this, you can bet we are going to see it being optimised and pushed to the true limits of the hardware REAL quick.

[@Fu3R4]

Wow to be honest, quite a game changer.

[@jesselewis4975]

I love everything you guys are doing , Super sick.

[@roboman2444]

Looking forward to someone making a "5 axis" machine that uses two small robotics arms as the motion system.

[@rahulkuulsingh]

I wont be able to afford it for a long time. But I feel like this should be a great success. Thanks for making it generally available. As soon as I have the money, I will buy it. For sure, i don't know what i will do with it but one unit will be mine for sure.

[@GordLamb]

This... is in my future. Freakin' awesome.

[@Le_Sixx]

Genuinely impressed. Damn.

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

he handles them in a really scary way. how lethal are these?

[@drubradley8821]

I put together an article for "Home Shop Machinist" magazine, soon to come out in the next couple months, of a EDM die sinker I made from scrape parts, made to look really nice, that anybody can build. I got delayed about October a few months ago, when I moved to my new location, and soon I will have the new shop (hopefully) at least to a 80% running status, and I can then finish the DIY wire EDM machine also made from scrape that anybody can make, for about $60 USD and the scrap used to make the unit look nice, and all source able on the shelf parts for ease of building and servicing.. it will likely be about a month before I will be at 80% on the ship, to the point that I can even think about digging the wire EDM back out to finish it.. and write another article for the magazines submissions... Cause I get paid to write articles as anybody could, I just do that first, before I release it to the public for free, I allow the magazines to get their sales up, and then I dona massive public drop.. I think the wire EDM will have to be a multi article publishing over several issues, maybe 3 to 5 months?? We'll see what we work out... But, when I do my drop, Nero, I will send the link of info to you, to flag ship and it will be totally free/open source for all benefit or the people.. and if you can capitalize off it, do so...I dont care if people make money off it, and don't care that I put it out there for free.. both machines... Let alone the other 80 projects I have done over the past 30 years...

[@SirSpence99]

Do you have a location we can go to directly to see when you drop the stuff? I'm personally more interested in this than I am what Rack has. (At least from what you have explained.)

[@KevinTurner-aka-keturn]

Nice explanations, looks very neat! What do you do with the bathwater afterwards?

[@alexandrevaliquette3883]

The question: how much it cost in wire? Ex, how much to cut a 1mm thick Al or Steel plate on a straight 100mm line? For yankee: 1/32" thick on a 4" line.

[@Armor3dprinting]

Thanks for posting this, this looks very interesting and cool!

[@Metapharsical]

Beautiful design! And affordable! Looks that they already have a 4-axis design ready too?!? Does Klipper support the G-code for independent movemnt of an upper / lower tool head?

[@rumbadamba]

Cutting edge

[@friskydingo5370]

Thanks. I am looking for a compleate unit. Do you have a compleat unit for sale. I am in the market for a wire edm machine this one looks perfect for what i need. 👍

[@JohnOCFII]

Looks very interesting. Would love to see some real-world examples in 10mm thick 6061 aluminum. Guessing you can't cut holes with this, and can only do cuts that enter at an outside edge. Is that correct?

[@CanuckCreator]

It can do "sinker" style EDM work if you know what your doing, as for holes, would need a pilot hole to feed the wire through first, then go from there

[@rslaskjoel8617]

So when you use the hand held rod, you can't push out through the material?

[@rslaskjoel8617]

It

[@MatrixRay19]

@@rslaskjoel8617 Yeah, you can, that is what is considered Sinker EDM; you could have both on the toolhead and use the sinker just for the pilot holes.

[@ianloy1854]

Awesome and even more awesome is the power supply is "global". 90-264VAC 47-63Hz So 110/60 240/50 an everything in between are covered.

[@miles11we]

For me at least, custom precise hss and carbide form tools without much hand work could be a game changer.

[@Tinkerer5888]

Great innovation! Meanwhile Voron is making a diy cnc as if we didn’t have enough already 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@NS-no1li]

Can you cut in 4D with rotary system into the liquid base.. eg cut micro gears!,

[@Rajonex]

Very interesting, sad that it will be available as kit only in US btw is anyhow handled issue with cutting holes?

[@killroy713]

Trying to think how a voron gantry could be used to make this more scalable don't need y movement but limited by tool throat

[@thoughtstream9591]

I've been thinking about the same thing. I think there are some cube fish tanks that could fit inside a 300mm v2.4, however a custom "double stack" kind of like the one in the second machine they showed is more interesting.

[@kashifhayat3646]

Wondering if the wire used is just a disposable wire or you can actually reuse that???

[@CanuckCreator]

ehh, its not really recommended to reuse it, as the EDM process erodes BOTH sides of the process, so the wire gets "eaten" during the burn as well, and repeated use GREATLY increases the chance of it breaking and also will affect how consistent the burn width is

[@rigl5496]

Im hooked since the Powercore V1 Kickstarter! Unfurtunatly they do not ship to yurop.

[@xIsouLcruSHca]

Same boat as you, really exciting stuff and they are working on getting it to EU. Cooper from RR said on discord that they're working on international shipping and should have EU approval in the coming few weeks.

[@G-EDM]

@@xIsouLcruSHca Europe seems like a market for the G-EDM. Just check it out.

[@bestworks7574]

+1 for EU, really stoked about this.

[@tsclly2377]

are you going to make a rod/piecing EDM to bore holes?

[@blackend00]

is the power supply or the edm generating voltage open source , being honest here i want to buil one to make small parts , or tiny molds for silicon and then resin, edm usally is precise at small scale and good surface finish , amazing work 🎉❤

[@Tekenduis98]

I would love this, but I expected at least some good examples of finished work. Even their website has only a single piece of completed example in their video.

[@notyouraveragegoldenpotato]

Dang. The shaking was terrible in this video😂 trying to take a close and its all over. Super super cool though. Id be very interested in this. Have made a handful of my own industrial tools and an wire edm would be a nice addition

[@stinkymccheese8010]

So essentially it’s a plasma cutter. Can you attach the anode to the work piece and a cathode to a probe and use it to cut in three dimensions?

[@JohnDoe-u3b]

In the github I couldn't find a partslist for the non-3d printed stuff like bearings, ceramic wire guide. Is this available?

[@asidesigner8542]

Is there any github repo?

[@ZlobidloCZ]

I wonder how can you zero the system, or calibrate to piece.

[@neverendingstudent]

From how they talked about it, I'm guessing it's basically run a sample G code (on a specific metal/alloy/conductive material with a specific wire alloy) hoping for X/Y dimensions, then do precision measurement on the end product, and you have your (initial) calibration offset values for that wire/material combination. You *would* need separate calibration runs (and probably iterative calibration to figure out your +/- manufacturing tolerance capabilities) for each material you want to cut. All other factors would have to be taken into account as well (are you recirculating your water, are you running the recirc through filtration, recirc flow rate, energy and frequency settings, etc...) to get the most accurate and repeatable results possible. Thing is, as a home wire-EDM community grows and people do this iterative testing and share it, the individual barrier to entry in time investment will drop and drop as each person need to do less and less calibration and can replace a lot of the initial calibration testing with looking up results other people have gotten when working material X.

[@tomasbracek]

what is tolerance of cutting stainless steel, like tolerance which parts will have apart from desired dimension

[@zoltanr15]

I'd like one to etch pcbs :)

[@neverendingstudent]

At this rate, I'm wondering when we'll see home manufacturing capabilities for 2, 4, 6, or arbitrary X layer PCBs. After that? Home EUV sub 5-nM wafer processing????? Borg Nanotech? GIVE ME MY DREAM SCI-FI FUTURE!

[@NFNNLN]

FAQ: "Can the wire be reused? The wire cannot be reused immediately, as it wears out during the EDM process. However, it can be recycled."

[@killroy713]

0:06 the system.. is down

[@zenginellc]

This is getting outta hand, and I love it 😂

[@GNARGNARHEAD]

awesome.

[@Daepilin]

premium hotend price? holy shit, thats so much cheaper than I thought :O and I DO have an Ender 3 collecting dust...

[@dmitryplatonov]

Yeah, i wonder which hot end costs 500+ dollars...

[@rarespaul9503]

cool

[@WTF0v3r]

Can it self feed? It would be nice to be able to burn holes.

[@SolaAesir]

You need a thick enough wire for it to be stiff and some way to flow more water into the hole. You'd probably be better off making the initial hole in a more standard way and then feeding the wire through it like they did with the nozzle example.

[@matttimmermans9583]

Surface finish looks pretty rough. Is there anything to be done about that?

[@jeffl1356]

Anybody know the economics of running one? Wire used per sq in of cut in aluminum or steel? How much the wire costs?

[@ronnniehazeus]

Could this be used to for cncing metal not just cutting?

[@RicochetSaw]

@6:10 shouldn't it be called an end"er"skeleton?

[@dreamlessfull]

is the used wire reusable? I mean is a spool good for a single use only?

[@WeTrudgeOn]

That poor guy was shaking like a leaf.

[@jeffrey.edgett]

So, this only can cut outer surfaces? With the wire being pulled through under tension, you can't cut a hole in the center of metal, correct?

[@alexandrevaliquette3883]

You are right, you need a pilot hole, then pass the wire. Or you can use a piercing rod, but need to make your own modification.

[@livefreeordie9542]

Could you scale this to use as a replacement to a plasma cutter for 4 x 8 sheets of steel or aluminum?

[@CanuckCreator]

Theoretically yes, but the speed when cutting something that large would be a big drawback

[@livefreeordie9542]

@@CanuckCreator What would be the largest size you could scale it to, and still be useful in the home shop?

[@supergiantbubbles]

This is really cool. Please get a better camera. The closeup shots are nauseatingly shaky.

[@DoRC]

The cheat!

[@unclebobby673]

I dont know if I missed it, but realistically how thick of material could you cut with their system?

[@BertNielson]

How far apart do you place the tension spool and the feeder? That's the thickness. As it's ablative, your feed speed will be affected but thickness.

[@marcus3d]

How can you figure out what speed to go at?

[@CanuckCreator]

Trial and error along with using known good values to start

[@marcus3d]

@@CanuckCreator How does error look? Too slow cuts too much, and too fast breaks the wire?

[@ZURAD]

@@marcus3d Too slow doesn't hurt anything. Too fast breaks the wire.

[@sodium.carbide]

as far as i tested a couple 'normal' edm.. to slow would sometime widen the erosion a little if not more. furthermore speed, current/voltage set, electrolyte, flushing and surprisingly temperature also related to surface finish and cutting speed. anyway, amazing work..

[@yeabutwecouldbefreer]

@@sodium.carbide My power core V1 is about 1-4mm/sec for the thin aluminum stock that comes with it (The thin metal you see in the video). Apparently Steel takes 4x longer. Its not a fast process, but it cuts just about any metal cleanly.

[@DaVinci1_0]

Everyone Does Machining... :)

[@matthiasmartin1975]

70v? One can barely feel that. Also, this is great, endless possiblilites.

[@chrisparussin5359]

yeah he kept saying high voltage (that by definition is >1000vac or 1500vdc) and then he came up with 70v lol. That thing is not even low voltage, it is extra-low voltage

[@Thats_Mr_Random_Person_to_you]

50v AC is defined as the safe touch limit. 70v pulsed DC at a modest current is certainly worth the disclaimer of risk... you can get one hell of a belt from that if you are stupid, and it could be fatal depending on circumstances. Whilst it's certainly not HV in the strictest definition, it's equally not 'totally inert' in terms of thinking about safety.

[@mattheww8059]

Will it Cut and complete 80% lower?

[@CanuckCreator]

it`ll cut the basic shape out, and maybe things like the magwell if you drill a pilot hole, but your not doing much in terms of work around the trigger pack and what not, think of what this can do like a really precise bandsaw

[@SovakaKindred]

They state open source, where are the links for the build info? Their site doesn't link to anything or contain any additional information re the open source nature of the project.

[@shanedalgleish9230]

They have a GitHub. Took about a tenth of a second to find this on google.

[@michaelgleason4791]

So this is just a fancy bandsaw? It's just 2D right? Edit: wait a minute... $550? Wow. So setup for less than $1000. Can't do big stuff, but this is still very interesting.

[@SolaAesir]

It could do big stuff, it just depends on what you put it on. Put it in a swimming pool and cut raidroad track lengthwise.

[@BertNielson]

Accuracy of EDM can far exceed what you could do with a saw. Think of puzzle pieces that fit together with invisible seams and no filing work!

[@Metapharsical]

​@@BertNielson I would not expect that kind of precision or accuracy out of typical stepper motors. Industrial EDM uses linear motors or servo. That said, even this crude design could still have niche uses in prototyping fairly intricate metal spring/compliance mechanisms and other delicate things out of a variety of materials.

[@BertNielson]

@@Metapharsical switching to servos wouldn't add that much more to the overall cost if greater accuracy were the demand. 3D printing has made similar leaps since the earliest days of RepRap.

[@webnyoung]

What about hydrogen being made?

[@webnyoung]

See the bubbles! Need to be vented.

[@CanuckCreator]

Its not making anywhere near enough hydrogen to be worried about if the machine is open air in a room.

[@carbonmonocoque2239]

if stainless steel also works, shut up and take my money

[@alexandrevaliquette3883]

Why shouldn't be? I'm not expert... at all. Maybe the voltage requirement is not right, or is it?

[@carbonmonocoque2239]

@@alexandrevaliquette3883 should work he said, it can cut any conductive material

[@ericmac564]

The surface finish looks terrible. I was super interested until I grasped how poor the accuracy is. The whole main reason for EDM is tight tolerances. This isn’t that.

[@ArmedVapor]

People forget that a lot of end users are plain dumb. These guys will get sued into oblivion.

[@alexandrevaliquette3883]

People in general are dumb... DIY and special cnc end users are not as dumb.

[@danielmclellan7762]

But the surface finish is terrible

[@75keg75]

Why? Is it to replace plasma cutting, water cutting and Lazzzerzzz ? I thought EDM was supposed to deposit material?

[@camplays487]

Electrical discharge

[@75keg75]

@@camplays487 I get that. It just a blotter type of cutter… is it just less messy then water etc? Isn’t there electro deposition too?

[@EgorKaskader]

EDM is much easier to make at home to machine metal. It also makes water jets, lasers and especially plasma cutters' tolerances look funny. This particular machine may not, but EDMs can be literally made into zero tolerance machines. That, in fact, is the process by which zero-tolerance demonstrators are made. No deposition should be taking place. It's using electric arks to vaporise metals into plasma and remove them into the water. It's not a laser/plasma cutter to deposit slag.

[@camplays487]

@@75keg75 think subtractive vs additive manufacturing, this one in the video is the subtractive manufacturing wire edm in contrast to E-deposition which would be additive. Deposition is a bit more complex if I’m not mistaken because it would take ages for large scale mechanical parts which is why it’s typically just surface treatment. Also edm is so satisfying to watch

[@camplays487]

@@75keg75 there are also subtypes, instead of wire you use a rod to cut cylindrical geometry or a solid die for complex geometry usually cutting solid block of metal but not always could be a thick plate.