I use Mastercam for designing electrodes and I have heard of various ways to apply the spark gap to the trode. I normally shrink the cutter for a X-Y regular orbit but it is when I start doing barrel orbits that I have heard other ways to apply the gap. One person says that shrinking the cutter is the way but talking to other people I know they think shrinking the drive surfaces is the way. If anyone can help that would be great; also if anyone knows a good publication to read about this subject that would be terrific.

thanks

On mastercams tool path parameters you will see a box that as "stock to leave", I set this value to -.001 to -.003.

Doing this will leave you a spark gap.

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Replying to:

I use Mastercam for designing electrodes and I have heard of various ways to apply the spark gap to the trode. I normally shrink the cutter for a X-Y regular orbit but it is when I start doing barrel orbits that I have heard other ways to apply the gap. One person says that shrinking the cutter is the way but talking to other people I know they think shrinking the drive surfaces is the way. If anyone can help that would be great; also if anyone knows a good publication to read about this subject that would be terrific.

thanks

In mastercam as in all cam software you do not need to shrink the tool or the surfaces that may create several serious problems. The best way is to use negative stock yo leave (ex. -.0025") which is the exact amount of the desidered gap. but to do so you have touse ball tool or bull nosed tool where the corner radiior the radii of the sphere has to be equal or bigger than the absolute value of the negative stock to leave , in our example R=,0025 or bigger.It wont work with flat tools.

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Replying to:

I use Mastercam for designing electrodes and I have heard of various ways to apply the spark gap to the trode. I normally shrink the cutter for a X-Y regular orbit but it is when I start doing barrel orbits that I have heard other ways to apply the gap. One person says that shrinking the cutter is the way but talking to other people I know they think shrinking the drive surfaces is the way. If anyone can help that would be great; also if anyone knows a good publication to read about this subject that would be terrific.

thanks

As far as getting additional information try, EDM Today Mag. phone # 973-831-1334 You will find them very informative.
Additional information may be available from your edm machine manufacturer. Depending on what your EDM is capable of will greatly influence what and how you use overburn.
What is paramount is that your electrode geometry must remain true to your part geometry regardless of or how you choose to burn it. Will the burn be a straight plunge with no orbit? Is your machine capable of 2 or 3D orbits, Regardless of what type of orbit you choose your electrode geometry must remain true to the part geometry minus final power setting overburn factor. What path will the electrode follow in it's final orbit and at what spark gap will it be using at that time. If you are not the one running the EDM machinery spend some time with the EDM tech to get a better understanding of what the equipment is capable of. Be sure to pass along whatever information you have in terms of how you undersize the electrode to the EDM tech. Good Luck

Using your cutter to apply spark gap has major limitations. When doing this, normal practices are to make a roughing trode and a finishing trode with a much smaller spark gap. For High Speed Burning you need to start with your electrode design. By offsetting the electrode geometry you will be able to use one electrode with a much higher spark gap. Which will also give you the ability to customize different form burning faces with a greater offset. By offsetting the geometry you will use ZERO stock when programming and you will be inspecting actual sizes in your CMM. For more information please visit www.UltraQuest-CADCAM.com