Intended use is PCB milling. But if it works it could do more than that. It could be used to drill tiny holes in any metal, it could work as an extremely crude and light duty CNC mill for milling on any metal, irrespective of whether the metals hardened or not.
A PCB mill based on this technique?
From my research, no one have done this. Yay, it's 2016 and there is something that is not done by others.
But how can it be, out of the 7billion+ alive and rest who does didn't think about this?
It's very unlikely.
AND I FOUND IT.
Loial Otter had the same idea as mine and he did a similar test what I did in the first video in this page. But he didn't have any other information, he didn't post
any updates anywhere.
But this guy,
Jarrett actually made a good progress, though it's not finished yet.
You can read about him and his project
Then I found a discussion thread. Actully there are a lot of discussion and failed and successful attempts to make DIY EDMs.
Most of the parts I have bought/will be buying, is from aliexpress. I have a full set of the 3D-printer controller, Ramps 1.4 with 5 stepper drivers and all the required parts. This
was sourced from Aliexpress.
Some of the pulleys, and couplers could be made with laser, or printed or casted. But as a backup, I have purchased the ready made parts too. Also bought the timing belt.
The Core XY, stage will have to be designed and made in the lab itself with acrylic and other materials available.
The threaded rods, if required will have to be bought, but smooth rods could be salvaged from the printers.
The =linear bearing required could either be made as in my molding and casting assignment or I can use ready made LM8UU type.
Extruder will be made.
Stepper motors are available in the FabLab inventory.
Tungsten and Molybdenum wires are bought from aliexpress.
Servo motor is available in the lab, BLDC motors are available in my personal inventory.
Other components like fasteners will be sourced locally.
More details, once the project is done.
As of now I cannot estimate it accurately. Though it could be between, <INR 21K , <:$300.
The software is something I really need to be helped with. Especially the code for generating the GCODE.
Prototype before the final project presentation on 22nd June and a more refined version with improvements within a month from there. I'm dedicating the first week of June, 2016 for gathering the resources, all mechanical parts, like threaded rods, bearings, fasteners etc. Also there will be many tests to finalize many aspects of the machine such as, how to design the wire extruder, the approximate range of voltage, current and frequency etc.
But I seriously doubt if I can have polished product by the end of the academy (8th of July). This is because there are not much documentation available for the ideas I'm trying to
implement, I have to dedicate a lot of time for research and development, a lot of time for trial and error. Many things are not going to work in the first attempt itself.
This is also my first highly complicated project involving, electronics, mechanics etc, all done from scratch. I'm not an engineer by education, I have taught my self a
lot during many projects, but this looks like quantum leap forward.
This project involves a full machine design and mechanical design week assignment (which we did as a group project) and much more. But now I don't have a group, I'm alone, which is
also good, as I don't have to divide any work, don't have to wait for anyone....
And I'll learn a lot more.
The main attraction this machine is that this machine uses a 'cool' technique that is not used for PCB prototyping (in my knowledge) till now.
I'm not a great product designer or a coder, so the project will have it's drawbacks.