On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:51:40 -0400, J. Clarke wrote:

First, this post is going to be somewhat vague as I'm under an NDA and
can't give much detail.

That said, I have a need to cut 1/16" to 1/4" thick slices off of
irregularly shaped objects composed of 5-10 percent nickel, 1-2 percent
carbon, a few trace elements, and the rest iron. Annealing is not an
option--they have to be cut as is. The objects may be somehwere in the
range of 1 to 5 inches in diameter. The kerf has to be as narrow as
possible.

So far I've been using a diamond lapidary blade and oil coolant but it's
really slow going and judging from the noises it makes the saw is not
happy. It'll cut through a lump of slag in a minute or so, but one of
these puppies takes a half an hour with the same setup.

I was wondering if anybody had any ideas on a better way to go.

Wire EDM? It'll still take time, but the kerf will be narrow!

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com