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J. Clarke[_2_]

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"J. Clarke" wrote in message
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In article ,
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"Tim" wrote in message
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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!

Wire EDM can slab it off at around 25 in.^2/hr., with a kerf on the order
of
0.020 in. At those speeds, you'll have a heat-affected zone a couple of
thousanths deep, so that may be a consideration.

Interesting thought, but sounds expensive. I don't think we've got the
budget for it.

I don't know what shop time is on a wire EDM these days. It was $45/hour
last time I looked, but that was quite a while ago.

Hmm, something to look into. Might be cheaper than me standing in front
of a saw. Thanks.