Useing Orbital E.D.M. Process For Cutting Mold Cavitys

[Bill T]

Veral,

I've been a Moldmaker, (both plastic & die cast), for around 30 years and was wondering if you have ever attempted, or seen this process used for cutting bullet mold cavitys? A sinker EDM with orbital capabilitys would seem ideal for this, but expensive. Where I work now doesn't have EDM's, but through the years I've worked on several. Cutting slightly undersize electrodes on most any CNC lathe would not be a difficult task to program, and cut. I feel the main advantage to this process would be the ability to use hardened and ground mold blocks to start, with little to no distortion produced by the EDM process itself. Orbiting would allow for infinate, accurate control of diameter as well as roundness. Extremely smooth finishes are capable as well. Just wondering what your take is on this.  Bill T.

[Veral]

Thanks for the suggestion, Bill.   However, with the almost unlimited variations which I offer in my molds, EDM machining would be impractical.  Also, it's only real advantage would be to cut heat treated steel alloys, as you have stated.  

For a half dozen reasons, there is no better mold block mateial than aluminum.  If the caster doesn't abuse them, LBT molds will cast precision bullets for a lifetime, and do it faster and with less effort than any other brand of mold.   With some experiance, 400 bullets per hour with my two cavity and 800 bullets per hour with my four cavity molds can be expected, with very few rejects.  That production rate cannot be even thought of with steel or iron blocks, or cheeply made aluminum.