🔴Attention 🔴 All the printed files can be downloaded here right now: www.printables.com/social/631255-rack-robotics-official/models CAD Files are included as STEP and Fusion360 Archive. All printed parts are creative commons public domain.

I went into this video 100% convinced that you made an Electronic Dance Music machine

Came for Electronic Dance Music, stayed for the Metal 🤘

I feel like having precision metal parts that you can make at home will be a great addition to 3D printing

If it would ship outside the U.S. I would absolutely back this. There sure is a market for consumer EDM. I hope this turns into a product sooner than later.

If I can offer a suggestion. To limit and control the current to the electrode I would recommend driving the PWM into an inductor. You can get extremely accurate currents without much in the way of heat losses. There is another incredible advantage to using an inductor that most people don't know about, the output voltage of the inductor will fly up when the current is interrupted such that pulse will generate a spark even if the gap widens.

I could not believe it when I checked the GitHub repository and I found the hardware schematics and layouts for the motherboard and the PCB resistor. The "EDM bottleneck" as you described it has been persistent for years, not due to the technological challenges in my opinion as much as it is due to the commercial appeal of this technology (again, just my opinion). So I am very grateful to see that you have taken the generous path of sharing your design and the results of your hard work. One crucial question at this point though is: "what are the licensing terms for this hardware?" I could see that the software is released under an attribution license, but what about the hardware. Can I start locally fabricating these machines, improve them, make a profit, and contribute back to the design? So fundamentally my question is: is this design source-available or open-source? I would encourage you to clear that up to set the tone and make it clear for contributors, what they are stepping into.

This is amazing!! I can't get over how impressed I am by you and your team's work on this. Congrats on reaching your Kickstart goal!

I don’t know much about EDM- but i’d just like to say I’m proud and impressed at just how much a leap rev1 -> rev2 was for your pcb! especially since it was your first design. Printed power resistor was also a clever solution.

Unfortunately not available outside of the US right now but very excited to see this come to reality, I believe it’s critical for us small scale fabricators to have access to this technology. Congratulations on reaching your kickstarter goal and please keep Making these!

This is a gorgeous build! The possibilities are literally endless.

Very unique approach. Have kicked around the idea of an EDM for a few years for some smaller projects. Will be watching this and see where it goes.

Extremely cool. Designing your own PWB instead of using a power resistor for current limiting is a clever idea that I never would have thought of. I've been kicking around the idea of a DIY EDM machine for the better part of 2 years. It seems like a fun electrical project and, for the reasons you've described, is extremely appealing for a hobbyist who does not have the space for large conventional machines.

I did the exact same routine about 6 years ago with PCB design. From inception to working product in 8 months. What a brutal project that was, you can teach yourself a lot in a short time while in a time crunch

Crazy interesting. Thanks for looking into this, doing this work and sharing it.

Simply incredible. Been following you for a bit, glad it worked out. I will be purchasing one when I set up my workshop.

Just backed it. Was going to try to build one myself.... you all might have given me a year of my life back! Such resourceful alternatives. Amazing work!

Backed for 600. Good job Something like this was on my project list. But now I can be saved from that headache a support you and your developments! I really hope this goes the way of 3D printing. Can't wait to see what's in store 5 years down the road.

This is really impressive, thanks for moving things along!

Amazing. Stoked to see the use of common parts(printer frame). Congratulations on all your hard work paying off!

Amazing. Consider shipping to Europe, I'd love to purchase one of these for my own workshop! Wish you all the success with your project! Super cool.

This is incredibly cool! I have a huge soft spot for making industrial processes affordable for DIYers, but the fact that this is feasible with EDM is incredible. 👍

Absolutely brilliant work! Love the thinking behind the inspired design of the power resistor. Can't wait for this to be available in Aus!

This is impressive. Very well done. Looking forward to seeing this progress

This is impressive. And I'm pretty sure I don't even know enough about EDM to know how impresive this actually is.

As a machinist and Tool maker and lover of all things making stuff, this excites me far more than the 3D printer ever did ❤

been subscribed to your channel for a while now and I wish you'd upload more frequently. Watching your content is like watching a mad scientist, I don't know if there's another channel doing more with less rn.

Open source EDM accessible to domestic independent manufacturers, designers, and engineers is a fantastic idea. Nice job upping the production value on the videos too, the presentation of this was pretty professional while being really open and transparent about the process and I, as well as many others I'm sure, greatly appreciate that. Keep up the awesome work Morlock.

Fantastic attention to detail Your work is both functional and also aesthetically very pleasing. Something I aspire to be better at myself.

Thank you so much for developing this. The world really needs it.

Amazing work ! I signed up for notifications on the next release. Thank you for the informative video

This is some incredible stuff. I learned so many things watching your video I have no count. Thank you once again for sharing.

I applaud your efforts in bringing this to our open source community. I am about to back your kick starter just for that but can you please include some specs? what can you machine? how fast? how long do the electrodes last etc. You are showing sheet metal work which would be an interesting thing between plasma cutting and fiber lasers but to make it practical you need to go up to say 3mm thick tool steel. Please tell us what materials you experimented with

If my financial situation were different this would have been the first Kickstarter I ever backed. Amazing work.

this is awesome, rooting for your team

I truly respect the knowledge and effort that went into this project. Thanks for the really cool video!

Hogging out that much metal in 30 minutes is impressive.

This is great! Maybe send some machines to the big 3d printing/crafting KZfaqrs to try out, for more reach

Glad I stumbled on your channel. Thank you.

Got this recommended randomly - instantly became a fan - very cool project!

Might I suggest you add in a "port saver" for the Pico? The USB connection port physical connection on the pico is not that great, it's micro-USB (so people will plug it in wrong twice before plugging it in right), and recessed in there, people will forget it's just a pico and tend to jam the cable in with force. A panel-mount USB port (USB-C, even?) would save the physical stress on the pico's port. And, of course, I wanted to say that this whole thing is freakin' awesome!

Impressive amount of determination clearly met with incredible results! Well done

Seriously, GREAT JOB !

I've wanted to mess around with EDM for a while now. I look forward to seeing more of your progress.

Great video!! When I close my eyes, it's like I'm listening to Ben from Applied Science!

As a former machinist who has been taking a journey into 3D printing the last couple years, this is incredibly impressive, you just gained a subscriber. Can't wait to see even more and with 13 days left, I may just be able to convince my lady to let me join the KickStarter 😅

I was not expecting this variation of a design I am inspired and look forward to the impact this makes.

Fantastic stuff!

I thought about doing something similar some time ago. I know how to make boards, that's my actual job, but I didn't have the money to invest. What you did is very impressive, specially considering none of you had experience designing PCBs!

Oh wow, I was actually thinking about this sort of thing not too long ago. It would be an incredible gift to small scale fabricators if this takes off like 3D printing has!! Also, to assist with fundraising, you might want to look into taking orders for custom injection molds/small parts? That way various real world use cases can be tested for improvements, and reliability can be measured too.

This is the most amazing thing I've seen all week -well done guys and good luck with the Kickstarter! +Please consider shipping to Europe (inc. London, we are still in Europe just... ;o)

Great video, keep up the good work!

You've got something really great going here. It's good stuff. You'll be a multimillionaire sooner or later, this development is what people dream of.

I program and operate 5 axis Fanuc Wire edms and hole poppers at an injection mold shop. When I started the whole process seems like some kind of arcane magic. With the Fanuc Robocut machines you can get down to .004 thou wire with tenths accuracy after 4+ passes at different spark gaps. Plus having wire automatic cutting/ threading is so beneficial for cutting ejector pin clearance holes or lots of slugs overnight. Flushing pressure is everything for speed though, how are you managing the resistivity of the water and shorting without any major flushing pressure? I'm very interesting in your work and im definitely going to have to contribute to your kickstarter. Seriously awesome work!!

Esto es increíble. Muchas gracias por todo el esfuerzo! Saludos desde Uruguay.

A lot of that electronics went over my head but it is amazing that you have created this. I can`t wait until a few generations forward. Amazing .

Always wanted to build one! I have MANY questions, though. Electrode errosion rate? Longer-lasting electrode material alternatives W, Mb? Tolerances, surface roughness? Smallest usable electrode (which lasts at least minutes)? Electrode erosion compensation? Bottom surface milling? Electrode errosion compensation? Software?

I was a wire edm operator for 5 years and a programmer for 3. What you’re doing is pretty dang awesome! It’s like a sinker edm and a wire edm had a baby and gave birth to that. I wonder how tight of a tolerance you can hold, can you control the spark gap? How do you figure out the speeds and feeds?

Wow, this is amazing. You guys are kicking ass!

You guys are awsome and have come a long way

That is extremely impressive, if it shipped outside of the US I would 100% buy it, would there be a possibility of making the plans for sale?

Do you really need the resistor? You could use a capacitor and series inductance to limit the dI/dt, and then switch the mosfet to act like a software current limiter. You just traded a few hours of writing code in return for halving the size and price of your device. You'll also reduce your power supply requirements dramatically - as long as you're willing to cut slowly, you can now have a super small cheap power supply costing just a dollar or two. And even if you want to cut fast, you'll be able to use a cheaper supply because all the energy will be going into the workpiece not into a power resistor. Give me a shout if you want me to send over a circuit and code.

Great project and love the looks.

This is awesome! I have been wanting to build an edm for a while now!

I came for the EDM banger, still this managed to entertain me even better!

This is amazing... I am absolutely dumbfounded by the limits people are pushing in the at home manufacturing technology. If you would have told me 10 years ago the things we can do from home at the price point we are able to do it at.... I don't know if I would believe it.

Very impressive. Well done. I would be very interested in getting hold of one of your machines to try out. Cheers J

beautiful design!

This is really impressive I’ve been wanting to build a wire/sinker edm for a while now. I just have two questions 1 could that power supply be used for a wire edm 2 is it possible to get a better edge finish with this power supply. Does the finish come down to the power supply or is it a result of machine rigidity?

Just some thoughts thought, While this is cool I think you may have gotten some of your information a little incorrect or not quite explained how it necessarily is Firstly when you talk about compliant mechanisms, While they can benefit from being EDM machined they are not necessarily an exclusively EDM manufactured part. Not really even close. Methods like conventional CNC and Laser cutting along with Sintered metal 3D printing are all methods being used to complaint mechanisms, Though I'm not familiar with designs at the microscopic scale I believe it's going to use a different method than EDM machining. That being said we also don't necessarily have a bottle neck on the EDM side for complaint mechanisms. A lot of work in the industry is moving towards Microscopic scale, or 3 dimensional objects like NASA's multi directional thruster which can't be made using an EDM machine either just from how the routing of tubes work. Next to address your statement on injection molds. Well In industry yes we Can and will sometimes use EDM to manufacture molds, but we certainly don't have to. In fact entire careers are built around getting those parts to final mirror polish but also designing the molds because there is a lot of engineering and precision involved with making them. EDM is also slow and can't take of nearly enough material as CNC can so for this application you would need to use a CNC machine anyways to start it off and then hire someone to do the EDM work to get it to a mirror polish. There is of course the alternative of making a separate copper electrode to machine the part without needing CNC machines to make the cavity, but someone still needs to make that custom electrode to EDM into the stock material. There's a lot of work involved with making injection molds at an industrial level so it's not really a bottle neck of EDM machines that make things expensive. It's the labour behind all of that work that makes EDM machined parts so expensive. Overall I commend your efforts and love that you're bringing an EDM machine to the hobby market but they way you're presenting these problems really isn't the full story and a little misleading to those who might not know as much about the industry. If you really want to fix this so called "EDM" bottle neck which I would personally disagree we even have you would need to focus making machines with incredibly high level of precision far more affordable and cost efficient than what's currently available while still maintaining the same high degree of compatibility with industrial software and industry flexibility.

EDM is awesome, I have been waiting for a video like that for a long time.

Very cool I hope to see more on this

Why did you need the large power resistors or the PCB resistor? Is it to limit the current to the electrode? If so would a current controlled power supply be a better solution? You could maybe make one that is relatively high efficiency by using a buck or boost converter that has a constant current mode.

A great first step. But we need more info on its limitations.

What an amazing project, can't wait to see what future holds for it!

Great job guys! We've needed a revolution in low-force machining for decades. That's the best way to open up precision metal fabrication for the masses.

I don't think I've ever gone from watching a video to spending over $500 so fast. Actually, paused at 58 secs to go to your kickstarter.

No info on material types, maximum material thickness, smallest rod diameter, no price of the unit. It's a cool machine, but bad video. Hope to see a follow up with detailed explanation of the process and machine capabilities.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was considering doing this and knowing you accomplished it makes me more confident moving forward in my project! I'll be sure to review all of your public information on your project before moving forward. Thank you again!

Very cool device! You are great! Best of luck!

Whoa. This is awesome. Video is packed with information and clever, inexpensive solutions! You're definitely onto something great here. Mahalo for sharing! : )

This is freaking awesome! Thank you for sharing. 😁

this is amazing guys , keep it up !!

I love how the video is peoples introduction to engineering and design. It makes me so happy:)

Great idea and execution, yet another leap towards truly democratizing manufacturing! Kudos

Commenting for the algorithm! Very nice job, exciting stuff

Splendid! Very well made and inspiring

Looks really impressive very nicely finished, good luck with raising your target.

this is incredible. I can't wait to see where this takes hobby machining.

Amazing video! Great job!

I felt like there was something familiar when I started watching the video. I realized you're channeling Applied Science. I subscribed.

I very rarely subscribe to anyone or anything, but I love everything about this. Wish I could have gotten in on the kickstarter, but I would be happy to make this myself when the gerbers are released. Great work!

Thats really freaking cool. I wish you the best.

Well Played...!!! Excellent implementation concept..!!! There is deff a place for this.

Wow! Amazing work. :-)

I understood most of the words you said, keep up the great work!

Excelkent work!

Thanks for making this technology accessible. I'm looking forward to having some precision in metal cutting in my shop now.

Wow. This is awesome.

This is something the 3dp/reprap/fabbing community NEEDS. Thank-you for pushing the space forward. Price is in some ways, the most important part.