[svenakela]

You should evacuate or catch the dust in any case, so the guides aren't a problem.

[packrat]

The graphite used in edm is a byproduct of oil refining. The graphite for lubricating is the mineral graphite. Two completely different things with the same name.

When I ran a edm most of our electrodes were form ground on a surface grinder. We would have a set-up electrode to get the correct dimension on, then take the rest of the electrodes to size with one cut each. Talk about dust

[rakker16mm]

The graphite used in edm is a byproduct of oil refining. The graphite for lubricating is the mineral graphite. Two completely different things with the same name.

When I ran a edm most of our electrodes were form ground on a surface grinder. We would have a set-up electrode to get the correct dimension on, then take the rest of the electrodes to size with one cut each. Talk about dust

I can smell the oil after the cut. Fortunately the water trap works wonders for keeping the dust under control and I don't have a black nose. It gets nearly all the dust expect for the lager bits which escape the vacuum. I still need find a way to cover the ways on the lather though.

[awerby]

is that the dust conducts electricty. It's used to make motor brushes and conductive paint, among other things. So if you let it float around your shop, it will get into your computer, with results you may not be happy about...

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[harryn]

There is a pretty decent article on graphite on wikipedia.

Graphite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was surprised that in the US, most graphite is synthetic, and most internationally sourced is from natural sources. It didn't surprise me that the US supply is mostly synthetic, I just didn't realize it was a natural product.

The range of variations was also a surprise.

The reason I looked at graphite, is that I need a reasonably pure carbon source for a project, and wondered if scap graphite from machining was a viable source for it. The answer seems to be maybe.

[xrdcarbon88]

Graphite is one of the most soft mineral, it can be used include manufacturing pencil lead and lubricant.Origin and occurrence:Graphite is formed at high temperatures.in china, laixi city of shandong province is important place of production,storage 687.11 tons,available reserves 639.93 tons.and panshi city of jilin province has 500 tons of storage.jixi city of heilongjiang province is the largest producing area.and in the world,famous producing area is New York Ticonderoga,Madagascar and ceylon.so high purity graphite most come from china.the link: http://www.xrdcarbon.com/news/97.html

[avilaae]

Hello everyone!
I need milling graphite electrodes. Those used in electric furnaces of the steelworks .
Someone can help me with Ks data or the value of the cutting pressure of this material ?
With this data you could calculate the necessary power forward speed , and cutting speed .
We also need to know what kind of tool would be best: fast or carbide steel insert .

Greetings and thanks for the help!