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Production Methods: This Disappearing Steel Snowflake Shows the Impressive Capabilities of Wire EDM

It’s been a while since we looked at EDM, or electrical discharge machining, which essentially cuts through metal with sparks. In the variant of this production method known as wire EDM, the cutting is done with a thin brass wire and the fun combination of electricity and water. Wire EDM is what you use when you want to cut something that’s, say, 300mm thick, and made out of a tough-to-machine metal.

Wire EDM yields pretty stunning accuracy—we’re talking +/- 0.0001"—which means you can do fun stuff like this:

This video was put together by Texas-based Reliable EDM.

Via The Awesomer