EDM Book Comparison
EDM is an increasingly popular topic among homebuilders with good reason. This link will give you a good overview of the technology. http://www.bsu.edu/web/blengle/Electrical_Disc_Machining.html
I sell two books on EDM because they each have some great ideas but get results in slightly different ways. I wouldn’t start a project without having both for reference. From a hobbyists perspective here’s how they’re different.:
Build an EDM by Robert Langlois – This is a reprint of six magazine articles from around the mid 90’s. Its enjoyable reading even if you don’t build one because there’s also much info on how and why it works and more pictures and illustrations. I appreciated the general info on assembling electronics and sourcing or substituting components. Also has great info on stepper motors and how they work. Its an older publication but parts sourcing shouldn’t be a problem This design uses a stepper motor and drive circuit to control the electrode. I suspect you could save a lot of time by buying a driver board instead of building one? You can etch your own PC board or wire point to point.Since this book offers more options in parts substituting and layouts, you need to be able to improvise and use what you have but its all explained clearly and very educational.
EDM How To Book by Ben Fleming - This is a more recent design and is more compact with fewer parts because it uses a servo drive instead of stepper and driver board. The parts are mostly radio shack and are shown assembled on a universal “prototype” style PC board, so no etching is required. The clever use of a small DC gearmotor drive eliminates the need for driver circuitry to use a stepper motor. You can save even more time by using an aircraft trim servo to feed the electrode, or build the simple ram assembly as shown. This is more of a “follow the clear directions and get it done” set of plans which will appeal to those who just need to get a job done and don’t care as much how the circuitry works. EDM operation is fairly simply but this book has much more information on actually using the machine and selecting electrodes and fluids as well as handling the fluid pumping and filtering. These books really do compliment eachother, buy both and save on shipping!!