[Harp-L] Wire EDM for reed blanks

[Robert Coble <robertpcoble@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wire EDM produces some of the most beautiful reed blanks that I have ever seen: beautiful square edges, slick as a baby's bottom. I had the privilege to participate (in an indirect and very minor way) with Vern Smith's latest (2nd) attempt to produce a reed-profiling machine. As part of that experimental process, I had test reed blanks made using wire EDM. Given the rather crude "brute force" approach that I used (the amount of material wastage was terrible), it was very expensive to make a reed blank (approximately $6.00 USD per reed blank). I did not "shop around" for a machine shop; I took the first one I found that would make the reed blanks to Vern's specification. The shop assured me that I could mass-produce reed blanks at a much lower unit cost, PROVIDED I wanted them in quantities of 25,000 or more. Uh, no thanks, this is an experiment, 150 will be more than enough for the experiment, thank you very much.

Please note: this process produced reed BLANKS, NOT finished reeds. The only thing that had to be done to finish them (as if THAT were trivial!!) was to cut the profile into the reed blanks. As Vern indicated, that process (ultimately) was unsuccessful using his experimental machine.

As Brendan noted, accordion reed plates are being made using wire EDM. I'm exploring a design for custom reed plates cut using wire EDM.

Any harmonica machine shop gurus on Harp-L that might be interested in an experiment cutting reed plates using wire EDM?!?

(Hey, it's my money and I'll throw it away if I want to; at least, as long as the wife lets me! ) 

Back to the drawing board. . .

Crazy Bob