How these impossibly thin cuts are made 

"... which, in inches, is... a different number." This short phrase made my whole week. I laughed so hard.

5:15: "It does something with it and pumps out deionized water." Once again, Steve Mould lucidly explains a complex process.

I love how smoothly you recalculated it to inches.

Ah yes, wire electro dance music

Hilarious how you had the plastic cover on the competition’s razor as you shaved with it. I noticed, and I salute your attention to detail and subtle humor. Same goes for the “see it even works on cheese.” I giggled.

6:50 "A typical wire EDM machine will have a precision of around a 5000th of a millimetre, which in inches is a different number" 😂

This must be THE BEST sponsor segment I’ve ever seen on ANY RU-vid video. And I’ve been a RU-vid addict for the better part of 10 years. Kudos. ❤

I love how he demonstrates how useless normal razors are by not taking the plastic piece off of the top of it 😂

I love Steve's commitment to demonstrating everything using cheese.

I was impressed by your dedication to the cheese comparison throughout the entire video.

@6:55 "which in inches is another number" - EPIC

6:32 "The grain of the abrasion pattern fows seamlessly across the seam, and so it seems as though the seam can't be seen" 😂 Love it

3:55 another benefit of submerging the part is that the liquid reduces how much eroded material gets into the air and, from there, into Richard’s lungs.

8:51, the difference really is remarkable!! It's almost unbelievable! You would think there must be some user error, but no, it couldnt be that! 😅

Hilarious! That one-liner had me in stitches. It's the unexpected humor that truly brightens our days. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Keep those witty moments coming, they bring so much joy. 😂👏🎉

I've worked with Mitsubishi Wire Feed edms (FA20S) myself, and I honestly find them very satisfying to work with. I used to primarily program and run the machine for tool & die components, but I loved to find an excuse to whip out the machine for other use cases that conventional machining methods would be difficult. I have far more experience on milling and lathe work now, from anywhere from micro-machining to huge oil and gas components, but its nice to see wire edm in action as it was essentially my roots beginning as a machinist. Thanks for showing off my passion for others to see, I find this stuff fascinating with the history and science of manufacturing, and how it allows humans to make amazing innovations. A few little tidbits I thought I might mention in case you might be reading this: when referring to the .001's place of a millimeter, it is preferred to say "Microns" as it makes you sound smarter, but also it prevents confusion from the imperial "thousandth's" which is commonly used as it's own term. The first type of edm you mentioned, the sinker type, was far more common decades ago as wire feed edm was not advanced enough at the time. While the accuracy of a EDM machines is amazing, they are not the only machines that can reach such levels of repeatable precision even down to +-.005 millimeters, however, they are set apart by the unique features they are able to cut as they exert very little cutting forces, and the difficult to cut materials that they superior at dealing with. Modern diamond tooling solutions try to give other machine tools access to manufacturing these types of extremely difficult to cut materials, such as tungsten carbide, but EDM machines are a tried and true method that many shops still rely on for tool & die or other prototyping manufacturing. Thank you for your informative video, I have not touched a wire edm machine in a year and I honestly miss the joys of working with them, or having your wire break midway through a 18 hour die and accidentally resetting your G54.

The occasional "and you can do the same thing with cheese!" really sells me on the whole process.

This has got to be one of the funniest and best episodes you've made so far Between the perfect cheese analogy, the resin and the water mixing and doing,,, something? to deionize it and the "which, in inches, is a different number" I had my sides splitting

I came for the dance music.

This channel helps preserve that child like curiosity. I'm 35 and for years now I'm always smiling seeing new video. Part of it is obviously chosen topic but Steve is arguably the most important thing here. I mean guy's hot wiring a cheese and somehow it's not only incredibly interesting but is teaching a lot. He's a perfect 90's children science tv program host. And it's 90's specific because back then science programs were actually designed for all ages and in some cases like in my country "health and safety" were only considered when you WILL actually die if you dont use let's say rubber gloves.

Steve Mould is legitimately one of my favorite channels, I never know what I'm going to see. Today, I saw him iron cheese.

As a machinist (I do CNC work but we also do a lot of EDM work here) and it’s always satisfying when your parts fit together so perfectly and smoothly

Great video. And as a long-time shaver who uses double-edge safety razors, you are absolutely right about Henson Shaving's razors. I have two - AL13 and AL13M - and both are excellent. Extremely good design: if you don't have the right angle, nothing happens. (With most DE razors, if you don't have the right angle, you get a nick.) The Henson Shaving razor is both extremely comfortable and extremely efficient. I do recommend using a good shaving soap and a shaving brush rather than canned foam: that makes a big difference, even with a cartridge razor.

In the past few videos i really started to enjoy your presentation and personality, keep up the great work

Cheese machining is a very underrated pastime. Steve, I salute you for bringing this crucial skill to a wider audience!

That shot at the beginning is wild. I had to swap to 4k and re-watch it a few times. It must have taken forever to get most of the shot to stay in focus. Thanks for all that effort!

I've seen videos of F-22s and B-2s refueling in midair. One of the craziest parts of it is that the port for refueling seems to appear from nowhere. The nature of stealth aircraft is that you really can't have even small ridges otherwise you've compromised your stealth, so the closed port needs to be perfectly hidden with no visible seam. I wonder if it's the same process being used.

Just a comment from over the canal: You've sold me to Henson. Canada shipping was way too expensive, so I ordered this beast in Germany. Thanks for your hilarious advertising, I think, this was the first time in my life that someone put me into this direction. So, thank you Steve :D

I will now start drilling holes in my blocks of cheese. Thanks for the cooking advice as always, Steve

There's a Japanese Gameshow called Supreme Skills, where they set a challenge to an EDM and a lathe to drill through a 6cm long 0.5mm thick pencil lead. It was impressive as hell.

Pretty cool. The "tricks" were pretty clear just from looking at the end result. I didn't know about Wire EDM though. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how they got such precision with a CNC mill.

So you’re telling me the impossibly thin cuts aren’t EVEN made

In the 1995 World Rally Championship, Toyota infamously used engineering like this to bypass the FIA mandated turbo air restrictor plate and thus produce significantly more horsepower than their competition. There were internal springs that would open an air gap around the restrictor only once the restrictor was fully installed and the turbo was producing boost pressure. It would close when the engine was at idle/when the restrictor was removed for inspection, making it impossible to spot by the FIA inspectors. Max Mosley, the president of the FIA at the time said this: "It is the most sophisticated and ingenious device either I or the FIA’s technical experts have seen for a long-time. It was so well made that there was no gap apparent to suggest there was any means of opening it.”

As an engineer at rolls-royce who has access to one of these machines. It makes me very happy. I love making these sort of things!

Took me a while to get around to it, but happy to see your sponsor code still works - thanks !

Steve. I watched your video because I have always been fascinated by the EDM process. I remember an engineer friend of mine had a 3" cube of metal on his desk. It looked solid but he said look up at it between the ceiling lamp. Sure enough all though it looked solid it had hundreds of holes through it. That was a lump of titanium that had been eroded with EDM rod. Great video but I think it would have benefited from a few pictures of the EDM process where it shows the thousand of sparks going along the wire to best show how the electrical spark generation hits the metal it is cutting. It's an amazing process.

Idk why but the “fits perfectly” followed by the look Steve gave the camera at 3:01 made me laugh so hard 😂

Steve Mould should make a mould out of mold. I'll look forward to Steve Mould's moldy mould for a bold Steve Mould made of gold for people young and old to behold and uphold, for future generations to be told the tale of Steve Mould's moldy mould that withstood weathers hot and cold, yet never sold and let unfold the tale of the bold gold Mould cast in Steve Mould's moldy mould.

Reminds me of the flying saucer in Day the Earth Stood Still, which had a metallic seamless opening in it. One of the coolest special effects in sci fi film.

Great video, even followed up by buying one of the razors you were endorsing. I have a safety razor that cuts if the blade is not angled perfectly. Henson seem to have solved this issue. Thanks Steve

I've been working with 3d printers for the past couple of months and I've really become to admire this kind of precise tolerances only advanced machining methods could achieve. Amazing.

I like your new half-shave looks~ it fits together nicely as if there were no seams at all!

“First, drill a hole in the cheese - we’ve all done it” - Steve, a well traveled man of high culture

Will definitely look back on this video as the point where Mould started spinning out of control with his "everything can be demonstrated with cheese" mental abyss. All the great ones go insane.

“The difference is remarkable” 😂

6:56 gotta love this channel. Informative and dry humor

You made me laugh several times throughout this. Thanks Steve, haha. I watch your videos for comedic relief, but then I also learn random things along the way.

I had a WIRE EDM shop for 18 years. Did this type of work every day. It's been 20 years would love to know what cutting speeds are now. Back then 12 inches an hour was fast.

"Which in inches is a different number" hahaha brilliant!

"Which in inches is a different number." Has to be one of my favourite comments on RU-vid for at least a few months! XD

Thank you for another excellent video. That's really cool!

Really appreciate how totally unbiased your razor comparison was with the cover left on the "branded" one... 😏

"You first drill a hole in the cheese---we've all done it." 😅 I don't recall having done that. 🤔

Wire EDM was all the rage in the early 2000's club scene.

I ran wire EDM machines for over a decade. Good job on this video.

An immensely satisfying video for reasons I cannot explain.

Wire erosion _can_ be very accurate, if well calibrated and with the proper settings... I've personally had wire eroded parts delivered well out of tolerance before - it's like any other CNC machine in some respects. One of the really cool things about wire erosion, aside from the sorts of details and features you can make with it, is you can put very neat cuts through incredibly tough materials that traditional machine tools would really struggle with: hardened tool steel, nickel superalloys, tungsten etc.

I used to work with EDM machines, there's actually a 3rd non submerged machine for burning pockets and other specific shaped holes in a mould using a carbon electrode, where you basically form a pool with special clay and has a constant stream of coolant pumped into it through very small holes drilled into the electrode that's doing the work to remove particles from the pocket. As well has a steady stream of coolant pumped into the pool to keep the electrode submerged.

That was an elegantly introduced AND educationally informative sponsor spot.

Interesting. I made some things like that as toys during my decades in machine shop. You can hold some pretty close tolerances with conventional equipment if you're careful. Working in a controlled environment I was able to hold .00005" diametric tolerances on a Hardinge Toolroom CNC.

I love that we have footage of Steve (or really, any human) ironing cheese 😂

In a 'former life' worked on EDM machine that was used to remove broken studs from machine blocks etc. I always thought it was amazing how they could 'bore' out the broken stud, large enough to cut the stud from it's own threads (diameter of the thread root) and yet NOT damage the threads cut into the hole of the machine block. Some very precise stuff.

1:49 I love how he went to the effort to drill a hole and feed a wire through the cheese, only for it to split in the corner immediately as he tried to cut it

Great video Steve 😃👍, fascinating technical subject matter presented with humour. I was particularly impressed with your precision cheese machining 😂

".005's of a millimeter which in inches is a different number" 😂

the metal parts were very confusing but the cheese analogies made everything crystal clear.

Nice video shot, thanks for sharing it with us, well done :)

Best RU-vidr advertisement I have ever seen! And I've seen a lot

Ya know, I just bought a safety razor about 2-4 weeks ago, and after a small learning curve I love it far more than any proprietary multi-bladed razor I've ever used. Glad to see you on the old school train, Steve

I work on wire EDM for living. I'm glad you picked out this topic, those perfect-fit parts are fun and eye-catching. I made one for myself

Have been using Henson Shaving for years: It's a fantastic product.

I just want to comment how refreshing this is to have a channel that is educational, clever and interesting among the huge crap that has become the internet.

My dad has worked with CNC machines for years. We always had stuff like this around he made at work. The tolerances they work with can be super tight.

One note about the process, the voltage actually isn't very high. The wire EDM machines we have at work run at around 40 volts. The amperage is quite high however and would instantly overheat and break the wire if it weren't submerged. You can also stick your hands in the tank while the machine is running with no worries of electrocution because the deionized water is such a good insulator.

I need to pay respect to your sutil yet deep sense of humor. Amazing and dark. would love to hear you talk about the world out of a censored platform.

I wondered the same thing. Thanks for solving the mystery.

1:22 "Like when I heard that these were made by a process called "Wire EDM" I immediately got distracted by what I assumed that must mean." Right! Wire Electronic Dance Music! "It's like a cheese wire." Oh...

"Which, in inches, is a different number." Hilarious! 😀 Great video, as always.

That was like asmr watching the metal slide. Cool desk toy.

hilarious episode, thanks for the laughs!

1:46 "You first drill a hole in the cheese, we've all done it" I don't know why but that line & dry delivery made me SCREAM with laughter. Like, we had to pause the video and I had to forcibly calm myself down bc I was starting to scare the cats 🤣🤣🤣

Genuinely thank you for making a video on machining stuff. We have so few people entering the work force and I hope this video inspires some kids to pick up the trade.

Bravo; one of the most funny sponsor plugs I've seen.

"Fits perfectly 😏" lol Great content as always! Thanks for the illumination!

This channel is like therapy, the way you talk is super relaxing, you relay information in a really engaging way for me and the subtle hints of comedy just ties everything together perfectly. Thank you for all the great videos

I always thought of the possibility of invisible seams after seeing loads of cartoons on TV as a child where a trap door would open in a metal floor or a door etc. And thought "I wonder how possible it'd be to actually conceal a door in that way." But not with those exact words 😅

I have one of the Henson razors and they are amazing. Blades last forever.

Magic dissolved. Thanks.

3:13 I had to pause the video here and turn the definition up to the maximum to see that beautiful workshop in all its glory *-* . If I were a really good cartoonist, I'd do a super detailed illustration with every single object you see here, and the man in his work clothes, who, I'm sure, knows exactly where everything is. Oh, and the inevitable WD-40 can, like the Waldo of the shops full of things :)

I saw EDM tech years ago and was also blown away just like you Steve. Went and looked for "how it's made" videos but have never appreciated it as much as I do now. Thanks for the video, always so informative!

Been a long time since a good narrator like yourself appeared to me in a YT video, nice work Sir.

You had me for 14 seconds, I did that once in high school and was able to have full conversations with many people, never noticing until I pointed it out.

An amazing video. Quick word to anyone thinking of getting the razor. I bought a safety razor 17years ago and never looked back. 100 blades for about £10 and as Steve showed, you can take off days of stubble on one pass. Took the wife a little time to work out how to do her legs but she's got her own new. Regardless of what brands you buy its cool you can be environmentally minded, have a better product and it's cheaper

I didn't know how much I needed to see the end results of a wire EDM until I saw this video on my frontpage. Your explanation of the process really makes it clear that an amazing end result needs an amazing process.

Your cheese skills are truly remarkable ;)

I figured this out immediately. we do this kind of thing in fab of wood and fiber glassing parts often.

Absolutely fascinating stuff, thanks Steve! As soon as I saw the razor connection I thought you'd missed a trick by not using that as a sponsored segment - absolutely seamless segue by the way, a work of art!

great explanation! I've always wondered how these were made. It's really cool that you got a block that shows the cut piece. Awesome video!

this might be the most efficient product placement I've ever seen .. I'm so incredibly curious about that razor :D

Your Channel is Amazing ❤