Short electric arc milling (SEAM) is an e cient electrical discharge machining method, especially for the e cient removal of di cult-to-machine conductive materials with high hardness, high toughness, and wear resistance. In this study, titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is used as the research object to conduct machining experiments. The material removal mechanism of SEAM technology is studied using a DC power supply and different tool electrode materials (copper, graphite, Q235 steel, and titanium). The energy distribution of the discharge gap is analyzed using a data acquisition system and a high-speed camera. The arc is found to move with the spindle rotation in the process of arc discharge, and multipoint discharge occurs in the process of single-arc discharge. The voltage and current waveforms and the radius of the etched particles during the experiment were counted, the material removal rate (MRR) and relative tool wear rate (RTWR) are calculated, and the surface and cross-section micromorphology and hardness are analyzed. The experimental results show that when the electrode material is graphite, the maximum feed rate is 650 mm/min, the MRR can reach 17268 mm 3 /min, the ideal maximum MRR is more than 65000 mm 3 /min, and the RTWR is only 1.27%. When the electrode material is Q235 steel, the minimum surface roughness is 35.04 µm, and this material has good stability under different input voltages. When the electrode material is copper, the hardness of the resolidi ed layer is close to that of the base material, which is bene cial for further processing. The lowest speci c energy consumption is 18.26 kJ/cm 3 when titanium is used as the electrode material.