foam cnc carver- deep z axis - 4x4 bed

Hi,

I made this cnc about a year ago for carving blocks of insulation foam for projects. Due to lack of resistance its pretty accurate. Getting the Gecko540 was definitely a good idea and the 450mm deep z axis is fine for light duty materials like styrene and insultion board. I've found it carves fine just using drill bits and the adjustable table allows me to put pretty big blocks on the table. I'm slightly amazed that T5 belts held in tension with G-clamps actually work but again the foam has little resistance.

Anyways thought i'd post just to let folk see another example of total diy job.

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Nice machine marbles. I am thinking of building a similer machine for carving foam insulation board. Do you find that the lack of large diameter bits slows you process when hogging out the bulk before finishing?

marbles, any pictures of what you have made with this machine ?

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Originally Posted by gavztheouch

Nice machine marbles. I am thinking of building a similer machine for carving foam insulation board. Do you find that the lack of large diameter bits slows you process when hogging out the bulk before finishing?

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The collets on this go up to 10mm although the largest i've just got is the 8mm. The 8mm drill bits can chomp through stuff quite quickly although i've used a foester bit and am looking out for an auger bit with an 8-10mm shaft which would take out more. There's bound to be something adaptible like that. The foam is so soft that many tools can carve it. The only thing to watch out for would be vibration, especially when changing direction at speed, issues of momentum and torque etc.

both of these are cut from 1200 x 600 x 50mm foam. 8mm drill bit roughing and 6mm ball mill end finishing. The one with the face is possibly 3mm finishing. The machine takes a long time to cut these, frequesntly leaving the machine to run for 24 hours if its a full 1200 x 600 with this level of detail.

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Wow that's great, is it special foam, are they display objects, do they have a protective coating applied ?

Hi, I use Kingspan or a copy at least. The freezer density K-span is about the same density as blue modelling styrene. I tend not to use is as I found the freezer density foam board had air particles in it. Depends on what your using it for.

Indeed they are display objects. Masters from which silicone casts are made.

No coating, they take spray paint pretty well.

hello i just subscribed to this forum to say bravo for your work: both machine and models!

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Originally Posted by eightman

hello i just subscribed to this forum to say bravo for your work: both machine and models!

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Thanks! Much to my own surprise its just kept working. Its now dual use for spindle and plasma :)

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Originally Posted by marbles

Thanks! Much to my own surprise its just kept working. Its now dual use for spindle and plasma :)

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maybe some pics of this new config?