foamex... to cnc or not??

now that i feel i'm acctually going to get a cnc machine built and running, i've started explaining what i am doing to friends and family.

whilst explaining it to my brother he has asked me if the cnc will cut foamex (if thats the right spelling).

now i'm sure it will, but i'm not sure if it will do it well..

so this thread to to see what if any people find is the best way of cutting the foamex?

in my head i'm thinking a router will rip it to pieces and am thinking more like a drag knife to do the dirty work

Hi Wilfy, if we are talking about the same materiel, ie white sign making board, then the router will easily accommodate this. It wont get ripped as long as you keep to a sensible speed. Its brilliant to work with in my opinion.

Hi Wilfy, I have cut some foamex board(the solid board with less dense centre-bit lie a malteser). it does cut with a router, but has a tendency to melt if speed is too high.

I seem to get better results if I cut it in the opposite direction, ie "climb milling.

Regards, G.

yeah thats the stuff i am on about, apparently my brother gets it from work off old displays and does a lot of things with it that he said would be made easier with a cnc.

have you guys got any pics of foamex things you have cut?

Hi Wilfy

I made some 1/24th scale dolls houses and the bow window is cut (on my cnc router) from 2.5mm foamex board.

Sorry the picture quality is not the best.

Regards
Geoff


Attachment 7554

oh my word that is amazing... the thought that i'll have a machine soon that could achieve something like this just blows my mind .. thank you so much for the picture

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Originally Posted by GEOFFREY

I made some 1/24th scale dolls houses and the bow window is cut (on my cnc router) from 2.5mm foamex board.

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That's really beautiful.... Is that all your work Geoff?

Btw, unless you prefer to keep it secret, where abouts in Britain are you based?

As has been said foamex is easy to cut on a cnc machine, the images below are all a combination of foam & vinyl produced on an MDF machine by a signmaker I know.

Attachment 7556Attachment 7557Attachment 7558

Yes, the dolls house carcase is cut from 6mm mdf. The roof tiles are a cast resin panel made in a silicon mould from a master cut from thin ply. The doors were cut and engraved (1.6mm ply) and the bow window foamex.


The other windows were proprietary plastic ones. I no longer use these windows as I cut all my flat windows in 1.6mm ply. My wife does the decoration. Glad you like it.


No secrets with regards to my location which is Morton, a village near Bourne, Lincolnshire.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GEOFFREY

Yes, the dolls house carcase is cut from 6mm mdf. The roof tiles are a cast resin panel made in a silicon mould from a master cut from thin ply. The doors were cut and engraved (1.6mm ply) and the bow window foamex.


The other windows were proprietary plastic ones. I no longer use these windows as I cut all my flat windows in 1.6mm ply. My wife does the decoration. Glad you like it.


No secrets with regards to my location which is Morton, a village near Bourne, Lincolnshire.

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you know hes gonna stalk you now dont you :beguiled:

that house is awesome, i first read it that the whole thing was made out of foamex.. but only as thats what i wanted to hear/see. when you say the bay window is foamex are you talking the whole panel with the wall?? or just literally that thin frame of a window?

Only the bay window was cut from foamex to enable me to "flex" it into the required shape. The mdf was cut using a 3.175 cutter and the foamex/ply with 1mm.

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Originally Posted by wilfy

you know hes gonna stalk you now dont you :beguiled:

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Yep, already located Bourne on google maps... Didn't realise Lincolnshire went that far south... Geoff's almost a "Southerner" ;-)

Andy, Idid visit Leeds once, but was lucky enough to find the exit (the place is full of northerners).
Regards,G.

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Originally Posted by GEOFFREY

Andy, I did visit Leeds once, but was lucky enough to find the exit (the place is full of northerners).

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Lol, I've noticed the large percentage of Northerners up here Geoff! Lol

They've become quite civilised though.... only since they were introduced to electricity I'm led to believe.

At least that's the way it seems to an alien like me ;-)

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Originally Posted by WandrinAndy

Lol, I've noticed the large percentage of Northerners up here Geoff! Lol

They've become quite civilised though.... only since they were introduced to electricity I'm led to believe.

At least that's the way it seems to an alien like me ;-)

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Electricity ???? What's that then & what's it used for ???? In the real North It's something that I don't think we have come across yet lol

Andy, my main difficulty was the language barrier (it gets even worse further up).

I understand that the main reason that for introducing the electrickery was to speed up operation of the steam powered cnc machines.

By the way if you ever find that you are venturing (I guess you are a caravan man), you are welcome to drop in and see how it used to be done!!!

Regards, G.

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Originally Posted by GEOFFREY

By the way if you ever find that you are venturing (I guess you are a caravan man), you are welcome to drop in and see how it used to be done!

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Nah if we have truly started turning this Springbok northern then he'd rather drag is Van north up a hill with is teeth before turn and free wheel south.!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GEOFFREY

Hi Wilfy

I made some 1/24th scale dolls houses and the bow window is cut (on my cnc router) from 2.5mm foamex board.

Sorry the picture quality is not the best.

Regards
Geoff


Attachment 7554

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Sorry to barge in on this post only 9 years late... I am very impressed with your dolls house and am looking at doing something similar for model rail 1/19th scale. Having never used a CNC router before this is going to be a sharp learning curve and before I splash the cash wondered about the type of CNC router / bits and speeds used. If you still pick up this thread could you please give a little starting advice on what equipment would be needed to start something like this? I have computer graphics and programming experience and understand the basic concept of G-code, but beyond that I am a total newbie. Am I biting off more than I can chew? Many thanks