hello from northern Ireland.

**owen3371** · 11-09-2014

Dunno,I obviously need to do symmetrical wing sections and elliptical fuselage etc,so thats where you guys come in,is it possible on a cnc machine?

**EddyCurrent** · 11-09-2014

Originally Posted by owen3371

Dunno,I obviously need to do symmetrical wing sections and elliptical fuselage etc,so thats where you guys come in,is it possible on a cnc machine?

Well your machine will likely have X,Y,Z axes, so it's a 2D and 2.5D machine. 2D can be thought of as cutting shapes out a sheet of material, specifically the outlines in the X,Y axes.
2.5D is using the Z to cut curves, pockets, etc. it's not true 3D becasue it can't undercut. To make a statue for example with undercuts you would need a 4th axis that rotates the work, having said that, it is possible to rotate the work by hand provided you have used a 3D model in your CAD software and calculated each toolpath in your CAM software as the model has been rotated.
So taking your fuselage, you would lay it on it's side and do 2.5D cutting up to the halfway point, then turn it over and cut the other side, basically like joining two halves of an Airfix fuselage.
So yes it's possible to make the plane with your machine if you think creatively about how to position the stock and how you calculate toolpaths in your CAM software.

**owen3371** · 11-09-2014

Nice one,thats what I want to hear,I reckoned that was the way to go about it and calculate the flange to be left then simply sand off the flange,im intending to make moulds for desktop scale GRP models(I fly full size airplanes) so there is a demand from pilots for the models it would make a production line possible :-)