Foam XL hot wire cutter

[Boyan Silyavski]

the one in this vid uses booth belt and wheels straight on the extrusion giving something cheap and simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kWGnj5FeI8

Thanks for link, but i don't like bulky things


Deadly accurate, dependable, simple. Price starts from 16.900$

Thats exactly the machine type and design i hate. Big servos, where nema 17 will do the job, 10 times bigger than needed aluminum profile. In other words, overbuild thats showing absolute lack of understanding. Not me.

I have been trying to come up with basically exactly the same thing for myself to cut eps block to put on my cnc to cut my surfboard however I need to be able to cut down 16' x 4' x 2' blocks.

I have been thinking about it for a year or so trying to figure a way to get some cheap linear motion. I was wondering about just using a wheel that runs on the ali extrusion but then thought maybe that would not be enough. then there are some of the methods available on cnc router parts but in the end I always come back to just trying to find some cheap low quality square rails as they will probably be better than all the above and a lot easier to set up.

my plan for the drive was a belt, it should be more than accurate enough

looks like your going for just two axis rather than 4? I would love 4 axis but think I will probably go 2 for simplicity.

Mine will be 5 axis in fact. But it will be used as 2 axis most of the time as what i will be cutting is letters mostly. Plus i dont have the place to fix it properly for now. So it will start as 40cm wide 2 axis, that could be transformed to 2m wide 4 axis for under an hour, when need arises and when i find bigger place.

To sum it up for the linear movement and structure:

1. Motedis failed me this time. Blah Blah Blah, we dont cut and ship anything larger than 1980cm. Though it says on their web if one needs such thing to contact them to arrange. Now the funny thing is that i found DOLD Mechatronik in germany, that is their partner and does that, plus he has 3m screws and is willing to ship them to me. WTF. I am in the process of buying the profile from him.

2. I prefer the leadscrew TR10x2 for now, simply put - it will be more reliable and cheaper. Screw is 20 euro per 3m . Double row angular bearing pack is 2 euro from china. All else will be printed or machined from plate of aluminum. It could be made also with the Gt2 steel belt , it will be same money but will take me more time to design it, as i don't like much long double belts.


3. I have changed all structure from 3060 to 2040 slot6 , as it will be good enough for the job. I know, not typical for me to not overbuild, but it's not needed here. Final length will be 1300x2600mm travel will be around 1200x2400, as i remembered that locally i have 600x2400 foam sheets

-The original Hiwin for 6x1300 and 6 carriages / yes i will be but connecting them/ is around 800$ and after all will be around 800 euros. Quite expensive

-The Chinese MGN12 6x1300 and 6 carriages will be 300$ and say 60 euros import tax. Probably they will do the job, if something does not move right, will open it and change the balls, as i have seen people on Youtube do. So thats the winner

-The Mjunit is around 1500euro after taxes . is very nice looking but at the end of the day is just aluminum profile with steel rods and U bearings. But again i will say it looks very professional.

-The C beam from Oozenest Looked nice but is only 1500mm so again has to be attached together. Will cost me as much as do all from Chinese MGN12, so better not deal with rollers/ if they are not angular contact?/

-I lost patiance trying to explain Chinese that i need it for a slow foam cutter, otherwise there are some that could make me the whole linear movement cheap from 1204 ball screw , alu profile and square rail. Shipping would be then 300$ for that lenghts .


4. Now some interesting stuff. Long ago where there was no 3d printing and i had crappy belt driven machine, i have tried to make something with delrin ball that could slide on top of Bosch profile. Nowadays its even easier. Couple that with 2040 profile and we have a winner. 500 balls are 20$, each carriage has around 18 balls i believe. So i could use them for even something else. I will buy the balls even if i go with Hiwin

No plans here, but i have figured it out with 8mm balls:




Another one, looks nice and have downloaded the files. Waiting for him to see if he will pass me Step file, no just STL:



Check how they compare:




With the preload feature i dont see a reason why it will not work perfectly for a foam cutter especially where they will not even make a noise., Not to speak of that i could print them in POM. I will wait a day though as i have another idea inspired from i don't remember which bearing block.as i simply like them less bulkier.

There was a bearing that looks like hiwin block and inside it has 4 big spheres that enter the rail channel in a very similar way as abobe. But inside the block there is arrangment of very small bearing spheres that the big sphere lay on. So basically no recirculation as the above but a kind of. The only benefit will be to lessen the bulk and make them look more professional.