Giant hot wire cutter

[mekanik]

Hi Charlie
With the limitation on working area, best option would be to knock up a trolly with integral adjustable hot wire cutter and run it along the top of your block.
No need for anything complicated.
Regards
Mike

[magicniner]

If space is really tight have you thought about having your rails against the sidewalls of your shed with the gantry parking against the back wall?
If you used a system based on tube frame roller coaster designs you might get a large proportion of what you need from scaffold poles & fittings, with the outside faces of the horizontal runners free for adding support to get them straight and level,
Regards,
Nick

[EddyCurrent]

Ceiling mounted ?

[charlieuk]

Thanks for those ideas they have given me a lot to think about. the idea of actauly just having a frame sit on the block would be a nice and compact however i would have to cut the full length each time to get a flat surface.

wall mounted could be a option but i would need to think about shifting the block around as they are so large and heavy and im my own most of the time. ceiling could work also although probably not the most solid part of the shed and im 6'2 so metal sticking down may get annoying but still worth thinking about

im wondering if i had something floor mounted i could possibly build a raised false floor around it so i could slide the blocks on and around easily with no lifting same goes i suppose if it was ceiling mounted

what ever i build i would like the option to be able to upgrade it to 2 or 4 axis cnc in the future

[mike os]

I think if you really want 2/4 axis in the future you either need to part build it now (ie base etc but with only 1 axis, rest to be added later) or build a cheap machine to do what you want now and start again later

[charlieuk]

Thinking about it yes 4 axis will probably mean a lot larger machine as each side would need to have two indipendant axis so that may be out for the moment two axis cnc would still be nice. What I was thinking was if it was a gantry type build then I build each side with two rails a horizontal and vertical and then ether drive the with desperate motors or connect them via a shaft and pulleys. The horizontal cut is the most important but I would probably use a open loop belt to drive all axis

[Boyan Silyavski]

2 separate rails on the floor. The type they use below the sliding metal garage doors. Leveled and squared locally, then between them the floor leveled with mortar.





Then something similar like a DIY horizontal Band saw mill structure, only the gantry






How to lift the blade/wire/




Then some contraption with 2 end stops, motor, wire pulleys and steel wire cable, this to auto feed and stop at end.