Learning to Machining PE and PU Foam on the Shapeoko -
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- Foam is one of those weird materials I was hesitant to machine, but it turns out that once you understand how it behaves it's really a piece of cake.*
Shout-out to Grimsmo, who's got the OG educational foam video out there: • How to Cut Foam
Also thanks to Datron for hooking me up with a killer foam cutting endmill. For more information, reach out to them at: tools@datron.com
www.datron.com...
*Note: I have not actually machined a piece of cake, so take this comparison with a grain of salt.
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Interesting tests. I've made my living for a couple of decades in a related field, my machine cuts at close to 1000 ipm. We have a spiked finish on our custom cutter heads, called "SuperGrit." Although not exactly the same sort of foam (ours is more friable, usually polyurethanes and EPS) we have had the task of doing more elastic and lower density forms. About 15 years ago I came up with a method of soaking the lower density foam in water and freezing it, then was able to cut acceptable detail in very "soft" foams. Had to work quickly but it worked for smaller jobs. Not sure if it is relevant but just prompted me to respond upon seeing what you've shared.
InstaBlaster
Wooow George this is amazing! I’m trying to scale my family business we’ve been carving on foam for more than 20 years for props and hand made dolls. We’re small but we’re trying to step up our production and this information is really great! I’m trying to gather information about gear and what machine should we buy to start, because I’m guessing high RPM is probably very important when it comes to work and such a soft material. Would you be so kind to give me some recommendations? Thank you so much!
This is why I became a Patreon supported for Winston, Good work!
My experiences are very similar. At one time the foam got caught and it sounded like a loud bang, the foam ripped in two, wrapped around the spindle, caused it to block the motion completely. The chinese vfd did its job and cut the power, it detected overcurrent and the protection kicked in.
I've got some 16mm two flute straight cutters which are great for clearing large areas without foam clinging to it. It has a 6mm shank. Normally used for facing wood.
I did some 3d paths with it and worked great. After that a ballnose took care of the detail. With shallow doc it works great. Aluminium cutters (al-tian iirc) also work well.
Thanks for the video Winston! :) Something to keep in mind.
I had good experience with single straight flute endmills, like "10pcs 3.175mm Shank 2.5x8mm Tungsten Steel Parallel Milling Cutter Engraving Bits" on banggood. Also, I can recommend trying climb roughing - you won't get precise walls due to the foam compressing, but it will chip-break easily even on long continuous cuts.
If you try this again, a rotary burr bit should work well on soft foam. It would probably work on all of those foams but really should shine as a grinding style cut on the soft stuff. I haven't tried it but will as soon as my CNC arrives but should make larger pockets work better and ensure no winding of chips on the bit.
Awesome video Winston. Keep them coming.
Very cool project demo. Super useful.
You're cnc addict 😄 but always give worthy tips.
Nice Milling! Thanks for video!
Thank you Winston for this video, is exactly what I was looking for! I run a small family business, we use foam to create props and puppets and we’re trying to implement CNC to increase our productivity. Would you be so kind to recommend me a video or give me your recommendations about the machine? What kind of characteristics would you be looking for at the moment of buying? Thank you so much!
Musclechuck. There is absolutely no excuse not to switch over once you find out about it. They make a 6mm collet for their quick change bit system.
could you clear pockets faster with a half inch or 3/4 inch bit faster?
Informative, thanks
Very Interesting! I am working on cutting foam on my CNC Router, and I am keen to know exactly which foam cutter you used. Many Thanks in advance...
For using the 6mm in a DeWalt you can get a 1/4" to 6mm bushing.
Add extra axis to the cutting head and a hotwire :)
Ive been running foam on our laser for packaging. Its smelly, and wont do a pocket (you have to laminate for that) but handles that soft stuff super easy. On our 100w, I run 40mm/s, at 50% power.
Thank you sir
The real Grimsmo conundrum is that he's super successful but with no apparent reason.
time to make some board game inserts
No question there is room for this type of machine especially for plastic and foam parts as you point out...
what if you made a metal* bed arrangement of all the parts you wanna pack, heat the whole thing up and then press a foam sheet onto it, so it MELTS away all the shapes you need in your foam.
* or just metal _covered,_ like foil.
Winston,
I'd like to see your take on machining soap stone.
Hey witch better for foam cnc or laser?
Is there any chance you could do a video on how you setup your containment boundaries in fusion 360. I am currently cutting kaizen foam and having the same issues you did. your solution would fix my issue. I am running a datron 3 flute endmill as well. Although i am not running a shapeoko, i am running UGS version of GRBL on my gensmitsu 4030, so I would imagine i would have to adjust my limits just as you did as well. Thanks again, and great video!
I always enjoy your videos. Thank you. Would chilling (or freezing) the foam make it firmer and easier to machine? I've heard of people doing something like that with rubbery materials.
Potentially, but you'd almost definitely have to use that with vacuum workholding (condensation renders adhesive workholding useless), and for how long the effect lasts would probably be just minutes.
Stick the machine in a grocery store freezer with a plexiglass (if any) top. Not sure how the cold would affect the machine itself; but I'm sure you can find a walk in freezer for further testing .... (might want to save it for summer).
Haha, as amusing as that would be, it's a terrible idea. Embrittlement of the belts and other non-metal components, and condensation on electronics when you take the machine out are two reasons not to off the top of my head.
Never thought about using the CNC for foam inserts. have you tested with a compression bit? or just stick with upcut bits?
I just have a few questions as I am interested in purchasing the Shapeoko 4 XL. I am looking at lining my tool box with "shadow foam" with each tool needed to be individually cut out. What CAD programs were used in this video? Can a photograph be taken of the object layout and scanned into the CAD program or do they have to be traced?
Have you worked with EVA (Minicell) foam?
Have you machined any XPS polystyrene like rigid insulation boards from Dow, Owens etc?
Hi, I love to see a video about the Festool vacuum - and why did you choose it
The Festool vacuum is Carbide3D's, so not my decision. I actually bought a Fein with my own money for use at home. Both much quieter than shop vacs. Festool's main feature difference is variable power. Not worth it for my use case.
Witch bit used in this cut?
I found that conventional cutting resulted in much cleaner walls than climb cutting in flip flop foam.
Winston mentions this at 6:40.
Hey man, good video! Share the love with the metric guys here would ya?? lol! when you say pound you meant pound/ft2? thanks
I've thought about using the CNC to make organizers but haven't quite figured out how to create the custom shapes to pull into Fusion360.
Lay your tools on a scanner, or take a picture from above. use straight lines or splines to trace around the tools once you've brought them into a vector drawing program, or even Fusion itself.
What about EVA Foam
Has anyone found a cheap source for the foam? I just received a Chinese tool I paid $20 for that sat in a great big chunk of the stuff so I am pretty sure it can't cost anything like the $40 per drawer the folk trying to market it as a branded product.
Eccellente!
Wouldn't the foam be good to use in cast metal pours? Cool video! Oh yeah, FIRST
Not this foam. You want polystyrene or something with really small cellular structure. PU and PE have too much surface texture or absorbancy to make a mold of.
Also, you're actually second. ;)
please try some xps
Hello Im from Mexicali Mexico. Someome can help me to find a machine like this . Im interest. Some telephone? Or mail? Web pagar? Or can can tell me where can i buy a machine of cutting PE foam
I have a Dewalt 611 and have a lot of 6mm endmills. But then again I have a whole bunch of different sized collets for the 611 that I had to import from the US too. The place I got mine from was Elaine Corporation - m.elairecorp.com/templates/mobile/facade_transcoder_.php?u=%2Fdewaltroutercollets.html%3Fimz_st&lang=en#dwpanchor
can you post a link on where to get some of the foam (espically the oreo cookie looking one)
All but the Kaizen were purchased through McMaster-Carr. Kaizen can be sourced from Home Depot or Rockler. (Or probably amazon or wherever you do your online shopping if you look hard enough...)
@@WinstonMakes thanks
😊😊😊😊😊
I though max cutting rate on the Shapeoko was like 100 in/min?
nvm... i watched a bit further and you mention that 200 is the default GRBL speed limit
Any idea how someone gets a Datron tool in hand without knowing someone? I can't find any online vendors, and my local tool vendors don't sell Datron.
tools@datron.com
@@WinstonMakes thanks! Got in touch with them. $109 for the 6mm version!!! Think I'll be sticking with the endmills I already have for now.
Please share your company name and address.
Also share foam cutting machine details.
Also named: how to make a giant mess on your shapeoko. :P
laser cut it?
Can't cut flat bottomed pockets, only all the way through. Also, only certain types aren't safe to laser.
Winston Moy ah yeah you would be in trouble in that case.
Suppose technically you could add a laser to this presumably?
@@acidrain55 People have bolted on some 450 nm blue lasers for woodburning and light cutting, but for cutting plastics you need a proper CO2 laser operating in the infrared spectrum. Not good to put one of those fragile laser tubes on a CNC, and certainly not one that's properly enclosed/shielded.
Anyone know I
How deep you can cut on this exact XL Shapeoko setup, can it cut all the way through 3” foam or even deeper?
4:00 you can buy metric router collets, there is a mixed set with metric and imperial i bought last moth since i needed 1/4 for my 8mm machine so i bought these 10mm and grinded them on the lathe to 1/4-8mm. www.ebay.com/itm/6Mm-6-35Mm-8Mm-Woodworking-Router-Bit-Engraving-Machine-Wood-Milling-Cutter-M0S6/192871342488?hash=item2ce8072198:g:7EMAAOSwuptcmvjS
but you can by also premade ones
www.ebay.com/itm/1Piece-Carbide-Multi-size-Engraving-Bit-CNC-Router-Tool-Adapter-Collet/232613453717?hash=item3628d79f95:m:m7GaqDFK6eBuxxJusKqaY4Q
what is your collets outer diameter and the biggest inner diameter colet you have?
You lost me each time you talk in freedom unit.
problem with cheap small machines is that they don't last long in mass production. Try running your machine 5 24h days for a couple of weeks and tell me if the spindle bearings and ball screws still works fine / CNC machinist for 12 years.
Problem with Honda Civics is they don't last long in the Baja 1000.
Thing is how many specialised foam cases you need to make. Using a smaller cnc router would probably be useful for low volume runs that would take a large Mori out of doing production work is what Winston is saying. You could probably buy a whole new hobby CNC for what you would save on the large production CNC machine like what John Grissom is doing. Doing the foam on his Mori means it’s not making knives, makes a ton of mess that has to be cleaned up and requires him to swap out fixtures... but a cheap hobby CNC COULD cut the limited run of case foams for his knives while the knives are being made.
SLOW DOWN FFS
SLOW DOWN.. I CANT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING