Just thought I would post some promising initial results from today. We have a 60W Epilog laser at work. Of course every laser manufacturer says you absolutely positively must NOT cut EPS of any kind. Me being me...I thought this sounded a bit silly. People use a hot wire, why not a laser?? There are horror stories of fires, all kinds of stuff. Well, it isn't easy, but it works! Once I figured out the settings it's repeatable and does a good job. The thing I finally figured out is low power, low speed, and low frequency. So low in fact that a diode laser should have no problem! That means you can put a relatively inexpensive 20W diode laser or even less on your router and cut foam! Or if you don't have a router, buy a $400 dollar special and get to work. Combined with a router table, and some flush cutting and roundover bits, a lot could be accomplished without having to learn all the CNC stuff. A few different thicknesses of foam, between .125-.75 should allow for all kinds of patterns to be produced. I used a long focal length lens. Focus set to the middle of the sheet. The power was around 3-7%, Speed 5%, Frequency 2%. Air assist. Results with .6in blue foam (I peeled off the plastic facing), and the .75 in bead board. It actually cut the bead board better. The kerf was repeatable and about 0.04 in (about 0.02 on either side of the line. The circle cutout was .04 under on the diameter) :
Nice. I take it that the Epilog is a CO2 laser? I don't think those light colors and deep foams would make it on a UV laser.
Yes it is a CO2 laser. There are numerous videos of people cutting foam with the diode lasers on YouTube. I'm not sure what the wavelengths are.
Looks pretty useful for 2D work. What do you reckon the depth limit is. Could it manage 2" stock? What are you using for motion control software? Best, Kelly
Kelly, I don't know about the 2 in stock. My guess is the kerf is going to get ugly. I'll see if I can find some 1 in and .25 in to try out. Epilog uses it's own software and functions like a printer. You print from Corel draw which is a PITA. Most people use light burn to manage a laser. It works more like a printer and less like a CNC. It's been a challenge for me to get used to it. You have less control, but the upside is, less painful learning curve. Check this out.... Monty
Is that really cnc hot wire? or laser? I can't see a wire. I'll have to check out more of those cnc hot wire vids. Having crossed the CNC/CAM bridge, I really just need to get my CAD solid modeling game up and I'd be set. Once I have a surface file, the CAM file is a cinch. Best, Kelly
It's a hot wire. I wound up down a CNC hot wire rabbit hole. Lots of stuff on Youtube. While the hot wire is interesting, I think the router has more going for it, since it can do contouring. A hot wire can interpolate between cross sections. Cutting internal cavities favors the laser though. The laser is interesting, especially for making patterns for a pin router out of acrylic! For cutting foam, a 5 axis laser that could interpolate between cross sections would be ideal. That combined with using different foam thickness could eliminate a lot of hand sanding/contouring. Building the hardware is pretty trivial for this, but I'm not sure the software is available in an accessible/affordable (to us) form yet.
It's pretty darn nice. Assuming all the features can be accessed from one side or the other, all I need is an stl file and then position it within a stock plaque that can be indexed/located for two-sided machining. I still try to do all I can via 2.5D because it's so much faster but other than that it's usually just selecting one or several of the most appropriate 3D machining ops and letting the program do it's thing for generating tool paths, gcode, and cutting the surfaces......I just have an inexpensive CAM program. It has some CAD capability but pretty crude beyond 2.5D so just need to do more complex models in a real CAD solid modeler and import. Best, Kelly
Kelly, For CAD I use Rhino for complex surfaces, and Alibre for solid modeling. Can't really beat Alibre bang for the buck. The hobby version will do most of what anybody needs. I haven't messed with the 3D CAM they offer, so I don't know about that. I'm using a 5 axis program that runs in Rhino. It's a lot harder to learn, but I need that capability for my 5 axis mill and some of these components. None of these run in the cloud, which I am allergic to for various reasons. Monty
DavidF, the other mod here is an Alibre user and I'm guessing I will be when they run there seasonal special. For a hobbyist, it's nice to own and not be at the mercy of the usual software company business model. I'm muddling around with Fusion (free version) at the moment.....cloud based. Best, Kelly
I was initially looking at moving to Fusion, until they carved off the CAM stuff. I hate the subscription model. With both Alibre and Rhino I don't feel like I'm in an abusive relationship. The others not so much. The only downside is neither of them are Linux based. Microsoft is going to pot...but that's a separate rant. Anyway, I've used just about every CAD program on the planet for the last 30 years. Can't go wrong with these two. Alibre's user interface is really good. It will do almost anything SolidWorks will do, (except FEA) at a fraction of the cost. SW user interface has become a disaster. FYI Alibre seems to be on sale at the moment Monty
How bad? When my last Win 8 box crashes I may have to upgrade from 2012. Alibre looks like a pretty easy transition, but I do like having the FEA. Cloud based? If I can't store a non proprietary file format on my system = N E V E R. I've had to many companies go bankrupt, or just simply decide to quit, over the years.
I use Inventor and AutoCAD at work and Fusion360 at home. I have a start-up plan with Fusion360 which was given to me for posting some of my CAD work online. I ran something out of the CAM side of it this morning on my 3-axis mill that my normal machining software would not handle and I did a couple exploded views to diagnose an issue with another project. I can make STEP if I need to go to a different 3D CAD system and STL for the 3D printer and my other machining software. My biggest hole in the signal chain is getting files to the diode laser, I am still using the LaserGRBL that came with it and it likes SVG best. I'd rather have DXF...At work the CO2 lasers run as a printer/driver off AutoCAD and the big UV lasers use a custom formatted NC code more like a CNC mill.
Bad enough that even though I have access to SW for free.....I pay for Alibre and only use SW when I have to. And it's not that I can't use SW....I just don't like it. I hate the nannyism of the software constantly asking if I'm sure I want to do something....there is an undo function for cryin' out loud. How many times must I say "yes" I wish to perform this command!?? Plus the menu inception is just becoming farcical. I'm sure there is some cheese eating neck beard software engineer in the depths of Dassault that would argue with me about how wonderful it all is....but....he's a cheese eating neck beard virgin who never sees the sun and needs to be introduced to hygiene products. Maybe the French are secretly trying to hamper all other industry..IDK. It's also become a huge resource and memory hog. SW FEA and CFD are nice, even if they are a bit...crude for real work. The constraints are a bit too dumbed down for my taste. We are of the same opinion on cloud based stuff. No way is my work going to be held hostage by some software company. I don't even like web based licensing. Alibre has a local license locked to a single computer if you want. I am using web based because I move from computer to computer all the time. The software is installed locally and the license floats around.
Fusion lost me when I spent a month learning how to set up my 5 axis, only to have them blow the whole thing up with no recourse. They lured everyone in, and then sprung the trap. I was lucky enough to only get a few scrapes and bruises when the gate slammed shut and I was flung outside the pen. I'm avoiding peeing on that high voltage fence anymore.
