As a keen woodworker and a aviation nut, got involved with UAV's back in 2004. Asked a bunch of
students to design a 20kg fixed wing aircraft. They complained that making lots of ribs by hand isnt
easy, so made a CNC 3 axis router, and made it out of parts from a pick and place machine from a
local scrapyard, did have to buy the steppers and designed my own stepper drivers. MACH2 had
recently come out and used that to drive it. Many a UAV was made by my home built machine. Then
came Laser cutters and my university bought me a 600x300 laser. The CNC router was then relegated
to cutting mortises and light woodworking tasks... Though my next plan for it is to install a 50W Laser
tube and optics to turn that into a Laser Cutter/router. So it would be possible to do many interesting
projects

Lately the Drive to make lighter and lighter aircraft lead my students designing foam wings with carbon
tape reinforcements. So made a cradle and did cut a few wings for them But the demand for relentless
accuracy meant that had to have a smarter option. So ordered all the parts from www.banggood.com
(china), and two weeks later all the parts arrived. Essentially started on Friday evening and by Sunday
evening the 4 Axis Foam Cutter was Ready.
The Towers were mounted on a T&G board and was able to cut 1.2m wing. Depth of cut 550mm and
height 400mm. Downloaded JediCut and soon realised that needed Ardu based Interface, which I did
not have, but was impressed with the g-Code Generation. So Tapered Cut was Possible. Then came
across an issue with speeds... kerf and Leadin's... So decided to write my own Software. About that
later. Tapered Wing required One tower to move 700mm whichg wasnt possible so I decided to make
the towers movable. They are monted on 8mm x600 mm slides with Lin bearings, so the towers can
now be moved in the range 35-120cm. Which means that to cut tapers just need to put the correct size
block and root and tip chords.


Initially the tensioning mechanism was a set of simple springs, but to utilise space in my workshop and
be able to use my PC, the foam cutter was mounted above the router. And my 5ft 8in height meant that
the foam cutter was safe from my headbutting.
When the Cutter was mounted, realized that the best tensioning mechanism would be to hang some
weights, for that suspended approx 5kg mass with wire going through some insulating blocks which is
allowed to slide on a linear rail. Works like a treat.
Now for the power, I use a VARIAC and a multimeter to set the correct AC voltage. Started using a
.33mm 80/20 NiCor wire and was able to use Jacobs Online Nicor Wire Calculator, to determine the
voltage/length/temperature look up table. The wire has 1200C melting temp, and works great. Today
shifted over to .4mm (26SWG) NiCor Wire and its just perfect. The Kerf computation was determined
by trial and error, and 0,04 inch compensation is needed there in ZERO wire drag. SO I am Pleased.

No For the Software I, developed it using Delphi X, has the ability to read UIUC database text file, and
fit 1000 points using bi-cubic splines for top and bottom surfaces each, which means that ony G01 commands
need to be generated. Does leadin, Kerf compensation and I can also view the Generated AirFoil. For
speed a feed rate command of F8 or F7 is needed at the beginning, but the 2000 points for each tower
mean that they move in perfect UNISON. and the Tapered wings come out perfect. May be will make
the software available so that people can drive MACH3 based machines without using FOAM screens
the standard 1024 screen set works perfectly.

Will Post Some Pictures to the cut wings etc. Labour of Love but worth it.

Example of Wings etc Cut Using my Foam Cutter... Tapered Wings is a breeze

Hi Rashid and welcome to Jedicut.com !

I'm surprised. You told us that you by all parts of your CNC on bangood. Do you have a list of bangood product you recommend ?

You did an amazong job

What kind of speed problem do you encounter with Jedicut ? and what CNC controller do you use ?

I have lots of questions

Hi,

For the first point - re speed. The Fnn Feedrate Commands need to be adjusted based on voltage, wire resistance and length. So the G-Code file needs to be edited. So developed my own Software, in Delphi. Next, when I do have time will write a Flexible Parallel port Driver so that it could use the 5-axis breakout board available from www.banggood.com

Parts bought from banggood.com
1- Nema17 Steppers Qty 4
2- 200W Power Supply Qty 1
3 - 5 Axis Breakout Board Qty 1
4 - 3A Stepper Driver Modules Qty 4
5 - 8mm Rails, Length 500mm (cut to 400mm) Qty 4
6 - 8mm Shaft Supports Qty 8
7 - Drive Nut, Lead Screw, Bearing Mounts 4 Sets
8- 8mm Linear Bearings Qty 8
9 - 16mm Shafts (600mm) Qty 4
10- 16 mm Lin Bearings Qty 2
11 - 80/20 Nicor Wire

Other things needed 50mmx50mm 5mm thick Steel angle iron (1 m)
and Aluminum Plates (6mm thickness), 5mm Hex Screws 16mm Long.

I use the MACH3 software that I purchased for my 3D router, now have a specific
configuration file for FoamCutter, so the same software is driving both the Foam and
Router.


As for Question ask away.... would be my pleasure to respond to them.

Rashid