cnc machine for shaping large pieces of polystyren

8/9/2019 CNC Machine for Shaping Large Pieces of Polystyren

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CNC machine for shaping large pieces of polystyrene foamby RTegelbeckers on June 4, 2012

Table of Contents

CNC machine for shaping large pieces of polystyrene foam ..............................................................................

Intro: CNC machine for shaping large pieces of polystyrene foam ......................................................................

Step 1: Introduction .........................................................................................................

Step 2: Design software .....................................................................................................

Step 3: G-code ............................................................................................................

Step 4: Grbl ..............................................................................................................

Step 5: Stepper drivers ......................................................................................................

Step 6: Hardware objectives for the big CNC machine ...............................................................................

File Downloads ...........................................................................................................

Step 7: Base frame fabrication .................................................................................................

Step 8: Rails ..............................................................................................................

Step 9: Main carriage ....................................................................................................... 1

Step 10: Upgrade to bushes .................................................................................................. 1

Step 11: Chain drive ........................................................................................................ 1

Step 12: Secondary carriage and spindle holder ................................................................................... 2

Step 13: Machine working for the first time ........................................................................................ 2

Step 14: Making a mould for a GRP part ......................................................................................... 2

Step 15: Next steps ......................................................................................................... 3

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................ 3

Advertisements ............................................................................................................... 3

Comments ................................................................................................................ 3

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Author:RTegelbeckers author's websiteI am a Dutch design engineer, living in Wales (UK) and working in steel industry until recently, as my request for voluntary redundancy did get accepted. I amarried, and I am a father to a little boy. I like to stay in touch with the latest developments in Computer Aided Engineering, and in work I did get to use toosuch as CAD, FEA, and CFD. I now started my own company, through which I am hoping to provide for my family by designing and making stuff.

Intro: CNC machine for shaping large pieces of polystyrene foamSummary

This instructable shows how to shape polystyrene foam, using a CNC machine. Starting with a brief introduction, design software necessary for creating an STL fi le isdiscussed. This is followed by a method for creating G-code, using an STL file as input. After this comes the introduction to GRBL, an arduino based system for using

code to control stepper motors of a CNC mill. Stepper drivers are mentioned, after which the creation of large CNC hardware is described. The instructable finishes wnext steps.

Enjoy,Richard Tegelbeckers

PS. I plan to expand/update this instructable as I gain experience and make improvements to my machine. Come back to check if you are interested! Also, if you woulike more clarity on any of the steps, leave a comment and I will try to help out. I could potentially add more pictures as I took photos/videos of pretty much everythingdid.

Step 1: Introduction

I became interested in CNC machines, shortly after being let down by a 3D printing firm in the UK. Intrigued with the reprap efforts, I decided that having a drill-like toowizzing around in three directions would be an easy target to achieve. I did my research and ended up slapping together a small machine, using an old flatbed scannean ancient printer carriage and a defunct CD player. I learned from the experience and used it to come with the following objective: to create a large 3 axis CNC machcapable of machining polystyrene foam. The machined foam can then be covered in a protective layer (eg. water based latex), before pulling a composite fibre mould(from it.

http://www.tegelbeckers.com/http://member/RTegelbeckers/http://member/RTegelbeckers/



Step 2: Design softwareIn order to design something on a computer in 3D, (CAD) design software is needed. This might not be pleasant for the Fancy Apple folks or the Open Source Linuxenthousiasts, but the system to use (in 2012) is boring old Microsoft Windows. Sorry, no discussion...

Having made the democratic decision for Windows (only one voter allowed: me...), the offering for CAD applications is plentiful and I advice to do plenty of research if are serious about learning how to use a package. If budget is a constraint, 123D by Autodesk is hard to overlook. It seems to be relatively easy to learn and cannot bebeaten on price as it is free. Be aware as it is still in beta stage (June 2012) and it seems troublesome on older, lower spec 32 bit systems. The 64 bit version should b

pretty good on a more powerful machine. In the professional ranges the price for software climbs steeply, but one gets what one pays for... Popular offerings are Invenby Autodesk and SolidWorks by Dassault. Both are very powerful and take a fair amount of time to learn.

In short: Use any CAD software you like as long as it can generate an STL file.

Something worth while mentioning, all softwares mentioned in the following steps are available as open source or freeware...

Step 3: G-codeAs soon as an STL file is present, G-code can be created. The program I use is called Freemill: http://www.mecsoft.com/freemill.shtml

It is very easy to use, but it could cause some issues with your graphics card. If it locks up, try the following: redo the steps until the last step before it would lock upagain. Now shrink the program window or move it off screen, in order to prevent the 3D model from showing on your screen. The program should now work withoutcrashing...


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Step 6: Hardware objectives for the big CNC machineHardware objectives for the big machine:

Use of standard components.1.Ideally I would be able to use 2400x1200x100mm sheets (8x4 foot by 4"), cut in half and six layers high, ie. 1200x1200x600mm. Sheets in this size are readily2.available from the local DIY shop for little cost.High speed3.Good repeatability4.Reasonably accurate5.Should be robust. ie. it should be able to withstand a beating and survive a harsh environment in terms of dust and humidity (no mdf, wood or cheese-like6.materials...)In order to avoid getting clogged up by cuttings, all slides and drives to be mounted overhead of the workpiece7.

Update 20th/24th of June 2012: BOM updated. I missed out on a few parts on the last version of the BOM. Still, the BOM only contains the parts and materials I did hato purchase especially for the project. It does not include materials I already did have, which is mainly steel, wood router, fasteners, castor wheels, cables, etc. It alsodoes not include the round shafts, which I stripped from a broken A0 printer. For more details, see the 3D model. I was initially going to publish a model to the 123Dwebsite, but as I experienced problems with this I uploaded a zipped ACIS file to this step (file extension .SAT, can be imported in 123D and many other CAD packageand a zipped 3D AutoCAD file (fi le extension .dwg, can be used in AutoCAD R14 or higher). The model does not contain all items and components. However, it shouldenough as a basis for making a machine yourself - it was good enough for me to make my own machine... You will probably want to modify the design to suit your ownrequirements and use your own choice of components/steel sections.



File Downloads

BOM 200612.xls (18 KB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'BOM 200612.xls']

CNC2 ACIS 240612.zip (2 MB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'CNC2 ACIS 240612.zip']

CNC2 3D-AutoCAD 240612.zip (2 MB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'CNC2 3D-AutoCAD 240612.zip']

Step 7: Base frame fabricationFor the base frame I used 50x50x2.5mm box section. Whereas I did have most of the other steel for the project already, I needed to buy four lengths of the box sectiowasn't cheap...

In order to line up the frame properly, it is important to have a flat surface to work on. A table with a thick, steel top would be best. In my case, I used a table I made froan old door.

With the frame being so big, I was fortunate to have some help from my mate Kirk - thanks again! Another aspect of the frame/machine being big, is moving the machwhen finished. As such, wheels are attached during this step.

The critical part of the phase is to have the top members parallel. I did spend a whole evening in order to get to the result I was after.

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Step 8: RailsFor the rails I re-used the round shafts from a broken A0 printer. It came from the local tip, where it initially changed hands for £5 and ended up in my mate's house foseveral years... When taking the printer apart, the drive belt disintegrated. This just confirmed it is a good idea to avoid non-standard components. In case of the roundshafts themselves: if they would need replacing, I would be able to do so by obtaining 16mm OD silver steel.

The round shafts will be locating the carriage in the side ways direction. The second shaft will be non-locating or floating in this direction. As such it only needs to bestraight to a high tolerance in the upward direction. Being so, a cold rolled box section of 20x20x1.5mm was my choice for this rail.

With both rails I tried to weld them as accurate as I could. Final adjustment to a high tolerance can be achieved at a later date by using shims*.

* I make my shims by cutting up freshly emptied beer cans; the thickness of such shims is very constant and around 0.1mm in size.



Step 9: Main carriageAgain, I made use of the flat surface of the table top for alignment. In order to stop even the slightest deflection, I braced the 50x50x2.5 box sections with some 25x25box sections. On the locating end I mounted a pillow block with an open, linear ball slide. On the floating end I mounted roller skate bearings.

Note the use of only one pillow block in order to make maximum use of the round shaft. This is possible by having a longer floating rail with a pair of bearing sets.



Step 10: Upgrade to bushesVery soon after placing the main carriage on top of the base frame, I noticed some issues with the ball slide. Some of the balls stopped revolving and ended up scorinmy lovely shaft. It must have been dust clogging up the raceways. I concluded it would be better to have a plain bush in the pillow block.

The most cost effective way of upgrading the pillow blocks, was to make some closed bushes to fit . The OD of the bushes was 2mm smaller than the ID of my pillowhousings. As such, I ended up making a 1mm thick spacer. It took some effort, but I think it is worth it.

At a later date I will also replace the ball bearings for nylatron sliding blocks.



Step 11: Chain driveI decided to have a chain drive for various reasons. The main ones are:- compared to belts, chains do not stretch as much- chains are very robust- chains can easily be adjusted to any length- simplicity of assembly

During this stage of the build it is necessary to do some accurate machining. The bushes need to be mounted in reamed, 10mm holes. The sprockets need reamed, 8holes. I managed to avoid machining of shafts by obtaining 8mm OD silver steel. I took effort to produce tensioners that can be easily adjusted.

In order to straighten the long shaft on the base frame, I used the Gentle Persuader* for adjustment - X marks the spot!

Update 28th of June 2012: The chain on the vertical axis is driven by a sprocket, mounted directly on the motor shaft. The other two axes have two chains per axis anrequire a coupling between motor shaft and sprocket shaft. My initial couplings did twist too much under the high motor torque, resulting in backlash of at least 2mm (sattached video). New, spider couplings finally arrived from Hong Kong and are now on the machine. The backlash is now acceptable (less than 0.2mm).

* engineering term for hammer


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Step 13: Machine working for the first timeStep added 12th of June 2012:

As mentioned in an earlier step, I did have a problem with broken stepper drivers. In order to run the machine for the first time from a mechanical point of view, my maRussell (many thanks!!!) hooked up his 3-axis rig. It consists out of a Windows tower and a 3-axis parallel port board with Toshiba TB6560 chips.

The board was set up to use 1/8th microstepping, bringing the step size from 0.4mm to 0.05mm. We also set the backlash on the horizontal axes to 4mm each. The

backlash is purely there due to the twist in the couplings. This will be sorted when the couplings will be replaced by spider couplings. The large motors were easily ablecope with the highest speeds we dared to run. They barely got warm and did not seem to skip any steps.

On the y-axis I managed to fit stops on the round shaft. I also will fit similar stops on the shaft for the x-axis, but this means taking it off in order to tap threads in the shends. For the first trial I fitted temporary stops by clamping some 50x25 rectangular box to the main frame.

The long drill bit of 315mm was wobbling too much. At some stage we replaced it with a Dormer A110 1/4" bit, which I rounded so i t would become a ball nose bit. I waable to make deep cuts at high speed. See the pictures and video...



Step 14: Making a mould for a GRP partStep added 18th of June 2012:

The end goal of the large CNC machine is not just to make shapes in polystyrene foam, but also to do something useful with the shaped foam. In first instance this wobe the creation of composite moulds and or mouldings. In this step I wi ll showcase the creation of a single use, polystyrene mould for a custom, GRP welding mask.

After designing a mould for the new mask, I created an STL fi le and opened it in FREEMILL. Here I created two sets of G-code: one for a rough cut (slices at 4mmintervals) and the next set for making the final cut (at 1.5mm intervals). The final cut is simply set 30mm deeper than the roughing cut. The roughing cut took a little ovan hour to complete, whilst the final cut took around two and a half hours. As it was, the final cut resulted in noticeable steps on parts of the mould. This would have beimproved by using 0.5mm intervals, but this would have taken three times as long, ie. seven and a half hours. In stead, I removed the steps by quickly sanding themdown with a bit of sand paper, taking about three minutes to do...

Before being able to use the mould for creating the GRP part, it needs a protective layer, being latex paint in my case. I mixed a bit of blue from a paint sample intonormal, white latex wall paint, and used this for the first layer. I then put more layers on of white latex, until the blue did not come through anymore. This way I wasconfident the protective layer of paint was thick enough.

Update 20th of June 2012:The mould needed to be waxed and polished. I prefer to use honey wax for this, being the stuff made by bees. Three layers should usually be good enough for a singl

shot, I did apply four layers to be sure. The first part of a wet lay-up is usually the application of two layers of gel coat. I used two fairly thick layers of gel coat, having ared pigment mixed in. Having a thick layer will allow sanding down the part afterwards, in order to remove any imperfections in the surface. One or more layers of glasfibre, impregnated with laminating resin, follow the gel coat. In my case I used two layers of mat and laminating resin, having some white pigment mixed in.

After the resin hardens out, the part can be pulled from the mould. It can then be trimmed down, sanded to remove imperfections in the surface and polished to a shinIn the case of the welding mask, I will need to cut out a rectangle for the screen. The actual screen and the screen surround will be cut from a 'donor' mask, and bondeinto the inside of the GRP shell. Attaching a handle to the shell will finish the assembly.



Step 15: Next stepsobtain replacement stepper drivers, the plan is to make some myself using Toshiba TB6560 chipsfinalise wiringuse opto coupler to turn router on/off remotelypaint everythinglevel everything to within +/- 0.1mm, using shimsreplace bearings at floating rails for nylatron sliding blockshandle backlash (up to 3mm on horizontal chains), potentially by modifying grbl (!) 7th of June 2012: found the source of the play, being the twist in the couplinsimply replacing them with better quality spider couplings should resolve the issue. no mod to grbl needed. 28th of June 2012: couplings replaced, see step 1120th of June 2012: manage waste material. During the initial trials the extend and nature of dust generation by the machine became apparent. The main prioritwill be to enclose the bottom part of the machine with boards and possibly curtains. The actual router tool would benefit from having ducting for cooling.design a car, cut it in foam and use the shapes to produce a set of composite moulds...

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Comments

23 comments Add Comment

cyiangou2 says: Oct 3, 2013. 11:07 AM REPhello, I really like your project and I would like to do it. Can you help me please how to connect all electronics parts or how to program the arduino?Thank you

donkeyknee says: Jul 18, 2013. 3:48 AM REPnice

Finster101 says: Jun 27, 2013. 9:21 PM REPCool machine! Do you have any pics of the part you molded from the mold you showed cut in this instructable? I'd love to see the finished product.

RTegelbeckers says: Jun 28, 2013. 1:45 AM REPThanks for your comment! The red gel coat resin I used was over ten years old, having been at the bottom of a badly sealed bucket. As such it did notwant to harden out properly. I applied the laminating resin with extra hardener in the vain hope to compensate. This only resulted in the generation of tomuch heat, which caused the melting of the polystyrene mold in certain places. I left the part in a corner of my workshop as after several days the gelcoat was still tacky. By now it must be ok to still do something with the part. As you reminded me by posting your question, I will dig it out next time I amin my workshop and finally finish it off! In the first week of July I have some panels to machine on the big CNC, so I will have a go at it whilst 'babysitting

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the machine. Pictures will be posted soon after that...

cjc0306 says: Apr 16, 2013. 2:50 PM REPHi RT! Congratulations on a fine build. I am in the process of building a similar machine inorder to print some prototypes of my inventions. Since I have left ovealuminum 1 5/8" tent poles laying around, I decided to build the foam cnc with them instead of square tubing. The current design Im prototyping measures 32"60", so I need a large machine. I have already built a 3D printer so Im pretty familiar with cnc technology. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank

RTegelbeckers says: Apr 17, 2013. 1:15 PM REPHi. How do want to connect the aluminium tubes to each other? Welding aluminium is not easy and usually requires a TIG welder.

In the near future I will make some alterations to my own machine. On the horizontal axes I want to further reduce the backlash and add gearing, byreplacing each coupling with a chain and two sprockets. A ten tooth sprocket on the motor and a twentyfive tooth sprocket on the drive shaft will give a1:2.5 reduction. Check my instructable in a few weeks as I will document the upgrades.

My z-axis is not very stif f in sideways direction, especially when the tool is all the way down. Not much of a problem for shaping large pieces of lowdensity foam, but could be an issue in other applications.

Good luck wih your own machine!

DELETED_Ajancnc says: Oct 9, 2012. 8:26 A(removed by author or community request)

RTegelbeckers says: Oct 9, 2012. 10:56 AM REPThanks! I am a bit busy at the moment - preparing a new Instructable amongst other things - but I hope I will soon be able to make some updates to thebig machine & this instructable. If you are into CNC, you might find my new instructable of interest. It should appear on this website in a few days...

PS. I assume you are connected to www.ajancnc.com somehow. May I ask in what way?

Vika84 says: Jun 21, 2012. 12:21 PM REPGood Luck babe! xx

RTegelbeckers says: Jun 21, 2012. 12:56 PM REPThanks gorgeous! Sorry for having spent the last two months in my workshop... xxx

FoolishSage says: Jun 5, 2012. 2:44 AM REPThis is a really cool build! Can you estimate how long it took and how much it ended up costing?

RTegelbeckers says: Jun 5, 2012. 9:27 AM REPThanks! The total cost for the small machine was Â£70 (mainly for electronics)and it took the occasional hour over a few months. The second, larger

machine took several days over the last two months. The total cost for parts and consumables was Â£665. I also spend Â£28 on job specific tools, justas reamers (8mm & 10mm) and drill bits.

RTegelbeckers says: Jun 19, 2012. 8:26 PM REPI noticed I missed out on a few items on my initial costing. I now worked out the total cost for parts and consumables as being Â£728. This does notake into account the materials I already did have. See step 6 for a Bill Of Materials.

mgingerich says: Jun 5, 2012. 6:07 PM REPHave you considered building custom motor drivers? I'm making a CNC with from scratch electronics r ight now, and it's worked pretty well so far. Waycheaper too. Just something to think about. Great instructable!

robbert229 says: Jun 8, 2012. 10:45 PM REPSo I am not the only cheapo person on the web. That's nice to know, so how are you planning to build the electronics from scratch? I am sort of a persowith shallow knowledge in this field, and would appreciate you sharing the knowledge that you have with me.

mgingerich says: Jun 9, 2012. 4:41 AM REPI'd be happy to. My way of doing things was a little unconventional, since I'm controlling my CNC with a microcontroller. The schematic on page 3 othis instructable is the main part of my motor driver. four of these are needed to control one unipolar stepper motor. I'll let you know when I write amore detailed instructable on it.

mgingerich says: Jun 9, 2012. 4:42 AM REPHere's the link: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-an-Optocoupler/

http://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/mgingerich/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/mgingerich/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/mgingerich/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/mgingerich/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/robbert229/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/robbert229/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/mgingerich/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/mgingerich/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/FoolishSage/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/FoolishSage/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/Vika84/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/Vika84/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/DELETED_Ajancnc/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/DELETED_Ajancnc/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/RTegelbeckers/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments#DISCUSShttp://www.instructables.com/member/cjc0306/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=commentshttp://www.instructables.com/member/cjc0306/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=comments


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