Cutting foam sheets... with a needle!
- Thread starter dkj4linux
- Start date
ironkane
Member
I should have spent more time on Fusion 360 modeling the Z Gantry more precisely and saved myself a lot of idle time waiting on yet more hardware to correct those little details that kept cropping up.
It's going well now. I've decided to flush mount the Nema 17 instead of trying to squeeze in an extra inch of travel. Of course now I need to take the screw out and shorten it up.
I've got it mounted to the 2040 rail for my X and should have it back on the frame as soon as the gantry is all dialed in smooth.
Custom cables are done. I got my controller board enclosure printed and partially wired. I hope to have next Saturday to myself and not the honey-do's and I should have it moving under power if I'm lucky and not finding myself waiting on shipping again.
I'm pretty happy with the enclosure. I got the idea from an Instructable for similar board. Those Aircraft Connectors are available on Amazon for about $2.37 each. The USB extender was $5.99. I idea being that you wire it up outside of the box and then secure it inside. It probably took me around an hour to design it from scratch in Fusion 360.
I need to remove my old vacuum table and make a new one. The Harbor Freight pump is so much quieter. Hopefully it'll be up to the task of sucking down DTFB. It'll be worth the $95 I paid for it if so.
Dial it all in, design and print the tool heads (Needle Cutter, Laser, Plotter Pen) and I'll be ready to rock. Piece of cake, right? lol.
Here's the motor I'm planning on using for the needle cutter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W9HHDZW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I need to extremely carefully cut off the protruding shaft so that it's flush with the face. And it occurred to me that it already came with M3 tapped hole conveniently placed about the right distance for a needle holder. Eliminating the need for a flywheel. I'm really hoping this works out.
The four bolts protruding from the Z gantry plate are for tool head mounting.
Yes, my work space is a mess.
After typing all this I feel like calling in sick tomorrow just to put a dent in this To-Do list. :black_eyed:
Attachments
Looking good man! The more I look at open builds the more I want to build a bigger machine to handle a larger spindle for doing some wood working. Then slapping a needle cutter on that should be pretty easy. It's really a matter of do I want to invest in a smaller machine when I know ultimately I will want a bigger for bigger projects. So many options, I just can't decide :/
EDinCT
Member
Mine is 43” x 33”. It’s pretty solid. I’m super happy with Jason’s needle cutter. I tried cutting Wal-Mart ROSS foam board and it did not like it. Broke a needle every 5 minutes or so. But the DTFB- I’ve cut about 6 sheets full of parts with no issues.
Your machine looks awesome! I've been looking over all kinds of machines lately. I love the look and versatility of the mpcnc but I know at some point I'm going to want one that will be able to cut half a sheet of ply wood for the shop. I was thinking of just getting my feet wet with an mpcnc to do needle cutting but now leaning towards taking that money and just build the bigger machine now. Then I can add the needle cutter to that. So much I want to do and so little time. **sigh**
I was able to cut cardboard with mine - but had to go REAL slow and knocked the needle off a couple times doing it. I'm starting to think my current needle is work hardened or something because it seems to take more abuse than it has any right to
I wouldn't recommend cutting cardboard with it...but it was a fun experiment.
EDinCT
Member
Here is another little project I tackled. Mind you it is overkill but I had fun doing it. I found an instructable for building an Arduino based tach. Parts were about 20 bucks.
Using Jason’s needle cutter I designed a mount for the led’s that also acts as a spacer for my motor.
A little piece of aluminum tape on the flywheel is all the led’s need.
And here is the control box for the whole setup. If you have a 3D printer and are willing to spend some time learning cad then the sky is the limit. Very proud of how this enclosure came out. Pretty much a novelty and not a necessity but again this is a hobby and it’s cold outside
Using Jason’s needle cutter I designed a mount for the led’s that also acts as a spacer for my motor.
A little piece of aluminum tape on the flywheel is all the led’s need.
And here is the control box for the whole setup. If you have a 3D printer and are willing to spend some time learning cad then the sky is the limit. Very proud of how this enclosure came out. Pretty much a novelty and not a necessity but again this is a hobby and it’s cold outside
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EDinCT
Member
One other note- I thought of the idea of making a vacuum hold setup, but since there is something oddly satisfying about just standing there watching the machine cut anyway, I use an old vhs camcorder battery to hold the foam down and just manually move it around the board as the machine cuts. The noise a shop vac would make would get old after a while I imagine.
TheSFReader
Member
I second the Very Nice Ed from rockyboy
OTOH, Ryan at v1engineering (MPCNC) is working controling the RPM using the Tach to close the loop and control the RPM given the "RPM ADJUST" input and the tach reading...
Now if I inderstand correctly, there's trouble controlng the ESC from the arduino, right ?
OTOH, Ryan at v1engineering (MPCNC) is working controling the RPM using the Tach to close the loop and control the RPM given the "RPM ADJUST" input and the tach reading...
Now if I inderstand correctly, there's trouble controlng the ESC from the arduino, right ?
EDinCT
Member
Thanks! It’s on my laptop at home- I’ll look after work. I’m the mean time try a google search for Arduino based optical tach.....
Some folks have had no problems at all with that. Personally, I haven't been able to get my ESC to arm via the arduino yet, and when I get back to messing with it again I'm going to try switching ESC brands on it.
Nice Tach EDinCT! I strongly considered going that route before buying my tach...but didn't have all the parts on hand to build one and worried I wouldn't trust it's accuracy without a store bought on to compare against
I'm still hoping someone will take some time to experiment with blheli's governor mode. I think that could be the easiest solution since it would require no additional hardware. Just let the ESC do all the work. I actually talked to simonK about the possibility of a custom firmware that just holds a set RPM - and while he assured me it would be super easy to do...he also had no interest in actually doing it since he doesn't really do ESC firmware anymore The blheli governor mode basically does what we want though - it just doesn't isn't quite designed for the RPM we want...I looked into it and am pretty sure it could be made to work with a little bit of experimentation. But it hasn't bubbled to the top of my project list as something to dig into yet.
Someday I'll get to it if someone doesn't beat me to it
I'm still hoping someone will take some time to experiment with blheli's governor mode. I think that could be the easiest solution since it would require no additional hardware. Just let the ESC do all the work. I actually talked to simonK about the possibility of a custom firmware that just holds a set RPM - and while he assured me it would be super easy to do...he also had no interest in actually doing it since he doesn't really do ESC firmware anymore
The blheli governor mode basically does what we want though - it just doesn't isn't quite designed for the RPM we want...I looked into it and am pretty sure it could be made to work with a little bit of experimentation. But it hasn't bubbled to the top of my project list as something to dig into yet.Someday I'll get to it if someone doesn't beat me to it
I'm still hoping someone will take some time to experiment with blheli's governor mode. I think that could be the easiest solution since it would require no additional hardware. Just let the ESC do all the work. I actually talked to simonK about the possibility of a custom firmware that just holds a set RPM - and while he assured me it would be super easy to do...he also had no interest in actually doing it since he doesn't really do ESC firmware anymore
Someday I'll get to it if someone doesn't beat me to it
I have been running my needle cutter with a BLHeli ESC in governor mode since I first brought it up back in 2016. I haven't had any issues with it. It just works. However, my setup did require additional hardware since I'm not running my CNC from an arduino. My machine is a Mach3 run machine so I used an ardunio nano to convert Mach3's PWM output to a servo output. It has definitely stabilized my RPMs whether in free air or in foam.
Shur
EDinCT
Member
I ran into this issue initially as I didn’t have a similar motor on hand. But since I had a bunch of those DJI motors laying around I got to thinking and realized that a simple spacer would do the trick. I’m glad you made a bigger version- that really opened up the possibilities of motor choices if you are willing to make an adapter.
It seems to me that if you are going to jump into a project like this you need to be prepared for the fact that this is DIY and will probably have to get a little creative. I’d be more than happy to design a specific adapter if anyone is interested. Just need the distance. Mine is 8mm.
I also used mobeasts idea of a needle holder and just modified it to suit my needs. I have a bunch of designs I have made for my MPCNC to make it suit my build but haven’t taken the time to setup a thingiverse account so I could share them. I guess I should...
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dkj4linux
Elite member
I love it!
You guys are amazing. I never dreamed that the needle cutter would take on a life of its own... or reach the levels of sophistication being talked about here. Thanks to you all for keeping the spirit of this thread alive and sharing your time, considerable talents, and incredible knowledge and know-how with each other... all out in the open and in front of a watching world. I'm afraid I've fallen behind and have little more that I can contribute but that's okay... it's quite obviously in capable hands. Thanks, guys!
-- David
You guys are amazing. I never dreamed that the needle cutter would take on a life of its own... or reach the levels of sophistication being talked about here. Thanks to you all for keeping the spirit of this thread alive and sharing your time, considerable talents, and incredible knowledge and know-how with each other... all out in the open and in front of a watching world. I'm afraid I've fallen behind and have little more that I can contribute but that's okay... it's quite obviously in capable hands. Thanks, guys!
-- David
Michael9865
Elite member
Here is another little project I tackled. Mind you it is overkill but I had fun doing it. I found an instructable for building an Arduino based tach. Parts were about 20 bucks.
Using Jason’s needle cutter I designed a mount for the led’s that also acts as a spacer for my motor.
A little piece of aluminum tape on the flywheel is all the led’s need.
And here is the control box for the whole setup. If you have a 3D printer and are willing to spend some time learning cad then the sky is the limit. Very proud of how this enclosure came out. Pretty much a novelty and not a necessity but again this is a hobby and it’s cold outside
I +1 Rockyboy's comments, "Very nice Ed!
Do you happen to have that Instructable link handy?" Also, which motor are you using exactly?
Oh cool...I thought someone had said they were going to try it but didn't remember hearing you actually had!
Guess I'll have to swap to a blheli ESC and give it a go. The current ESC I'm using is a mystery as to what it is...I think it might be an afro but I'm not positive and while I have a couple of them I'm hesitant to flash it just to find out
Pretty sure I have a spare blheli capable ESC or 3 laying around though if I dig in my parts box.Similar threads
