Cnc hot wire cutter solutions?

[Aaargh_Zombies]

not exactly cnc but… has anyone ever tried putting together an automated hot wire cutter?

I have a laser cutter and a cricut blade based cutter, but what I want to cut is 1" crafting foam, which is usually cut with a hot wire as it’s too thick for the above.

Any suggestions!

[mcdanlj (Michael K Johnson)]

You can search this site for “hot wire” and find several. Here are some relatively recent posts from @freedom2000 on this topic, using Kiri:Moto:

Foam cut of a fuselage using Kiri:Moto and an indexer

Hi there, It’s just a proof of concept on how to use Kiri:Moto to produce Gcode (then patched) to hotWire cut a fuselage with “facetization” [first test : hot wire cut of a fuselage using Kiri:Moto and an indexer] Original discussion there : Discord The foam block is too small and was misaligned… but you can get the concept!

Retrofit of an old MM2001 foam cutter

HI, Here is a link to my hackaday’s project where I explain how to modify an old MM2001 foam cutter board to convert it to FluidNC GRBL Hackaday’s project : MM2001 foam cutter retrofit [image] This a work in progress, stay tuned ! Currently the machine is working and is able to swallow Gcode produced by Jedicut. Video should come soon ! JP

Also see this cool thread on using GrblGru to cut out wings:

JediCut Simulation on a FoamCutter Machine

Hello everyone, once again I would like to give you a short overview of the latest developments on the programme. This time I have been working on the production of wings for aircraft modelling. I confess that I don’t really know anything about this and therefore depend on tips and suggestions for improvement from the modellers among you. In the short video I show how to simulate the GCode of the program JediCut in GrblGru. But I have also made a “WingCreator” with which you can construct w…

And this:

Hotwire foam cutter 5 Axis

@GrblGru many thanks for the latest features for 4 axis hotwire foam cutter software, one question in the preparation stage for swept wing cutting where can i adjust offset of foam block in order to get accurate cutting or should i just place foam block exactly in tge middle

[freedom2000 (JP)]

Yep foam cutting is a very cool adventure !

As mentionned by Michael, I made a full setup a few months ago. You can find how to use this at the end of this page : FluidNC 4 axis foam cutter controller | Details | Hackaday.io

And how to do it at the beginning !

Here is the finished product : “zenity” is mine and the orange one is the commercial ArtHobby
“Serenity” one !

Although very similar they are absolutely not the same !

[Aaargh_Zombies]

Anything that’s just 2 axis?

I’m going to need to walk before I try to run.

[freedom2000 (JP)]

foam cutters are 4 axis devices.
2 XY motions one on right side the other on left inside.

[Aaargh_Zombies]

Sorry, I think that we’re talking at crossed purposes. When I say “2 Axis”, I mean a device that moves a cutting head in two dimension across a flat plan.

I’m thinking of something that resembles a hybrid between a Proxon desktop hot wire cutter and a desktop diode laser cutter, moving a head in height and width but not depth.

I’m not quite ready for anything else yet.

[freedom2000 (JP)]

Ah ok I understand now !

It’s easy to do this with any CNC.

Here is my setup

Replace the spindle by a vertical hotwire and move the bed only in XY plane.
You’ll have to support the foam stock to let the bottom wire arm slide under the foam…