Home Built Hot Wire CNC Foam cutter
Day 1 - Vertical Y Axis
Day 2 - Horizontal X Axis
Day 3 - Lead Screw
Day 4 - Electronics
Day 5 - Finalizing the machine
Other CNC foam cutters
A New Design - Hot wire CNC Foam cutter
Foam Sample Cuts
Foam Cutting Videos
Links - RC stuff, Stepper Motors, Lead Screws
More information - about stepper motors

Links
DIY Mach3 with Joystick and gamepad
FoamLinx Site - Foam Cutting CNC Machines
CNCLinx Site - CNC Router Tables
Foam Cutting Services - EPP, EPS, XPS
All About Foam Forum - Beta
Composites Prototyping and Design
Large and Configurable CNC Machines *
Low cost Hot Wire Foam Cutters
Online Store



Articles
How to coat EPS foam (Crown Moldings)
How to build an EPS Foam Recycler
How to build an EPS base and Cap cutter
How is EPS manufactured - molded
How to make RC foam planes
How to cut EPS, XPS, EPP foam
How to cut Polyurethane foam ( PU )
How to cut Acrylics - Laser cutting
DIY CNC Foam Cutter Blog - New

What is - more info about foam
What is EPS foam
What is XPS foam
What is EPP foam - Expanded Polypropylene
What is PE foam - Polyethylene foam
What is Polyurethane foam
What is Memory Foam

 

Sunnyvale

                               The Y Axis (Vertical Axis)

If you are building the CNC foam cutter for RC wings, then you would
probably need 10" max travel on the Y towers.

If building a hot wire CNC foam cutter for props, crowns, moldings
You would probably want to go with a 4' x 4' (X x Y)
EPS Foam billets are usually 3' x 4' x 8' or 4' x 4' x 8'

XPS foam comes in sheets of about 4'  x 8' x (1" or 2" or 3" thick)

If building a CNC foam cutter to cut Polyurethane foam - FORGET IT
Polyurethane foam should not be cut with hot wire, but a blade or a saw
There are CNC foam cutters for Polyurethane that work similar to a band saw
But use a abrasive wire instead of a saw - click here for more information

In this section we will build  the two Y posts or towers (Y axis). 
The posts can be found at  the fence section at Home Depot
You can replace these posts by any other post as long as you
are able to keep them from vibrating during the cut.
Any vibration of the posts will result in vibrations on the wire
resulting in "waves" or not smooth cut of the foam.

The following can be found in the drawer section, you will need  two 16" drawer slides
The Home Depot Catalog number for 24" slides made by Liberty
7-81266-18070-4

Would rather go with high end slides ?
Search Google for linear slides

And two 4 foot stands

The above picture is of the 2"x4FT Post with foot - that's the Home Depot name
Cat num: 204-008
Home Depot num: 6-39426-48607-7

measure 6" from the base

Mark both holes

Now the 2nd one

Drill the two holes

Place the rivets - or self cutting screws

Use the River gun - make sure that no dirt will reach the bearings !!!

And now do the same for the other stand