After many faithful years of service its time to replace my Phlatprinter MK1, so I fired up sketchup to see what I could come up with using Openbuilds parts and custom plates. Before going any further Id like to get some opinions on the design- Not sure just yet how I will operate the pressure roller actuators, I could use a pendant or jog buttons to raise and lower them manually, or would it be possible to use gcode? as in have it lower the rollers to a preset height at the beginning of a cut and then raise up after the sheet is done? Do u think I really need 2 steppers to operate the drive rollers or could I use just 1? I plan to make the drive rollers from abs just like Mark did on the original phlatprinter but have the endcaps 3d printed, simple but has worked just fine on my phlaty for many years, they will be on 5/8 keyed shafts riding on flange bearings with lock collers. I plan to use the planet cnc 9 axis board with this because Im going to be slaving 2 steppers if I use 2 to drive the feed rollers. Its sized by starting with a 1000mm cbeam and working around that, which gives me enough room to run a sheet of dollar tree foam board lengthwise. Any ideas? Improvements? Changes? Am I doing anything I might regret later? Any feedback welcome- Fred Is there a trick to uploading files? wont let me upload the skp. file? Thanks Rick that did it- This is just a rough draft, there are mistakes in the model, once Im sure of my final design Ill rebuild it to exact measurements- Goals: Cut foam, up to 4" thick, balsa, lite ply and carbon sheet.
Typically you just drag the file into the post. How large is the .skp file? You'll see a ticker at the top right of the screen as it downloads. Larger files can take a while. Have you purged all unnecessary data? (Window>Model Info>Statistics>Purge Unused)
I think you could probably drive the rollers with one stepper using a belt. that way you know they both are in sync. By the way, it is an interesting project, I just know next to nothing about the Phlat Printer - so take any advice I provide with a grain of salt. If I were cutting a lot of foam, I would probably look into building one.
if you have enough axis in the controller then I think you can certainly drive the rollers through Gcode but you would have to add that to your files or use macro buttons in the GUI to lower and raise them. I would use one with a toothed belt drive. Do make sure the belt wraps far enough around the various pulleys to give positive drive without slip, you may need an idler or two to make this happen. [/QUOTE] overall, I like it (-:
Thanks for the feedback, appreciated. I'm going to redesign using 1 stepper for the rollers- I knew there had to be some way to raise and lower the pressure rollers somewhat automatically, a macro would work fine for what I need.
You might consider spring tensioned solenoids to raise and lower the rollers. These could easily be activated by the built-in secondary functions in grbl (spindle on/off, etc.). This would bring the system down to a simple 3-axis machine which is easily run with a simple arduino/grbl combination. On a different note, have you seen this post: Brushless Motor Foam Cutter and cutting sheet foam
Solenoids were my first option for the pressure rollers, I looked at electric, air and hydraulic even but found them to be expensive and probably harder to implement than a linear actuator. Gonna have another look at it tho, would be nice to have an all in one board. Thanks for the link Rick, that is pretty slick, works like a tatoo machine. The only prob I have with that method is u need some kind of sacrificial foam backer, and if ur gonna be cutting lots of planes it will need to be replaced quite often.
Consider US $13.76 7% OFF|12V/24V Pull Hold/Release 10mm Stroke 8.7Kg 87N Force Electromagnet Solenoid Actuator-in Switches from Lights & Lighting on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group On a fixed axis system like the Phlatprinter all you would need would be a narrow rubber strip for the needle to punch against.
