Rusticalmond published a new build:

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Ok, Whre do you get the thick blue foam? They delivered 4 tuck loads of it down the road from my house to be used in building a school. But I don't seem to be able to buy it.

 

Electronics Parts Package has been ordered. Things should arrive by next Friday, Sept 4th.

 

Blue and Pink Foam is easy to find at Homedepot and Lowes, but they only have it in 1 inch sheets. I found some pink foam 2inch square sections at Lowe's. 4" , 6" and 8" thick sections is the problem. Stacking multiple sections together is also an option especially with proto typing a wing.

My electronics kit should all be here by next Friday.

 

Thanks much for all the suggestions. I could use all the help I can get cause I never done anything like this before and don't have any local CNC buddies around. We had a guy in the flying club that did have a laser cutter for doing wood wings but I don't think he built his set up. I build custom phone systems at work but this is all new field for me.

 

Thanks for the above links. I have already been looking at those. I used to play with CompuFoil for wing design and printing templates out a long time ago back in the day. I do need to look into more of the software to operate the G-Code. The cutting software driver needs to be able to look at 2 points wing root profile next to fuselage and wing profile at the tip. I am not sure if Mac3 does this. I have seen in tutorials that Foamworks does and is much cheaper.

Mac3 and FoamWork

http://foamwork.net/

 

Mac3 and Tapered Wings???

Not sure if this is a feature request, but haven't been able to find a solution, so I think it is.

I'm trying to run a large 4-axis hot-wire foam cutter using Mach. To cut a tapered part -- e.g., a conical column, with a circular base and a square top, or a tapered airplane wing -- you need to set up two profiles and have each end of the wire cut a different path. I have a couple of tools that will create G-Code to do this, such as Profili (an airfoil program). They use X as the left path and A as the right path. However, I can't find a way to make Mach3 display the A axis toolpath seperately from the X axis, so it's impossible to preview if it's going to cut this path properly.

Anybody have a solution or workaround for this?

How are you generating and validating tool paths?

Thanks,
Sean

Answer
Mach3 ill run the code but the display can not display the path The problem is that it is a very specilized application that we didn't code the display for ..

Thanks
Brian

Found on Ma3 3 Support Forums
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,6887.0.html

 

Great point I did not consider the extra travel needed to do a swept wing. My 1st plane is going to be a flying wing remake of something I used to have that had taken bad beating over the year. I think the wing span is like 20" so should not require to much extra travel on the one side. It is something to take in consideration when building my machine. around 30" wing spans will be big enough for me. Mostly park fliers and small float planes, am I going to build.

I have not herd anyone talk about CompuFoil. It was a big deal back in the day to print out wing templates. They have a 3d version now. Does anyone still use this program?

 

So according to the pictures you provided it seems I need around 32 inches of travel for the swept wing portion?

 

The above wing example you gave seems to be about the exact wing that I am wanting to cut. As it was traced from an old small wing of mine.

 

Keith My name is Scotty

I have already purchased a 50 foot spoil of Ni_chrome wire so I should be good on that. I will be using the C-Beam Modular system for the rails.
http://openbuildspartstore.com/c-beam-linear-actuator-bundle/

Today I am rebuilding an old gaming PC to run on XP. I found a electrical box that is 18x18x6inches deep. Thinking about getting the computer out of the old full tower case and dropping it in the electrical box with the CNC gear. That way I only have one computer box for everything. It seems it be a tight fit and I might need a bigger box. I Will have my CNC electronics in next week.

 

This is the Old Gaming PC that is being taken out right now to run the CNC cutter.

 

Old gaming PC Rig pulled out of a full tower to integrate into my CNC controller box.

 

Oh if you guys don't already know about the Aero Fred Page, look it up. Lots of great free plans to look at and use of model aircraft.

http://aerofred.com/

 

Yes, I am also on that page as well.

 

Hammond sells some nice electrical boxes to put all your cnc stuff in. Good prices. You can get them with door hinge/screw cover/knockout or no knockout. Can also cross reference with Mouser if you are not able to purchase them locally. I am going to lay my stuff out 1st on my Ply Board then figure out what size box I need. I want my PC and CNC stuff to all be in the same box. If I go 6" deep on the box I will have to change my PC Fan out to a standing vertical mounted fan. But I can get boxes 8" deep no problem.

https://www.hammfg.com/electrical/products/commercial

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail...=/ha2pyFadujPRkSekCM0CFTSYwlN491nEcMFyjOgWjo=

 

Got most of my electronics today. Just about everything but a manual. As expected. Also got a nice electrical box for 75.00 24x24x8

 

I have a question about this video.



He seems to hook everything up backwards from everyone else and says its working. I don't think this is correct wiring for my board.


From my understanding my 5V power supply should feed + to Pul+ Dir+ on each driver board and power the bread board on - and + side.
The Pins P2 and P3 on the breakout board should be hooked up to Pul - and Dir -. So this is also set up in the Mac3 software as P2 and P3 being X Axis Pulse and Direction control. On the breakout board + Volts on VOD should be hooked up to Enbl +

According to the above video he has pulse + and direction + hooked up to P2 and P3 on the break out board and Pulse - and Direction - on the driver board hooked up to a pin at the end of the break out board called Ground. P1 and P2 do put out +5V when connected to ground at the end of the breakout board.

Perhaps he is setting his software up differently?

Could someone verify correct wiring for me?
Micro step driver board is DM542A
DB25-1205 is the bread board from www.longs-motors.