3 Axis Foam Cutting Mill

3 - Axis Foam Cutting Mill - Part 15

Cutting Foam!!!

This as close to having a child as I'll ever get... The satisfaction of watching those first little halting steps. Unsure, exploring the limits of what it can do.

As the proud papa, I now have anxiety that I'll suffer post partum depression when I have to go to work in the morning.

If you've been suffering alongside this project as it's dragged out over the last few months, you can well imagine that my brain is racing on nitro as a million and one ideas are flying around as to what to mill first.

At first glance it may look screwed-up, but it was milled by a homemade machine, and the issues are easily resolved.

The foam blank was improperly positioned and the X - Axis ran out of travel (see the over shot border line in the upper left corner). That threw the rest of the cuts off.

It should have read, "theworkshop.ca" but the "s" in shop started over the "k" in work, and the ".ca" milled over each other as the motor just ground at the end of it's travel.

The foam blanks were going to be held by some casted fixtures, but this is far easier and quicker...

Two-Sided tape, the blank is held perfectly in place and can be repositioned a couple of times with ease.

The blanks come up nicely and the tape leaves no residue on the table or the foam when removed.

This small control panel is all that's left of a 286 I bought in 1987, DOS 3.3 was the ruling OS and 1Meg of Ram seemed excessive.

I mounted the main power switch and wired in the spindle power via the Turbo switch.

The actual milling bit that I used was made out of a common 3 1/2" nail, as it is exactly 5/32nds in diameter and fits the collet perfectly.

Obviously there are numerous things to touch-up and true... lots to learn, but I doubt that there'll much more on the mill project to post.

In closing, I'd like to extend a sincere thanks to the many folks that have emailed me either with advise, or just words of encouragement, some even sent me images of mills they made or had in progress.

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