English engineer is building desktop foam cutting machine, using G-code to make finished parts.
Artur Wisniewski is a Polish born engineer working in England, and working to cut airplane wings out of foam sheets gave him an interest in wire cutting. His passion for 3D modeling, programming and electronic design led him to develop desktop 3D printers and hot wire plotters. After a first run at crowdsourcing a desktop machine last year Artur is back with the HotWire CNC XY-4040.
The machine has a cutting area of 400 x 400 millimeters and can cut thicknesses up to 140 millimeters, with a 0.1 millimeter precision. Cutting speed depends on the material but has been tested between 50 to 5000 millimeters per minute. Size was the main design constraint for the system – Artur wanted a system small enough to fit on a desk for operations with the ability to move it between several workstations. He chose aluminum construction to make the system light but strong.
Wisniewski designed his own software for operation of the XY-4040. BezierCAM is 2.5D software programmed to take drawings or photos and translate them to G-code. The software is compatible with Windows and Linux and will be free for non-commercial users. BezierCAM was designed for the XY-4040 cutter but Artur says that it can also generate code for plasma cutters, laser engravers, CNC mills, routers, and wire EDM machines. Designs can be transferred to the machine with an SD card or through a USB cable.
Thematically the XY-4040 has the look and feel of a desktop 3D printer. Speed and heat can be controlled at any time through the digital readout, and stepper motors move the wire in the x and y directions. The campaign page shows mostly Styrofoam and expanded foams being cut, it will be interesting to see what makers do with this tool one or two years down the road. Wisniewski’s funding goal was a modest $275 and the project has already blasted past it, with the campaign running until February 11, 2018. First units are expected to ship in March 2018.
