MPCNC 3d Printed Foam Cutters

Using 3d printers has become increasingly popular for making all types of CNC machines. The term you see quite a lot is MPCNC(Mostly Printed CNC). Many guys have sent pictures to me showing how they have made an MPCNC for foam cutting. I’ll include a design you can 3d print for free, courtesy of Mario

As you may realise, you can’t build the whole machine with 3d printed parts, so most guys use aluminium extrusions. You can still use wood and supplement this with 3d printed parts. My own machine has several 3d printed parts for end-stop fixtures.

Example Designs

Here are a few designs with more pictures in the builders gallery

Suitable 3d Printers

3d printers have come a long way in recent years and although there is still a learning curve it’s much easier now. My first 3d printer arrived in many pieces and took a few days to assemble and took some time to get all the settings dialled in to make accurate parts.

Now they are almost fully assembled, and you are up and running in an hour or so. There are many 3d printers available now, and they usually produce the parts you need fairly easily.

The Creality Ender 3 is a very popular printer at a reasonable cost. If you can afford the Prusa 3d printers, they have an excellent record for working straight out of the box. They can be purchased fully assembled and tested, but are more expensive. My own printer is a Creality CR10 V2, which is a bigger version of the Ender 3. I thought the bigger build volume would be useful, but to be honest, I’ve never needed it.

Check the latest price here for the Creality Ender 3 V2 quite often they are often on sale. My local model shop was exclusively a Prusa 3d print farm. But recently, he needed another and couldn’t get a Prusa quickly, so he purchased an Ender 3 S1 and has been surprised by how good it is. He prints a lot of RC truck parts for customers.

A bonus of purchasing a 3d printer is that you can print a complete RC aeroplane, many are free to download. I did this, and it flies great. Check my post https://rckeith.co.uk/3d-printed-rc-model-aircraft/

What material should I use?

For the 3d printed parts, most guys who have sent pictures in have used PETG, but PLA is also suitable. PETG is stronger than PLA and quite easy to use. ABS is also possible, but it can be tricky to get a good print.

For the main body of the foam cutter, aluminium extrusions are the main choice, which is now relatively inexpensive. Although some designs use wood with 3d printed parts.

Free 3d Printed Files for a CNC Foam Cutter

This design was kindly donated to the site by Mario. He’s been foam cutting using the manual method of making templates and running a hot wire along them. After a while, making the templates becomes a bit tedious, and you then wonder if there is a better way. That’s my journey as well.

STL Files

Mario has all the STL files and parts listed on Thingiverse here

Mario has a blog on RC Groups. Check out some of his impressive builds here

3d Printed Foam cutter 1.68 MB 355 downloads

This download has kindly been provided by Mario. …

Download

Electronics Hardware

You can use the same electronics as those used in the build for the foam cutter on this site. Here is a parts list using the Arduino Mega 2560 and a RAMPS 1.4 board. You can also use the MKS Gen L boards. I have several posts and videos showing how to use both. If you want a prebuilt solution, then I can highly recommend the Hobbild controller. I have a post Hot Wire CNC Foam Cutters You Can Buy Today on the website with a video.

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Controller Software and Firmware

There are several choices for controller software, and some will require a certain type of hardware. For example, Mach3 and LinuxCNC will only work on hardware that supports them. The old parallel port computers will work just fine with them. I started that way. Mach3 and LinuxCNC can be used with more modern computers, but will require additional hardware. Check the site for details.

If you are using 3d printer-type controllers, then you have 3 choices.

• GRBL Hot Wire Mega 5X firmware and software on this site
• Marlin Firmware adapted for 4-axis foam cutting
• DevCNC Foam

The simplest of the above to use is DevCNC Foam, which takes care of loading the firmware and software from the application. It Windows Windows-based and requires a license. I use it as well as the other two above, and it’s very good. It will run on several different controller boards as well.

The GRBL HotWire again only runs on Windows and does require you to upload the firmware. Which is fully documented on this site and is free to use. Grbl HotWire for CNC Foam Cutters

The Marlin firmware version doesn’t require a computer to run and operates very much like a 3d printer. You upload the g-code and set it to run. You will need to be familiar with compiling and uploading firmware to use this option. I’ve only tested it on the Arduino Mega 2560, but it should work with other controllers if you are prepared to tinker with the firmware.

Other Designs

There are several 3d printed designs available on Thingiverse.

You could also send your STL files to a 3d printing company or a friend with a 3d printer

The rcKeith Foam Cutter

You can build the foam cutting machine on this site with the plans ($3) and the free ebook

In Conclusion

So, as you can see, there are many ways to start CNC Foam Cutting, and for me, there’s nothing like building your own design and seeing it fly well. It may not be for everyone, but if you are into 3d printing, you are probably a creator as well. If you haven’t tried 3d printing yet, I can highly recommend it. You’ll be surprised how useful it is for RC modelling

Happy foam cutting