Electronics Build Guide MKS TinyBee
Set up the MKS TinyBee for a four-axis Wi-Fi CNC foam cutter, from installing FluidNC and bench testing the motors to homing, calibration and the first cut.
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USB CH340 Driver Problems
Many microcontroller boards used for grbl and grblHAL use a CH340 chip to connect to the computer’s USB interface. Just recently (Dec 2024), several users of the CNC Foam cutter reported problems. These included The genuine Arduino Mega 2560 boards do not have this issue because they don’t use this chip. Most of the boards…
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Electronics Build Guide BTT SKR Pico
This guide provides step-by-step instructions for building the electronic components of a CNC foam cutter. The BTT (BigTreeTech) SKR Pico board, which features the Raspberry Pi RP2040 32-bit processor, is commonly used in Voron 3D printers. I now use this microcontroller on my CNC foam cutter, running the grblHAL firmware. Thanks to advancements in 3D…
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Electronics Build Guide MKS Gen L V1 and V2
Introduction This guide will walk you through the steps to build the electronics for a CNC foam cutter. The MKS Gen L boards are highly reliable, and I’ve used them successfully in many projects. Thanks to advancements in 3D printing, the electronics for a foam cutter are now affordable and easy to source Advantages:- Disadvantages:-…
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Electronics Build Guide Arduino Mega 2560 RAMPS 1.4
Introduction This guide will walk you through the steps to build the electronics for a CNC foam cutter using the Arduino Mega 2560 with a RAMPS 1.4 board. This is a great combination, and I’ve made many projects with them. Thanks to 3d printing, the electronics for a foam cutter are quite affordable and easy…
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DevWing Foam 2 Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips and tricks for DevWing Foam2, which generates 4-axis g-code for CNC Hot Wire Foam Cutters. I use these on all my projects. Using DevWing Foam 2 with GRBL Hotwire This is very easy and all you need to do is select the following options on the last page of creating a…
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Troubleshooting CNC Homing
If you’ve just finished building your CNC and turned on homing for the first time — only to find it’s not working right — don’t worry. This is one of the most common hiccups new builders run into. The good news is, it’s usually something simple, like a wiring issue or a small setting that…
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OX CNC Router Upgrade to 1000×750 with a 32-bit Controller
Upgrading my 750x500mm OX CNC router to a bigger size was something I had been considering for a while. The 8-bit microcontroller worked fine, but I wanted to use auto-squaring of the gantry. This required grblHAL with a 32-bit controller. The longer aluminium extrusions were purchased from Ooznest, who I originally supplied the machine in…
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Creality K1 3d Printer: Three Times Faster At Printing Thin Wall
K1 advantages One of the Creality K1’s biggest selling points is speed. Thanks to its CoreXY motion system and Klipper firmware, it can churn out thin-wall RC aircraft parts up to three times faster than my previous printer. As someone who doesn’t like leaving prints running overnight, that’s a game-changer. The built-in camera also lets…
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Grbl HotWire for CNC Foam Cutters
This guide walks you through exactly how to set up the GRBL HotWire system I’ve developed since 2020. It’s designed for hobbyists, not engineers, and it works with several affordable controller boards. Whether you’re building your first cutter or upgrading an old one, follow the steps below and you’ll be cutting accurate wing cores and…
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Taking Flight with Carbon PLA: Building a 3D Printed Flying Wing
I’ve heard good reports about SunLu Carbon PLA and PLA Plus, and when SunLu reached out to me to try some of their filament, I decided a flying wing would be a good test. Which flying wing was I going to build? One that immediately caught my attention is the impressive “V-Turn from Plane Print”…
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Converting DXF Wing Designs to DAT Airfoil Coordinates: DXF2DAT
DXF2DAT A common question is How do I import my dxf wing design into something like DevWing Foam or one of the free g-code wing programs? First, I would ask yourself if you need to use a DXF file. I have rarely needed to do that. Several aerofoil data resources can be used for RC-model…
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Hot Wire Bow for Foam Cutting
The hot wire bow is my preferred way to tension the wire for CNC foam cutting. The picture below shows my bow which I use on my CNC foam cutter. Advantages of using a bow The bow doesn’t exert tension between the left and right carriages but the spring method does. When foam cutting wings…
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How to Make an RC Plane with a Creality Ender-5 S1 3d Printer
The Creality Ender-5 S1 is a good high-speed printer with the option to enclose the printer for materials like ABS. Here in the UK, the cost of shipping ARTF(almost ready-to-fly) model aircraft has become very expensive, sometimes more than the model. 3d Printing your own is one way to avoid the costs and opens the…
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What Controllers can I use for CNC Foam Cutting
For CNC foam cutting, you’ll need at least a 4-axis controller to handle the simultaneous movement of the hot wire and the workpiece. More advanced setups — such as 5-axis foam cutting with a rotary table — are also possible for complex shapes. Over the years, I’ve tried several different controller types for my foam-cutting…
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Dev Foam Software Series Explained
DevCad provides several Foam applications for generating g-code for your project. Whether that is an RC model airplane or a generic foam shape. I have been contacted a few times asking me which one should I use. So in this post, I’ll explain the foam applications, and then you can decide which one is best…
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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…
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Hot Wire CNC Foam Cutters You Can Buy Today
I often get asked if I can supply CNC Foam Cutters as a kit. For several reasons, I can’t produce a self-assembly kit. So are there any kits you can purchase? Yes, there are a few, but not many. Here is what’s currently available at reasonable costs to the hobbyist. I’ve excluded some due to…
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How to Cut Large Swept Back Wings and Save Foam
The Problem: running out of machine travel If you’ve ever tried cutting a high-sweep design like a flying wing, you’ve likely hit a frustrating wall: running out of horizontal travel on your CNC foam cutter. I use a clever alignment trick in DevWing Foam (and previously Profili 2 Pro). By aligning the leading or trailing…
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4-axis CNC Foam Cutter using Marlin 3d Printer Firmware
The 4-axis CNC foam cutter, until now, required a Windows computer to run the software to send G-codes to the controller. Several times, I have been asked if there is a way to run the foam cutter like a 3d printer by just inserting an SD card with the g-code. Recently, I upgraded my 3d…
