I’m cutting 2" styrofoam. Recommend feed rate is 100ipm. Is this possible?
no, the maslow by default is capped at about 30 ipm, and the motors have a
theoretical limit of about 48 ipm
David Lang
Thanks,
depending on how dense the foam is, you might be able to cut it all in once pass. router bits that long are made
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Milling styrofoam with a router will likely make a lot of mess and will be hard to keep the edges sharp. if you are doing an outline cut that is not too complex, a hotwire set up would probably serve you better.
Can you give us an idea of what your project is going to be?
Milling styrofoam with a router will likely make a lot of mess
a vaccum helps a lot here
and will be hard to keep the edges sharp.
I didn’t realize that foam was that hard on edges
David Lang
By that, I meant the edges of the work piece, not the bit. Styrofoam is usually made by expanding eps pellets, and these pellets are often not that rigidly attached to each other, so the bit can pull the expanded beads out of the edge of the material.
Hot wire cutters will cut through the beads, thus preserving the sharp edges of a design.
Definitely!
I doubt it would be an issue, but milling will also produce a decent static charge.
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the maslow is moving slowly enough that it produces styrofoam dust, not chunks,
so the problem of pulling chunks out isn’t that bad if your bit is sharp. (and
since the dust has a static charge, it sticks to EVERYTHING)
the bigger problem I had using a sheet of styrofoam is that the cheap sheet I
had included an aluminum radient barrier on one side, and the bit had trouble
starting the hole as it plunged, it made a wide dent before finally breaking
through.
David Lang
I’d strongly recommend using a hot knife for cutting foam. Using a blade you are going to get covered in little static charged foam beads… speaking from experience here.
Ah, actual XPS styrofoam, not the EPS I was thinking of. Never mind my comments!
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