Is Maslow a good option to cut triangles out of 2” rigid foamboard insulation? I think it is around 560” of cutting to get my shapes out of one 4X8 sheet. Possible to do in just one or two passes?
What bit would be best for this?
Thank you for your ideas.
I have not tried but maybe a 1/4 in drill bit?
Or maybe a rotozip bit? WD1 Cutting & Carving Bits
I would want a good vacuum system
Has anyone done this?
Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, definitely planning on getting that static vacuum tube and adapter/ Shop-Vac minimize the microparticulates.
Is the speed bottleneck from the motor’s ability to move the bit or from the bits ability to move through the material?
Do you think it’s possible to do it in one pass?
I think you’d want to try a test pass on your material
For sure I would do a test pass on some scraps.
Wes wrote:
Is the speed bottleneck from the motor’s ability to move the bit or from the
bits ability to move through the material?
lots of factors.
one ultimate limiting factor is how fast the arms can pull the belts
another is how fast the bit can cut the material, spinning too fast will
generate heat that will melt the foam to the bit and everything will stop. you
need to be taking a big enough bite out of the material with each cutting edge
on the bit. With a slow machine like the maslow, you probably want a single
flute bit and will end up spinning it fairly slowly (the default router has a
pretty high minimum speed for this sort of thing)
another is how much force it takes to cut, the maslow is not a very rigid
machine compared to most CNCs (especially metal cutting ones) so if you aren’t
cutting the material fast enough, the system will flex and cause problems. Foam
is easy enough to cut that I don’t expect this to be the problem.
one issue you may have in trying to do it in one pass is getting the cut
material out of the way fast enough.
you will need to try it, but I think it’s plausible that you can do it in one
pass.
David Lang
Do people use router speed control cords with Maslow? Are they safe with the DeWalt 611? Edit did some research problems would be using one with too small amps and also running slower slows the cooling fan so one could overheat.
wouldchuck wrote:
Do people use router speed control cords with Maslow? Are they safe with the DeWalt 611?
If your router includes an internal speed control, it’s probably a bad idea to
try and add an external one. The external ones know nothing about how fast the
router is moving, and just are cutting the power to the router. The internal
speed controls can (but don’t always) know the router’s speed and adjust power
to maintain the speed.
so the internal control is no worse than the external one, and may be much
better. If you have a brushless motor on the router, the external speed control
is a very bad idea, with other motor types is may or may not cause problems.
David Lang
Thank you very much for the details! Very helpful. I’ll test and report back.
