[CNCpatriot]

Hi,

I have bought some new 3D designs to carve on wood using my CNC router.
But I would like to try the designs on some low cost , soft material before starting on my costlier wood. I read that "High Density Foam" can be used for this. Where can I buy these from and what sizes are these material typically available?
Can some kind of wax be used for this?


regards

[mcphill]

You can get 2" foam board at Home Depot in 4'x8' sheets, under $30. Cut them to rough shape, glue them together if you need them thicker, and start cutting!

Owens Corning Foamular F150 2 in. x 48 in. x 96 in. Scored Squared Edge Foam - 270895 at The Home Depot

[bgriggs]

The high density foam you are talking about is called Sign foam and it is expensive. More expensive than wood. However you can use foam from Home depot. The blue foam is from DOW and pink foam is from Owens Corning.

It is also known as HDU which I believe stands for High Density Urethane???

Bill

[awerby]

But what those folks were advising you to look for is generically called EPS (Expanded Poly Styrene) foam. It isn't particularly high in density, but it is cheap, and it's sold as insulation for buildings. High-density urethane foam cuts beautifully, but it's pretty expensive.

Machinable wax is often used to prove patterns before cutting them in more precious materials. It's available here, but I'm not sure about in India. You can make it from regular candle wax (which we call "paraffin" but you may not) by adding about 1 part LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene - it's used to make plastic bags) to 2 parts wax by weight in an electric pot (be careful doing this and keep the pot lid handy, since it can overheat and start a fire.) The nice thing about this wax is that it can be re-melted and recast into new blocks pretty much indefinitely, as long as you don't contaminate it with other materials.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[mcphill]

Oops, missed the India thing. I am sure they have rigid foam there too, but maybe not Home Depot...