[ninewgt]

Guys------- MORE PICS BELOW

I finally got around to cutting the full scale boat hull... It will actually be used for building a production mold - Its the master plug... anyway.....

Im cutting as I type. I started at 1:00 PM today and have 3 pieces cut. Pieces are 8' long, 4" thick. Below is a picture of the 3 stacked up -so its 12" tall (deep) and 8' long- a little longer if you measure the true curve perimeter. not yet glued together. I wont glue until all parts are done. The bottom is cutting now. What you are looking at is 1/4 of the hull cut from 8 pound density foam.
The finished hull is 15'11" long, and 5'-10" wide.
Parts were cut on the Cad Cut machine.
Machine is run with Ability Systems Indexer and G-Code Controller software with Gecko 201's
Stepper Motors
Programed in Visual Mill 5.0
Part file designed in Rhino and imported into Visual Mill

Each part took about 1 hour and ten minutes to cut as you see below cutting at 200 inches per minute with a 1/2" Flat End mill .

Ill get the rest cut tomorrow and sunday and post the finished hull Monday most likely but thoght youd like to see !

Pardon the low res picture

You can see a rendering of the hull at www.inshorepowerboats.com

[ninewgt]

Another pic of the parts being cut - you can see where I already removed 2 of them as 3rd was cutting

[High Seas]

Nice JOB! Did you purchase the foam as a blank - or pour it? I am looking for a good source in the SE (FL area) - got some neat samples from Freeman -- could be a contender. If you don't mind I'd like to hear your sources/opinions of materials for your project. Thanks.
:cheers: Jim

[Mr.Chips]

That's really NEAT.
Will the foam be fiberglassed, for a durable finish?
What's the work area size of your machine?
Is the construction of your machine in this forum?

Hager

[barkster]

I would love to hear where/how you got the foam too. I'm looking to make some plugs for some R/C Jets. Thanks for the post, looks great

[balsaman]

Cool.

Serious dust I imagine eh?

E

[HuFlungDung]

Interesting, Ninewgt. Its good to see that you are making some dust

[ninewgt]

I purchase the foam from the same supplier that we purchase high density foam that we build our transoms with. You can purchase it in 4X8 sheets up to 10" thick. The sheets I used were 4.25" thick - not cheap stuff though - about 400 per sheet. If you need small pieces for RC stuff let me know what sizes... I have pallets of scrap foam Im looking to get rid of -

Yes it will be fiberglassed with a thin layer of cloth (4 oz) and then sprayed with a sandable primer thats basically a gel coat with added fillers for easier sanding....... then we will build a mold on it after sanding / buffing / waxing........

The machine work area is 50" X 98" X 10" max.......

Yes I used a machine on this forum - the Cad Cut CNC - Im the one that designed it. There is a forum on CNC Zone pertaining to builders of the machine or see the website at :
http://www.inshorepowerboats.com/cnc.../CNCROUTER.htm

Yes guys - Im talking a PILE of dust like you cant imagine - barrels of it - no joking ! But the speed in which I was able to cut it was fantastic - 27 Square feet (actual surface area I cut today) which is the total of the 4 parts in about 6 1/2 hours....... not bad at all, and it cut fantastic - I am very pleased with the results. Ill get the entire hull finished this weekend....

[ninewgt]

I got the front half finished Saturday.........

Here are the pieces stacked up - Looks like a boat now..... Just gotta cut the rear today !

I am a happy camper guys...... This machine did all the above in a days work... what would take me hundreds and hundreds of hours to do the way I used to do it........ and it did a perfect job.

[Bloy2004]

Fantastic! I really like your machine design and as I progress toward building a router and, depending on just what my needs will require in a machine, your's will be the basis.

[Blackhawk]

I am going to cut out an RC boat with mine when it is finished, what type of bit did you use? I was thinking that a normal router bit would clog up with foam.

[ninewgt]

To cut wood, or foam get a flat end mill, which is a spiral cutting bit meant for maching metal. Make sure you get 'center cutting' bits. I use up cut bits for foam and down cut bits for clean edge cuts in hardwoods

[keithorr]

What did you do for dust control?

[ninewgt]

Dust control - what a problem it was !!! I actually put a 'tent' around the machine with an industrial (36") fan at one end and a 15" fan pushing air over the table...so it vented out.... but it still piled up- looked like my machine went through a BLIZZARD........ but had I not done that it would have been bad - real bad because I scooped a ton of dust.........

[balsaman]

Vented out to where?

E

[ninewgt]

Most of it went to a baffled box where I had a shop vac hooked to at the tables end, some vented outside, the rest piled up in, on and around the machine....... It was an attempt at control but I needed a full size industrial dust collector or 2... just too much dust to contol.......

[surfguy]

GREAT JOB!! I've been in CAD / Machine Design for 20+ years and your set-up and finished product is excellent!
In an effort to reduce the volume of dust, could you have "precut" the foam blank with a waterjet or hot-wire rig without losing your setups? Or a "lazy-susan" rotating rig for gravity-fed dust evacuation? Yep... Mechanical Designers know how to fix everything.. long as someone else is actually doing the work!