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Learning to work with EPS Foam

Posted by Trent at MyGeekShow on October 15, 2011 at 1:45pm

 

As I work towards building the GeekStar (My Geek Show's version of the Easy Star) I decided I needed a better building technique. This week I built a demo/sample of the EasyStar's nose section to see if 3/4 inch EPS foam would be a suitible build material and to see if a "layered" building approach would work, and in both cases: Yes!

 

The thicker foam is very hard to cut out with a knife, I'll have to build a hot wire cutter, but when it's all glued together, it can build great looking shapes that are very strong and very light.

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  • Trent at MyGeekShow October 17, 2011 at 10:59am

    Thank you all for your feedback and support! I built a hot wire cutter using an unused NiMh 9v 3000mAh battery and some guitar string... works great! I'll post a video up on here Wednesday showing what I did and how it works... Thank again.

  • Venom57 October 16, 2011 at 11:27am

    an arduino based controller with temp feedback would be pretty easy to add to that cutter you've got.  While looking through the link in my previous post it did occur to me that the CNC based approach might be overkill for building a handful of planes.

  • Moderator
    Brian October 16, 2011 at 11:20am

    I've been planning to build a foam cutter for a long time.  Recently purchased a handheld cutter at Michael's craft store for $10.  It's a simple design, which looks like a small copping saw with a big hollow handle, that contains two D cell batteries.  A little metal lever is turned to make contact between the metal bow and the end of the handle which screws with a spring between the cap and the batteries.  The bow is connected to the other end with a thin wire.  

    Basically, I state this because after all the research I've done and various times planning to build one, I found the simplest tool which works great!  There's no temperature control so that is a limit but I was able to do a cut into ep foam as deep and wide as the cutter can do with no problem.

     

    A couple of years ago, a DIY Drones member had build an Adruino controlled foam cutter.  I've posted several links to his project (UFO-MAN).  They are worth taking a peek at.

    http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/hand-held-cutter-head-for-the

    http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/the-pro-edition-5000-ringnes

     

  • Venom57 October 16, 2011 at 9:57am

    I should have added

    "All wire cutting though produces dangerous fumes and adequate ventilation is mandatory."

  • Venom57 October 16, 2011 at 9:55am

    Really nice video.  I'm absolutely considering this approach for a high aspect ratio ardupilot based design. I'd second the wire cutter, better yet, build a computer controlled one.  There are multiple advantages such as being able to cut many layers at once.  A google search for "DIY CNC wire foam cutter" should get you everything you need.  Here is a pretty involved Instrucables version PC controlled wire foam cutter.

  • Richard Unwin October 15, 2011 at 8:11pm
    GreaT video, you can make a cheap wire cutter with a old computer power supply (use the 12volt power connections) and a stainless steel fishing trace along with a suitable frame to keep the wire in tension when it heats up and expands.

    Richie
  • Alex Lee October 15, 2011 at 6:58pm

    Trent, this is pretty informative. Never thought about building up using the foam. I can think of all types of applications now. Thanks. Keep it up.

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