CNC router for mold making

Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Back

CNC router for mold making

Author	Message
FKY	FKY posted 10 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 4, Visits: 27	Hi all Anyone used CNC routers to make molds for composite parts before? I am thinking of using CNC routers to machine down PU foam, lay down glass fabric on the machined foam to have an impermeable surface. Then apply mold release on the impermeable surface, gel coat and lay up to build the mold. Is this wise? Any advice?
	Reply Like 5
FLD	FLD posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 468, Visits: 2.7K	A friend of mine does this. He's a pattern maker for a reputable sports car company. They laminate sheets of MDF and set a VERY large CNC router to work on it. Then they seal the surfaces etc and take a mould. Their moulds are now shipped to Germany to have the mouldings made by infusion. It surprised me that they couldn't be done in the UK if not in-house. They use MDF as they keep the pattern in case they need to remake the moulds. I'm sure foam will work just as well you'd just need to be careful with the cut speed to avoid tearing the foam panels. Not sure how long a foam plug would last though.
	Reply Like 5
scottracing	scottracing posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 460, Visits: 5.2K	I've just had a couple of tooling block patterns made from pu model board. But mdf can be used too. It just needs to be sealed properly and not used with too high a cure. Low temp tooling pregnancy can be used though.
	Reply Like 5
FKY	FKY posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 4, Visits: 27	Thanks all for sharing! I have little experience with CNC routers. Any advice on the model of CNC router and CAM programmes to be used would be greatly appreciated! I am looking at a part size of around 20cm by 40cm by 40cm.
	Reply Like 4
Julien	Julien posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 16, Visits: 2.8K	Hi, My CNC size is about 50cm x 50cm x 16cm. It's a Charlyrobot/ISEL. You can find this milling machine for 1000€ in good condition. I use Autodesk Inventor to draw my part and CamBam to create GCode. The CNC is piloted by LinuxCNC (free). I make my model with PU foam (Prolab 65) and paint it with PU paint. After painting, you can use the realese agent you want, and with this way, your mold will be bright. You can find some picture here :http://www.talkcomposites.com/15089/Prepreg-with-silicone-intensifiers If you are French, I can help you a little more !!
	Reply Like 4
TomDesign	TomDesign posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 454, Visits: 2.5K	if you need machine cnc that size table 1metre on 70cm let me know price 1400
	Reply Like 5
Finnluxury	Finnluxury posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 50, Visits: 448	I have cnc milled PU foam and XPS foam (finnfoam). PU foam is good because it can hold some chemicals, like polyester, but disadvantage is that it will make a lot of dust. XPS can't hold polyester, but its much cheaper, its hard, and it doesn't produce so much dust. I have coat XPS foam with styrospray, it will make very hard coat over the foam. I have custom build a cnc machine size of 3000x2000x1000mm for foam milling. For me cnc milling mdf is not a choice. with bigger moulds it will be very heavy plug. it will suck moisture. also its easy to broke the cnc machine if something is wrong with the g-code. (and this will happens always sometimes)
	Reply Like 5