Hi guys, real novice here. Have a lot of experience in 3d printing though.
I need to cnc XPS panels 1200mmX600mmX80mm
Is the lowrider the appropriate choice for this project? Any hint to source material in Europe?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Hi @Tommaso_Bianchi , welcome! @Tokoloshe (Philipp) is your guy for non-electrical parts if you want to purchase and not print yourself.
Do you need to cut the 80mm through? That might be near impossible with any CNC. Or should that have been 8mm?
The 1200mm means LowRider and not Primo.
As mentioned the 80mm is difficult. The LR4 gets about 100mm of Z travel total. With a drop table you might br able to squeeze 80mm from it, but that’s going to be difficult to manage. The machine gets a lot more difficult to build and needs to be stiffer and closer tolerance, plus a cutting bit that protrudes 80mm or more from the bottom is going to be spendy… at that point, you’re likely looking at machines that cost orders of magnitude more than a LowRider. If you can use 32mm XPS foam and glue together layers, that makes things way easier. Maybe make 3D printed registration pins?
Edit: If you plan on ONLY cutting XPS then you could probably make a Primo do the job easily enough, and extend the Z axis to about 160mm.
I need to cnc xps enclosure for 3d printers. I will remove way less than all the panels’ thickness
if I extend the x axis of a primo to 1600 mm, is there any problem of flex of the tubes? is it rigid enough??
If you are cutting through then you still need the full thickness for Z depth.
I have about 1000mm for a Y axis on my Primo. It would be OK for XPS, and is serviceable for plywood and the like if I’m very careful. 1600mm is definitely pushing it, but I think for foam, it would serve.
A better option than the Primo might be and LR3. I modified mine to have about 130mm of Z using 200mm linear rails. You can make the Y axis as long as you like, without stiffness penalty. This would result in a machine capable of many different materials. not quite as robust as the LR4, but a very good machine, nonetheless. Someone else did a parametric set of YZ plates for thee LR3 that would allow even longer rails. To get 80mm of usable Z it might take 250mm rails. you lose about 70mm of travel from the rail length, leaving about 180mm of Z travel, and you need double the material thickness in order to be able to cut through and still lift the tool above the material for travel.
Someone has extended the Z on the LR4 as well, but it was a one-of thing, and I haven’t seen it duplicated.
The LowRider design is at its most stable when cutting deepest, with the gantry as close to the bottom position as possible. For XPS, lifting higher shouldn’t be much of a problem.
So, you recommend LR4, with 250mm Rails ? it would be very useful to have a online configurator in which you input max dimensions and it gives the rails and tube to use and cut
I would think you could just use the LR4 built normally with raised rails or a drop table?