My name is Barry, im interested in building a mpcnc. Like some others that have made one my interest is in cutting carbon fiber for quad frames. I am curious if the use of maker pipes(https://www.makerpipe.com) on the end to connect the x and y guides to the legs has been explored or not? They are fairly inexpensive and very rigid. Im curious if the use of these would increase the distance between the x and y plains making the existing center peice unusable. Also I havent found any successful attempts in consistently cutting carbon fiber on the forum. Most of the issues seems to come from flex in the z axis, which shouldn’t creating a greater distance between the x and y plains help correct? Anyways those are my thoughts. I dont have a printer so id have to buy the pieces from somewhere (most likely the shop here) and thought id throw out my idea thanks!
Other than the fact that these are metal connectors rather than printed ones. The MPCNC implements this concept well enough.
These have all spawned from people trying to utilize common building materials that can be easily acquired to accommodate entry level machine design. Here is another interesting connector for PVC: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:932732
This MakerPipe connector is interesting and if you use them for anything I would like to see your results.
I’m pretty sure Ryan has cut carbon fiber sheets for a quadcopter. I’m surprised there isn’t a gallery for it.
I am going to guess that the trick will be a small build (in X, y, and especially z) and going slow enough to cut through in one pass. The sheets are always very thin, right? Doing it in more than one pass would mean you’ll need a very accurate z throughout the entire area (if you’re trying to take 0.5mm depth of cut, and your of by 1mm, you might be taking 1.5mm instead). That will be the only difficult part. So just plan on cutting through in one pass.
I would also highly recommend going with a couple of good bits. It’s my understanding it will dull them fast and if you don’t start with a hard or sharp enough bit, then you might as well be using sand paper. And watch out for the dust.
As for the maker pipes, I don’t see any way that will make a corner close to the size you need. Changing the x/y planes will make the center gantry bind up, rotate, and won’t make the z more rigid, just more wild. When you build your machine, I think you’ll appreciate what I’m talking about. The normal corners are more than adequate. They are only trouble when you’re trying to make a 3D printer (so 12" high) and cut wood with it. If you build your with a 1.5" Z, you’ll be fine.
Also remember that increasing the size is just buying new conduit and longer wires. So start small.
Hopefully Ryan or anyone else that’s cut CF will come in with actual experience.
Carbon Fiber should be no big deal to actually cut, it will cut very similar to regular plastic. There are two issues. First it is bad for you to breathe so you need to cut it wet and keep it wet. Second bits will dull a little faster than usual.
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A ton of people come in thinking they are going to cut there own frame, I think we all ran into the same problem. Carbon fiber raw stock seems to be about twice as much as a pre-cut frame that includes hardware. I have no idea where to buy it. I have 2 local sources and even importing isn’t really any cheaper. That stuff is expensive.
Maker pipe seems like an awesome product. I do love conduit. They show it being used with some burners…probably not a good idea, the zinc will make you sick if you breathe it. And they need two more sizes. Not extremely useful useful to us but it can make a cool table.
I haven’t actually cut any due to the second thing Ryan posted (raw sheets costing as much or more as pre-cut parts) but did have a friend who was doing it on an inventables machine a few years ago. He found that it eats bits like nothing else, he would get 2 maybe 3 small frames cut per bit before the cut quality went down quick. He also didn’t use a water bath - just put it out in the garage with good ventilation and hid in the house while it cut.
Somewhere I have his CF suppliers contact info…but…unless you’re buying quite a bit at once it’s just not cost effective. And the main reason he quit cutting frames was the quality of the raw materials was inconsistent. Sometimes he’d get great quality CF, then the next order it would be utter junk (one frame he cut for me first crash all of the CF delaminated.) They were good about refunding him or sending him new material when it was bad…but it was just too much of a hassle and he couldn’t get a business going with that quality of supplier.
The maker pipe looks interesting for sure. One thing that came immediately to mind is the need to offset one axis means you’d need twice as many pieces at each corner and you may have to modify the entire Z section because I doubt the maker pipe will get the Z offset between X/Y as tight as Ryan’s parts do.