Custom cnc machines for Plug making

[apsara]

Apsara, Is this a machine that's being made to sell or for personal use?

If not for sale, could you provide an exhaustive list of parts needed and instructions so others could make one?

I make and sell these machines, this one is designed for milling foam.  I charge $3,600 for the machine which is a fair price considering other machines on the market are $6,000-$8,000 for a table this size.  Size of the table is a 4x8 with a 24"z axis and comes with electronics and motors ready to plug in to your computer.  I also have parts available as a kit with instructions on how to put it together.  When I have my website up you can buy parts off there, parts are very affordable. 

Yes you can attach a print head to it, for it to work with the extruder you just have to change up the software and its ready to run.  During the summer I will build a full scale version of a 3d printer for printing large scale items such as cars, boats, motorcycles, maybe a new girlfriend that doesn't talk back lol

Using a printed body panel is very weak for a car body, even if you add thickness to it, it will still split on the printed lines.  It is only good for rapid prototyping of an object. 

[Rebirth]

How about using the actual 3D Printed Plastic Plug as the car body itself?

What do you guys think?

No offense.

[SchulzeA]

This is awesome, but I still think we need to start thinking bigger than that! How about using the actual 3D Printed Plastic Plug as the car body itself?!!!! Can you mount a 3D Printer head on that thing?  The plastic for a whole car, comes out to about $2200 USD.  I bet you can finish a whole car in about a few weeks with that large thing. If you're concerned about the plastic melting in the hot sun, you can go with the new high temp ABS plastics. The finish is what might need to be addressed (laying a skim coat of bondo), but you have to do that to a fiberglass body anyways. The strength of the whole car might be an issue, but you could always just lay a fiberglass layer on the inside. This way, you could pop out bodies for sale for cheap!  And shipping any body would only cost a few hundreds since you could ship it out in sections (the buyer would piece it together on their own).  What do you guys think?  Peace.

What is the surface area value that you used to calculate the total cost of material? Do you happen to have the amounts separated per panel of the car? Could be some useful info for people estimating the cost to build a fender ect from fiberglass.

[Rebirth]

Apsara, Is this a machine that's being made to sell or for personal use?

If not for sale, could you provide an exhaustive list of parts needed and instructions so others could make one?

[Jah316]

This is awesome, but I still think we need to start thinking bigger than that! How about using the actual 3D Printed Plastic Plug as the car body itself?!!!! Can you mount a 3D Printer head on that thing?  The plastic for a whole car, comes out to about $2200 USD.  I bet you can finish a whole car in about a few weeks with that large thing. If you're concerned about the plastic melting in the hot sun, you can go with the new high temp ABS plastics. The finish is what might need to be addressed (laying a skim coat of bondo), but you have to do that to a fiberglass body anyways. The strength of the whole car might be an issue, but you could always just lay a fiberglass layer on the inside. This way, you could pop out bodies for sale for cheap!  And shipping any body would only cost a few hundreds since you could ship it out in sections (the buyer would piece it together on their own).  What do you guys think?  Peace.

[apsara]

got the gantry made, now just gotta make the z axis slides

[apsara]

its not welded on, everything is bolted together.  its been squared in a jig, and will be adjusted for square again on final.  everything is checked prior to finish

[SchulzeA]

How are you going to surface grind the ways if they are welded on? And how do you verify they are perfectly square and parallel to each other?

[apsara]

here's the pic of it, just started making it, should be ready soon.  This one is for foam cutting, still working on the gantry and the z axis.  waiting for parts to come in

[SchulzeA]

Email the pictures to yourself, then open them on your PC and upload. No cable required 

[apsara]

As most of you know the kit car industry follows the old cliche out with the old and in with the new.  Always new bodies and parts and whatever you can think of to build a car.  Anyways been designing a cnc machine for this market.  Its a combo pack which will save you tons and tons of money in the long run.   The machine is a 4axis setup 3 machines in 1, a normal 3 axis to do 3d mill work and when you want to use the 4th axis just remove the table in the middle and your able to do 3d lathe work, 2ft by 6 long blocks of foam.  When you require metal work, just add a plasma cutter to the z axis and install the metal slats in the table for laying metal.   Overall size of the table is 40"x80" z depth 12"

I'll be done the build in a week or two, just started it today.  For all the plug makers, if you don't want to be doing it by hand anymore this is the next step that you have to go.  I'll post up some pics as soon as I can find the dam usb cable for my blackberry.