I'm willing to buy wodd cutting CNC machine for making a fiberglass molding.
it's for making Bumper, dashboards, sidecurt, spoiler etc.
it's for car body part (made from fiberglass)

Does anyone can suggest me to make one or buy ? any refference where / who/ what company who sell this big CNC ?
I'm in Indonesia/close to Singapore better they have the dealer in SIngapore.

If you can suggest me to make one, any plan for this huge CNC ?
i'm thinking of cutting Wood to make the molding, it's cheap... but if you can suggest me please please let me know to make it cheaper. HELP .....

regards
ruddy

Two ideas.

Fist, it is common in the States to make fiberglass constructs without benefit of molds. A foam shape is produced, the fabric is laid over it, and then wetted with the resin. Makes for a good finish, with minimal fuss. That is, if the part doesn't need to be hollow... Carving foam is even easier than carving wood.

Second, a truly huge machine could be made with elatively low cost parts, if your precision doesn't need to be extremely high. Garage door openers use a suspended track and rollers which fit into it...with reasonable precision. Mounting these on the ceiling could produce an X axis which would work quite well. By hanging the gantry from the X axis, most of your materials will be in tension...lighter weight and stiffer, if you do it right. The Z axis might be a little tricky, but shouldn't prove to be too difficult.

The drive screws could be handled 2 different ways. One would be to use garage door opener ACME threaded rod, which is easily available in 4 or 8 foot lengths. The other would be to implement a rack and pinion system...either is workable, given proper design.

This would let you build, with relative ease, a machine with as much as a 20x24 foot X-Y area, which is the size of a 2 car garage in the US. Surely that would be big enough for you...

-- Chuck Knight

Chuck Knight,
Thank you for your reply,
First, How can you make the carving Foam ? you said a Foam shape is produced ? does it produced by CNC ? how ? as far as I know CNC Foam is not getting a smooth surface, or is it ? and the fabric laid over it ( you mean fiber glass ?) , this is intersting... do you know where I can find detail information about this ? any pictures/material name/chemical etc ? process ?

second, about the garrage stuff I agrre with you, now I'm confusing buying a brand new big huge CNC or build one ?
I saw geckodrive who sell Servo drive and I was wondering buying second hand CNC and modify, but is not easy to get second hand CNC that big specially I'm in Indonesia.

I think servo motor is the best for this job beside stepper motor right ?
correctme if I'm wrong

regards
ruddy

http://www.rqriley.com/frp-foam.htm

This describes the procedures used for one-off fiberglass construction. It's a basic technique used for the home builder...but it should translate well to a small production shop. More sophisticated techniques could be used for larger runs.

Basically, he "creates a shape" in foam by hand (this is where the CNC machine comes into this discussion) and once the shape is created, he covers it in a fiberglass skin and finishes off the surface.

Many people use pink styrofoam insulation (sold in 4x8 foot sheets and easily glued together for thicker sections) for the foam core of a fiberglass project. After you have a "block" of foam of approximately the right size, it's a simple matter to carve it. You can do it with either rotary tools, or a hot wire cutter...information on both of these techniques is easily available on this site and elsewhere.

Search around on this site -- there is at least one person who built a big machine for cutting boat hulls out of foam blocks. It's in this section...just do a search.

I hope I've given you a few ideas...a big machine would be fun to build, one of these days.

-- Chuck Knight