Where can I find Good CNC Wood Cutting machine for Car parts size ?

[Calico]

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

[chuckknigh]

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

[Calico]

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

[chuckknigh]

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