Steel vs Foam - 5axis implications

[Books]

We’re interested in milling foam statues, and have seen great videos of standard 3 axis machines with the object on a rotary A axis.

The thing is a lot of these machines are very heavy duty, and I feel like perhaps a bit overkill for the needs of foam milling.

Does anyone have any suggestions for either a ready-made solution or plans for a machine on the lighter end of rigidity?

[hanermo]

Endless options of crap quality essentially worth near zero for commercial use.

[peteeng]

Hi Books - You need to specify what you need a bit better. Commercial machines may look overdone but they are like that for a reason. If a commercial builder of machines could build a machine at half the weight and do the job they would. The forum is full of people making their machines heavier and stiffer. I don't think there is one from the 20,000 threads trying to make their machine less stiff.

If you want to make statues commercially then speed is important. To get speed you need stiffness to keep things accurate. Plus if you want the machine to work commercial hours and say for 5 years or 10 years then again it has to be well built...So are you talking 100x100x100mm envelope or 13000x6000x3000mm ? More info needed. Cheers Peter