Alternatives to wood

[pro70z28]

I've been looking through some of the projects here and it got me to wondering if anyone is using the ShopBot to make things out of materials other than wood.
I attached one of a few I've done, hopefully others will follow with projects of their own.
Anything other than a wood product is game for this thread.

[pro70z28]

Couple More...........


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwQmyyHOoO4

[Tom Bachman]

Well, those are some fine looking hinges you made there. And I think we now know where your username came from.

[pro70z28]

Thanks Tom. Any other non-wood projects out there?

[coryatjohn]

Here's a project I'm currently working on made from pink foam and "Foamcoat", which is a plaster-acrylic compound that's hard as plastic and machines very easily. It's the main part of a mount for a wooden propeller from a Stinson 108. It's full size which is 32"x19"x6". I modeled it using Rhino from an engineering drawing.

IMG_20180309_174733.jpgIMG_20180312_204745.jpgIMG_20180402_153622.jpg

[pro70z28]

That's a nice looking project John. I hope you post more as the project progresses.

In the old days I might have made a part like that by building a blank out of wood, shaping it with a grinder and a lot of body filler, sanding and more sanding, prime, sand prime some more and then spray with mold release and layers fiber glass over that. Then glass some supports on it to make it rigid. Then pull it off as a plug. Do more work on the plug to get it as close to the final shape as possible. Then coat the inside with gel coat and more glass. Then pull it out of the plug and presto a new part. A part that would still need fine tuning to be useable.

Sure is a lot nicer, and way more accurate to use a ShopBot.

[coryatjohn]

I spent more time in the digital phase modelling it. Less dust, less grinding but still, a lot of effort. I like that I can take a digital design and be assured that the final part is going to be very close to the model. I made the foam model slightly smaller, fleshed it out with the foamcoat and machined it down so it was a uniform 1/10th inch thick. The backing is oak and will measure about 3' x 2' and be in the same shape as the cowl with a bronze plaque at the bottom. The prop is pretty heavy so it has to be very sturdy.

As for materials, I spend as much time with plastics and aluminum as wood.

[chiloquinruss]

I do a lot of sintra plastic stuff because of my model making. Most of it is 6mm but also some light 1mm stuff as well. Scale of structures is 1/4 inch equal 1 foot, think Lionel size. Russ

[pro70z28]

Being in the sign business I use sentra a lot. It's nice material to work with.
Thanks for posting, that's some really nice work.

[joe]

Gary,

Excellent thread.

For us we use products that will last outdoors. However the ease of use is very important. Now days PVC is our primary substrate but it's not too good for 3d work. Let me give a shout-out for Redwood and Cedar. Some of these are twenty years old and still holding up well. However wood needs more re-paints than does PVC or HDU.

Thanks again for your post.

Joe