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Cutting EPP

Discussion in 'Foam Talk' started by foamlvr, Dec 31, 2009.

  1. foamlvr

    foamlvr Member

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    I cut some 9mm EPP yesterday on my MKII. EPP is costly and losing 6'' of every sheet just won't do. I hot glued some scrap 9mm Epp about 4'' wide to the end of the good sheet. I also started the cut with the front edge of the foam right under the front roller. On a 24''x36'' sheet I got away with a safe cutting area of 23''x34''. My cutting speed was 75ipm, the cut was acceptable but not as clean as I would like, next time I will try 65ipm. This was 1.9lb density Epp.

    Jeff
     
    foamlvr, Dec 31, 2009
    #1
  2. Crash

    Crash Moderator Staff Member

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    Hi, Jeff! It's great to hear how you've managed to get a little more foam out of your blanks. I ran into a similar problem on my MKI.

    I had a BUNCH of 12" x 36" foam from Ed at RCSkyFlyer (he was the first person I did business with for EPP and all he had was 12" wide material). The good thing about it being so narrow was that I was easily able to edge-glue the sheets with some medium CA. I did that over wax paper and when you're done, you almost can't tell that the foam wasn't originally one continuous sheet. :D The only problem I had was breaking my parts down to fit in the 12" wide sheet (planes like the PiPlane and the PBF), but I came up with a cool solution for that, too.

    I have not yet cut EPP on my MKII, but on my MKI I was getting very nice cuts running at 40ipm with the Dremel set to it's lowest setting.

    Don't you just LOVE that 1.9# 9mm EPP? It is so great for building 3D planes with! In fact, my 28" SuperSlo is made from 9mm on everything but the fuse, and that is 15mm. Best of all, you have to be a really bad pilot to break one of these planes! LOL I should know, too. After 2 years of trying, I STILL can't hover a plane! :lol:
     
    Crash, Dec 31, 2009
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  3. foamlvr

    foamlvr Member

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    I love EPP, instead of depron planes lasting a few sessions, my EPP planes last for several ''SEASONS''. EPP might be expensive, but when you get 20 times the use out of a plane it's a no brainer.

    Jeff
     
    foamlvr, Dec 31, 2009
    #3
  4. xtremeRCpilot

    xtremeRCpilot Member

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    HI Jeff, I to like the 9mm epp for the duration , but I had issues with bad skewing and ended up trying to run 40ipm like Mike!!You need to cut down the jog speed as well to 100ipm or less. This helped but was not perfect. I use the fences and have the issues in x axis with inconsistency of .25 or more overall which is OK but for kitting not good at all!! I am working on a few mods to help so if any pan out I will list them here!! :)
    Take it easy
    John
     
    xtremeRCpilot, Jan 2, 2010
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  5. foamlvr

    foamlvr Member

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    Hey john, at 75ipm I had no skewing at all. I did a spring mod on my pressure roller the same time everybody else went with the sand filled roller, so I didn't mention it. 9mm epp will just start to lift my lid. My cuts with epp were perfect except some beads got ripped out instead of being cut. I also use a lot of tabs to keep parts from flopping around.

    Jeff
     
    foamlvr, Jan 2, 2010
    #5
  6. frankrcfc

    frankrcfc New Member

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    I have cut a lot of epp since making the batwing kit available using the 24x36 9 mm sheets. Can't afford too many mistakes. I dropped my feed speeds down to 25 and kept the dremel at the hi setting, also keeping a fresh 1/8" bit in there. I use strips of FF tacked along the sides of the foam. Have had real good luck with that. No tension mods yet but am looking at the spring tension mod. I have also been using a real slippery fence to keep the foam straight as long as possible while cutting. ;)
     
    frankrcfc, Jan 2, 2010
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  7. xtremeRCpilot

    xtremeRCpilot Member

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    Cool Jeff, yea, I should try the spring mod for extra pressure!! I think because EPP is so irregular there is more chance for skewing, if you take your caliper and measure all around the sheet you will find a few mm difference on some sheets!! Also, I am using 1.3lb and it cuts like butter, no ripping!!

    :D
    John
     
    xtremeRCpilot, Jan 2, 2010
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  8. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    I'm about to cut a Leadfeather Yak with my MK2. I have it set up for the 1/16th bit at the moment so I ran a test cut on a small part. Came up a bit chopped up and ragged. This was at 80ipm and low speed. I'm going to bump the spindle up and drop it down to 25ipm for another test but I am wondering if I should switch out to the 1/8th bit? Anyone have some experience in this realm know of a way to get cleaner edges? I'm not expecting waterjet quality but has anyone found some optimal combination?

    Thanks and CHEERS!
     
    ToxicToast, Jan 28, 2010
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  9. xtremeRCpilot

    xtremeRCpilot Member

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    Hey TT, yea I cut a lot of epp and the 1/8" bit that comes with the MKII is the ticket, its cuts smooth edges and I am running 100ipm! I am running the rotozip at full speed as well. You will probably get some skewing so tacking on a few strips of 3mm depron on the x axis of the sheet will scoot it along!! hope this helps!

    John
     
    xtremeRCpilot, Jan 28, 2010
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  10. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    John, thanks, the phlatbit worked great on this! I made a 9mm depron frame with scraps and taped it to the edges. I also tacked some strips of 1mm EPP that Rcfoam used for packing material on an order recently, running the full length.

    The phlatbit cut very cleanly compared to the 1/16th. I kept the speed down to about 40ipm. All cuts and milled pockets came out great BUT, for some reason, the carbon channel drifted and this one spot was messed up. I can live with it. While I didn't see what happened, I am suspicious that the drift was because this channel was cut after the outside cut was complete? I'll have to go back and check the cut order on that list.

    Thanks again for the suggestion, the Phlatbit is indeed the best bit for cutting EPP!
     
    ToxicToast, Jan 28, 2010
    #10

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