whole car cnc bodywork

[mittaw]

Hi folks, it's been a while since we posted on our car progress which has been 4 steps forward and 3 back for the last six months as we work up our concept.  We've progressed ok with the chassis and engine side of things etc but are looking to the body work now.  We've looked at numerous options from hand carving a body buck to preparing individual panels by machine. 

What has transpired though is that as we are looking at an exact replica and to achieve symmetry we're going to need to use A cnc machine to cut the whole body buck out of foam.

We have therefore been working on making our own full car body cnc machine about 5m by 2m cutting area with 5 axis.  This will be the project due much of this year. We've got the design done and are now purchasing the necessary parts.

However, the reason for the post is to ask that when we get this built would there be interest in others wanting such a service or facility.  once it's built? Is getting built for our car(s) but we'd be interested to know if it would be useful for others long term otherwise it will be  dismantled and stored until next use.

Just thought I'd see if there was interest.  We'd be looking at low cost self builders like ourselves.
Chbu

Tim

[sanzomat]

That sounds fascinating, not to mention very complicated (and expensive?)
In terms of re-using the machine, I wonder if there would be an application for making bucks from which to mold new fibreglass panels for kits cars that are no longer in production/molds not available. I think the current option if you break a major panel is to find another owner of a similar car and convince them to let you cast a mold from their car. If you could, say, use high definition 3D laser scanning to produce a CAD file from a point cloud then have your machine make a buck then it should, in theory, be possible to replicate any panel. The foresighted of us (with access to a laser scanner) could save a point cloud of our cars before we crash them and then we would be safe in the knowledge that even if ours was the last on the planet we could fabricate an exact copy!

[mittaw]

Now that is something we didn't even think of.  Yes this is part of what we were thinking in case we pranged our motor we'd be able to replicate a panel but yes for existing cars and access to a laser scanner that would be very much a possibility.  Is the same principle.  Good call.... although we're probably 9 months away from having anything ready so drive carefully. .... or scan now :-)

Tim

[Jonkoxe]

Hi Tim,

There are already many companies out there that do all this. It is now a fairly common process. Check these guys out. It might be cheaper in the long run than making your own machine. They can also reverse engineer an item.
http://www.polystyrenemodels.co.uk/polystyrene_model_making_process.html

Jon.

[Iancider]

We have therefore been working on making our own full car body cnc machine about 5m by 2m cutting area with 5 axis.  This will be the project due much of this year. We've got the design done and are now purchasing the necessary parts.

Wow you are impressive.  No hurdle is too big!

[Bulldog Bri]

They are printing cars as well now

[Iancider]

Plastic......

No need for suspension its just...flexible.

It wont rust but it will melt in the sun - a car that really sticks to the road 

If its like normal printers you will have to print three before you get a good one.

Oops typo!  I meant Car not Cart 

[Camber Dave]

Hi Tm

Through friends I know this is already available. It is used extensively in the TV/film industry for making Props.
Contact me if I didn't give you the contact details of the guy in Bristol that has such a machine.
If you have made contact you will have found out how expensive it can be due to the cost of a machine to produce accuracy and surface finish.  The Alternative is a year or two of part time work.

I believe that once you have your machine it will be possible to recover the build cost many time over IF you can get the price down to level that a home builder would pay. There is presumably a trade off between cost and 'pixel' size of the surface (and from the element size of the 3D file).
If a course finish BUT symmetrical buck is produced the time taken for a customer to get a mould-able surface would be acceptable.
Getting a 'one off' symmetrical is the most time consuming element.

The 750 racing boys would be a source of work for their bodies or upgrades.
The locost forum often have threads on full bodies for 7 type cars with mixed reaction. 
From a marketing point of view a live demo at Stoneleigh should produce huge interest and magazine coverage.