Laser Setup for cutting 1" PE Packaging Foam for inserts?

[LSS (Samuli Samuelsson)]

Hi.

Welcome to the LB forum @tsitalon1 .

I do agree with the previous posters that laser is somewhat incorrect tool to cut soft packaging foam.
Denser foam varities can be cut quite succesfully with CO2 laser though, as can be seen in this great thread:

A place for everything... and everything in its place

Lately, I’ve become obsessed with organization of tools and such. Friday I picked up a nice toolbox during Lowe’s Memorial Day Sale, and I’ve cut some foam drawer liners for my tools. The main foam is cut from 24x24 cushioned floor tiles, and I also ordered some thinner blue tool drawer liner for the bottom. I’m going with White and Blue for the Laser Lab Toolbox. [PXL_20230528_143827274] I have a pretty unique way of getting the silhouettes of the tools too. I lay them on a backlit drawi…

On that thread there’s also IMO quite an ingenious way to digitize the silhouette of a complex shaped object, worth a look.

That said:
Based on personal foam cutting experiences in past, I’d say that it is unlikely that You will find a cost effective on-site cutting method that will meet Your requirements.
Especially if those requirements are anywhere near the examples in Your post #16.
So if this was a poll, my vote would go for outsourcing the foam inserts as well, even though I fully understand why that’s not the optimal solution.

The cheap hot-blade cutter You linked will most likely make the examples @ednisley posted look actually quite good, while ones cut with a hot-wire cutter will look a whole lot nicer but still have a rough, dense, somewhat uneven surface.

I’d be surprised if foam varities that are better suited to be either hot-wire or even laser cut aren’t available, but I have a hunch that the cost -and probably the minimum order size- will be at least somewhat prohibitive.
And if used to store sensitive (plastic) items, off-gassing is definitely something that has to be kept in mind when choosing the foam in order to avoid nasty surprises.

If You insist on doing the cutting Yourself, then I’d suggest buying a cheap jig-saw looking handheld hot-wire cutter to find out what kind of surface texture can be acchieved.
And whether that’s acceptable or not.
Depending on the design of Your 3D printers, it might be possible to convert one as a hot wire cutter as well.

@tsitalon1

unless I’m wrong, hot wire foam cutters cannot plunge cut

As @patricr said, You’re not wrong about that.
Ocillating knife cutters usually can, but those babies are pricey and extremely rare.

If You don’t for some reason wish to glue the lead-in cut, It is however rather easy to cut a hole/holes into the foam with a tubular drill, thread the hot wire through a hole, cut that shape, switch the wire onto another hole, and so on.
Excactly the same way as internal shapes are cut with a jig-saw.

Regards,
Sam

[BillieRuben]

I’ve been cutting EVA foam sheets on my Gweike cloud lately, here’s an example:

Quick Tip: Fitting Designs to Real-Life Objects

It cuts super easily and cleanly, though I haven’t tried thicker than what’s pictured here (it does POWER through it though! I had to turn the power down to the minimum, even thought about using perforation mode to get it lower).

The machine has more compatibility with LightBurn than when I first got it (thank you dev wizards!), but it still has some machine-side issues like that there’s some sort of power surge happening through the data and camera cables when the laser runs, which triggers my mac to disconnect the USB ports, so I’m forever unplugging them and plugging them back in. Also it’s very annoying that the usb ports for the camera and data are on opposite sides of the machine, because it’s about a metre wide, which makes it very hard to find a place to sit near it where I can plug both cables into my computer at the same time (the cables have a max length of 2m or so because they’re an older USB data type).

And although it’s advertised as running over ethernet, it doesn’t. It only sends some of the camera data that way, you still need it plugged into both USB ports for it to work.

[rojhan (Rick)]

Oh, that is a really intriguing idea (hot knife on CNC).

I did have very good success cutting 2" foam for my telescope hard case. Note that I had pick-n-pluck that came with the case, not solid. Don’t remember the settings, but my results were a lot cleaner than
@ednisley showed.

[rojhan (Rick)]

Get the right bit, the right foam, and vacuum and CNC may actually be the way to go. You could probably get a reasonably sized cheap CNC for less than $2K.

CNC Foam Cutting Machine | Foam Sheet Cutting Machine

Amana Tool 48462 CNC Solid Carbide Foam Cutting Up-Cut Spiral 1/4 D x 2 CH x...

[MakerPlumber (Richard Hemingway)]

I’m about to try it, with a 40 watt diode. cutting Milwaukee pack out insert. probably won’t get to cutting tonight. but I’ll try to remember to report back my experience. bet it stinks

[Dannym (Danny Miller)]

I cut 1.5" 2lb/cu ft microcellular PE foam on 200W RF-CO2 with a 4" lens 26mm/s and the walls are almost COMPLETELY vertical. The kerf is still quite low on the bottom.

This is the one case I tried where a 4" lens helps. It could cut with a 2" but it was much slower and the edges showed some signs of melting and the kerf widened a lot by the bottom.

[PascalReed]

I’ve also been experimenting with cutting PE foam, and one thing I’ve noticed is that absorption at different wavelengths can really affect the cut quality. I’ve been using a PLH3D-XT8 45W blue laser, and it seems to handle 1-inch foam quite well with the right settings. Air assist also makes a noticeable difference in keeping the edges clean.

this one XT8 45W Plug&Play Laser Kit for Shapeoko & Shapeoko Pro CNCs

[tsitalon1 (J)]

So I tried the Foam Hot Pen I linked above, re-purposed my old Hyper Evolution 3d Printer with Duet Main board, unfortunately that didn’t work at all, as the pen was simply to flexible and while it cut foam no problem, it bent so much that it couldn’t draw the patterns I needed.

Against advice, I decided to gamble on a cheap 20 watt diode laser with air assist, to my surprise it works great for my needs.

Here’s my 3rd attempt:

Power was 80% with speed at 35/mms and 4 passes, which results in clean cuts with virtually no melting at all. Total time for this was 2:45.

My only gripe so far is the quality of the foam itself which is PE foam, but a bit coarse, here’s what I’m using now:

1" thick 1.7lb PE Plank Foam, 24in Wide

I’ve ordered some PU foam to try out:
https://www.foambymail.com/product/solid-charcoal-regular-foam.html

Now to figure out the best foam layering for my needs, but so far I’m more than excited, if you guys have any suggestions for a soft inexpensive foam that looks good and works to protect small automotive accessories, I’m all ears.

[tsitalon1 (J)]

Where can I order this foam ?