14 replies to this topic

[louiec3]

When I first saw hereticorp's Automated Foam Cutter (as seen here) back when I was a noob I was going to post something like
"dUd3 THTs t3h Ub3r 133T!!111!"

But after thinking I decided not to and got to work on this...



It's my Automatic Foam Measurer made from Lego Mindstorms NXT.


Fbr goes in...


and comes out.

Its not really accurate but it makes the cuts any where from 1.5-2 inches apart, but usually it doesn't vary a lot in batches.
When batteries are full the darts tend to be longer and when the batteries are low darts are shorter and breath fire.

Blanks from the most recent batch.

Pros
-Overall this is really nice since it makes dartsmithing a lot faster and less tedious.
-It is much faster than hereticorp's it can make 1 cut in about 1 second.
-Its really fun to watch.

Cons
-It goes through batteries quite fast.
-Sometimes the wheel doesn't grip the foam well and the dart isn't full size.
-It is a pain to program it.
-With long lengths of foam it can jam.


Video

Questions, comments, flames

Bonus- Anyone that can tell me what gun that box is from gets a cookie.

Edited by louiec3, 17 July 2009 - 09:56 PM.

[CoasterDynamix757]

Wow that's impressive. Good for a lot of darts, but not so good if your really a perfectionist like myself.

Mind making a video?

[Chris is cool]

I believe it's a box from a turreted blowgun made by ertl.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

You deserve props for even making that thing move. It'd take me a nuclear scientist and a wing on a prayer to make one of those myself.

Edit:: NVM I think it's a PAS.

Edited by Chris is cool, 17 July 2009 - 09:15 PM.

[Echnalaid]

Hook it up to an outlet so batteries aren't a problem.

[tack66]

That's what I was thinking and that is very nice.

[Bedhed117]

I don't want to come off as a downer cause that thing is awsome and I could never build one in a Billion years but it doesn't look like the foam is getting cut in the video. I watched it a few times and it would fall off of the table in stephan sized chunks but instead it stays a large rod.

[louiec3]

Echnalaid- I would hook it up to an outlet but I can't. The Mindstorms computer was made to run on batteries only.

Bedhed117- This machine isn't a foam cutter it's a foam measurer. Once all the fbr would go through the
machine I would take a knife and cut on the slits to get my blanks.

Everyone- Honestly this wasn't very hard to make it was just frustrating to program it.

[k9turrent]

I think if you bought a AC to DC converter for the proper voltage and spliced the wires into the NXT it should work.


Offtopic: that box is for a ETRL PAS. (If it was a blow gun why would you put an add for the gun you are buying?)

[ZACHARIAH]

That is really cool! Oh yeah, and the bow is from ertl.

[Spud Spudoni]

It looks very practical. My question is, does that thing make straight cuts?

OFF TOPIC: The box is a PAS box. I just got one yesterday.

[roboman]

With your third servo, you could probably create a mechanism to automatically cut the foam, so you don't have to. A straight razor could probably be sandwiched between two beams, allowing far a quick and easy blade change. I'll have a sketchup model up as soon as I can figure out how to upload it...

EDIT: Gah, never mind about the sketchup model. None of the file upload sites I found will let me upload a Sketchup file, and Google won't let me add it to the 3D model warehouse.

ANOTHER EDIT: For some reason, I didn't watch the video before posting, and I didn't notice that it already had a blade on it. You could just increase the blade travel, making it into an actual foam cutter, instead of just a measuring device. Still, though, nice work!!

Edited by roboman, 18 July 2009 - 01:52 PM.

[louiec3]

Spud Spudoni- The small cuts it does make are straight.

roboman- When I was programing it I did have it cutting the foam all the way,
but the blade frequently caught on the foam and ripped it. So I just went with the foam measurer.

[roboman]

roboman- When I was programing it I did have it cutting the foam all the way,
but the blade frequently caught on the foam and ripped it. So I just went with the foam measurer.

You may have more luck with a guillotine-style "chopping arm," that uses a larger blade, and chops vertically, rather than horizontally.

[Ner Commando]

Thats really creative and makes good use of lego pieces. Knowing a little bit about mindstorms myself I'm sure that was super hard to program. Did you use the mindstorms software or C code for mindstorms to program it?

[louiec3]

roboman- Even with a guillotine-style chopping arm it still wouldn't cut all the way through all the time.
Unless I made a hole so the blade can go through the foam, and the platform the foam rests on,
but that would lead to frequent jams and non straight cuts.

Ner Commando- I used the mindstorms software. The program is simple, but the massive amount of trial and error made me hate programing it.