Very informative, looking for tooling foam board to play with, wish you had affiliate links so I could but through you, I greatly appreciate your informative video. Simple, short, sweet and to the point, yet diverse material applications. 👌
Every time I have a question relating to composites, the internet brings me back here. Thanks again! I'm having some laser scanning done, and I was just working out what materials to use when I have new molds machined. The machinist I found doesn't like MDF, so polyurethane it is.
Everybody hates MDF until they remember how cheap it is! Hard to go wrong with a 30-40lb urethane board though unless you need high temperature. Easier to clean the chips out of a machine too. Getting MDF dust out of a machining center would be terrible!
great vid and great comment responses. I'm in aerospace and have some familiarity with these blocks. granted in production we go carbon molds. CTE effects are not to be underestimated on larger parts. Though I cannot be sure, that light blue 2nd to last on end there was used for large, prototype, low temp prepreg 16 ft part in my appplication and the end carbon part after cure at room temp looked like my grandmas toenails-ie long stuck out over the tool. Great video
As someone on a low budget finds it hard to source real tooling board (especially in smaller quantities), pvc foam commonly used for signboard making (also apparently sold for modelmaking on ebay) seems like an alright, easier to obtain substitute for the 16lbs product shown here, which while not as good as the higher density products is still significantly better than anything you'd find in the hardware store. It could probably be glued to get higher thickness using superglue. When I did it the joint was as strong as the material itself while the bondline was hard to see, but it was a small joint so I am not sure how that method would translate to bonding a large area. At some point I was exploring the possibility of making some higher density versions myself, since they seem to basically be high density urethane foam (using tiny hollow glass spheres instead of gas for the foaming) with added mineral fillers that get you an hard surface that machines well.
Do you have a brand name or link to that PVC foam? Is it like the material used for trim on buildings? And if you ever try making foam with urethane resin and microspheres I'd love to know how that goes. The range of microsphere materials and sizes available is amazingly broad! I am pretty sure that's how some epoxy board is made... but there must be some degassing and exotherm control methods going on.
@@ExploreComposites Hi! I'm only a newbie to composites so take my claims with salt. Since your blog is so great I was actually thinking of sending you questions about a different topic, so it's a surprise the reverse happened first :D Since there are many names to cellular pvc, I'm not exactly sure how similar the products are. I know a plastic store that sells two different varieties (intecel and intefoam) while the video "PVC Foamboard - A new basing material?" that analyses the material mentions Palfoam and Palight. I didn't know about trim pvc, but after brief research it looks similar to the scraps I have. I'm not sure it actually is cheaper than the materials you have shown, but it should at least be easier to find. The core material divinycell also is foamed pvc, but the density is significantly lower. My interest in composites first came from the "guerrilla guide to cnc machining and resin casting", which while not directly about composites covers many related topics. My reason for wanting to make tooling board was less scientific curiosity and more desperation about it being a specialty material that is hard to find where I live, especially if you only want smaller quantities. My initial plan was to use a high density foaming urethane, but I guess microspheres are used for better uniformity. I'm currently trying to figure out if machined foamed pvc has an okay enough surface finish for what I am doing. Yesterday I did a lazy test where I directly casted polyurethane in a roughly made pvc mold only coated with mold release (normally you'd make a silicone mold instead). Thanks to the partially cured urethane still being flexible, I somehow managed to get the part out without ruining it.
Depends on where you are located - but they can be hard to source in small quantities. Some sources at the bottom this article: explorecomposites.com/articles/tooling/machinable-tooling-boards/
Great video, very informative... Do you have any advice on feeds and speeds for 650 epoxy and PU tooling boards? For roughing I tend to use 20mm tri insert tip cutters (with 125mm stickout)... For finishing I use various diameter ball end cutters. I would typically rough at S8000 F3500 (mm) and this seems to work for me... My finishing is hit and miss though.
You could probably rough faster depending on the depth of cut but that sounds reasonable. How much depth per pass would you use for roughing with that 20mm cutter? Larger diameter cutters help with roughing material removal rate - maybe a 40-50mm diameter and shallower cut. Depends on available machine power and spindle speed. Climb cutting is much cleaner especially on finishing passes with ball-end cutters - best for roughing too. Epoxy board is definitely harder to cut and more prone to chipping.
@@ExploreComposites Thanks for your reply. As a standard I'd go 3mm deep and 8mm stepover. I have a 12kw spindle with 24000RPM to play with. I'd typically leave 1mm stock for finishing.
@@mikesivyer8099 That sounds like a pretty good size spindle so if the fixturing is solid you could probably double either the depth or the stepover / radial and be fine - or some combination. Maybe more. The machine will tell you though and if you get funny noises or bad surface finishes you can always dial it back.
I'm going to make an agamograph on a door. I need something that I can cut on my miter saw to get 1" long triangles to paint and glue to my door substrate. Would something like one of these medium density boards work?
With silicone you could probably go pretty light. If you don't need a shiny finish, you can release the tooling board directly and pull silicone off that - even with light porous board. You just get a little texture on the silicone mold surface, which is often ok.
There are a few lists at the end of the article that goes with this video - really depends on where in the world you are too. Here's the link to the article - scroll down to the bottom: explorecomposites.com/articles/tooling/machinable-tooling-boards/
It won't melt like a EPS or other soft foam - like I don't think you could wire cut it. Maybe you could with a hot enough tight enough wire but it would be a mess! It will probably burn though... what are you trying to do?
Very informative, looking for tooling foam board to play with, wish you had affiliate links so I could but through you, I greatly appreciate your informative video. Simple, short, sweet and to the point, yet diverse material applications. 👌
Every time I have a question relating to composites, the internet brings me back here. Thanks again! I'm having some laser scanning done, and I was just working out what materials to use when I have new molds machined. The machinist I found doesn't like MDF, so polyurethane it is.
Everybody hates MDF until they remember how cheap it is! Hard to go wrong with a 30-40lb urethane board though unless you need high temperature. Easier to clean the chips out of a machine too. Getting MDF dust out of a machining center would be terrible!
Very helpful comparison, thanks!
Glad it was useful!
great vid and great comment responses. I'm in aerospace and have some familiarity with these blocks. granted in production we go carbon molds. CTE effects are not to be underestimated on larger parts. Though I cannot be sure, that light blue 2nd to last on end there was used for large, prototype, low temp prepreg 16 ft part in my appplication and the end carbon part after cure at room temp looked like my grandmas toenails-ie long stuck out over the tool. Great video
I've seen the "toenail" effect too on long skinny things - crazy how much CTE matters when you start cooking things!
As someone on a low budget finds it hard to source real tooling board (especially in smaller quantities), pvc foam commonly used for signboard making (also apparently sold for modelmaking on ebay) seems like an alright, easier to obtain substitute for the 16lbs product shown here, which while not as good as the higher density products is still significantly better than anything you'd find in the hardware store.
It could probably be glued to get higher thickness using superglue. When I did it the joint was as strong as the material itself while the bondline was hard to see, but it was a small joint so I am not sure how that method would translate to bonding a large area.
At some point I was exploring the possibility of making some higher density versions myself, since they seem to basically be high density urethane foam (using tiny hollow glass spheres instead of gas for the foaming) with added mineral fillers that get you an hard surface that machines well.
Do you have a brand name or link to that PVC foam? Is it like the material used for trim on buildings?
And if you ever try making foam with urethane resin and microspheres I'd love to know how that goes. The range of microsphere materials and sizes available is amazingly broad! I am pretty sure that's how some epoxy board is made... but there must be some degassing and exotherm control methods going on.
@@ExploreComposites Hi! I'm only a newbie to composites so take my claims with salt. Since your blog is so great I was actually thinking of sending you questions about a different topic, so it's a surprise the reverse happened first :D
Since there are many names to cellular pvc, I'm not exactly sure how similar the products are. I know a plastic store that sells two different varieties (intecel and intefoam) while the video "PVC Foamboard - A new basing material?" that analyses the material mentions Palfoam and Palight.
I didn't know about trim pvc, but after brief research it looks similar to the scraps I have. I'm not sure it actually is cheaper than the materials you have shown, but it should at least be easier to find. The core material divinycell also is foamed pvc, but the density is significantly lower.
My interest in composites first came from the "guerrilla guide to cnc machining and resin casting", which while not directly about composites covers many related topics.
My reason for wanting to make tooling board was less scientific curiosity and more desperation about it being a specialty material that is hard to find where I live, especially if you only want smaller quantities. My initial plan was to use a high density foaming urethane, but I guess microspheres are used for better uniformity.
I'm currently trying to figure out if machined foamed pvc has an okay enough surface finish for what I am doing. Yesterday I did a lazy test where I directly casted polyurethane in a roughly made pvc mold only coated with mold release (normally you'd make a silicone mold instead). Thanks to the partially cured urethane still being flexible, I somehow managed to get the part out without ruining it.
Whrere can we buy those type that materials ?? To make our molds?? Any websites ?
Depends on where you are located - but they can be hard to source in small quantities.
Some sources at the bottom this article:
explorecomposites.com/articles/tooling/machinable-tooling-boards/
Great video, very informative... Do you have any advice on feeds and speeds for 650 epoxy and PU tooling boards?
For roughing I tend to use 20mm tri insert tip cutters (with 125mm stickout)... For finishing I use various diameter ball end cutters.
I would typically rough at S8000 F3500 (mm) and this seems to work for me... My finishing is hit and miss though.
You could probably rough faster depending on the depth of cut but that sounds reasonable. How much depth per pass would you use for roughing with that 20mm cutter?
Larger diameter cutters help with roughing material removal rate - maybe a 40-50mm diameter and shallower cut. Depends on available machine power and spindle speed.
Climb cutting is much cleaner especially on finishing passes with ball-end cutters - best for roughing too. Epoxy board is definitely harder to cut and more prone to chipping.
@@ExploreComposites Thanks for your reply. As a standard I'd go 3mm deep and 8mm stepover. I have a 12kw spindle with 24000RPM to play with. I'd typically leave 1mm stock for finishing.
@@mikesivyer8099 That sounds like a pretty good size spindle so if the fixturing is solid you could probably double either the depth or the stepover / radial and be fine - or some combination. Maybe more. The machine will tell you though and if you get funny noises or bad surface finishes you can always dial it back.
I'm going to make an agamograph on a door. I need something that I can cut on my miter saw to get 1" long triangles to paint and glue to my door substrate. Would something like one of these medium density boards work?
Probably it would work great. Similar material is used a lot for signmaking. This would probably work better but high quality MDF might be cheaper!
Which one to use for making silicon molds from master tooling mold.
With silicone you could probably go pretty light. If you don't need a shiny finish, you can release the tooling board directly and pull silicone off that - even with light porous board. You just get a little texture on the silicone mold surface, which is often ok.
where are some good sites to purchase tooling boards ? Thanks!
There are a few lists at the end of the article that goes with this video - really depends on where in the world you are too.
Here's the link to the article - scroll down to the bottom:
explorecomposites.com/articles/tooling/machinable-tooling-boards/
@@ExploreComposites thank you!
how can I melt a tooling board? made of epoxy
It won't melt like a EPS or other soft foam - like I don't think you could wire cut it. Maybe you could with a hot enough tight enough wire but it would be a mess! It will probably burn though... what are you trying to do?