LEGO 3-axis Styrofoam Cutter 

that last thing... was oddly satisfying

the way the diagonal wheels fit perfectly and rolled smoothly onto the side bricks at 1:36 was so satisfying. such a precise and clever build. and not to mention 8:03. speaks for itself...

0:12 "This cutter is not a LEGO brick" Thank you for that. But anyway, this is an awesome build! I have a similar handheld foam cutter, and one thing people who haven't used one might not know is that the wire often doesn't even touch the foam! Most of the "cutting" action is just the heat from the wire melting the styrene enough to release the air trapped inside of it, causing it to shrink away from the wire. And while that property is what allows it to glide through the foam so easily, it also means that the kerf (the width of the cut) varies considerably depending on how quickly or slowly you move the wire through the material. That makes it very difficult to achieve clean, attractive cuts by hand, which is why this CNC cutter is so cool! But even with this, the dwell time on the last piece (the screw) would vary considerably depending on the proximity to the axis of rotation, so the kerf would be thinner towards the outside and thicker towards the middle, where more heat can build up. Oh, and going back to the point about the wire "cutting" by melting and popping the cells of the foam, I believe the reason the "0" failed to detach completely was because of how the wire traversed the same path as it was entering and exiting the center hole cutout, so the material had already been partially melted and re-hardened, causing it not to recede from the wire as much, and therefore to re-fuse to itself slightly. At least, that's my theory.

I swear every time I think to myself “akiyuki hasn’t posted in a while” I see a new video within a few days! And it always feels like such a blessing!

I once just bought the wire and built a really big cutter with it. I used a train controller for power. It worked really well after a few improvements were made to it.

That is beyond cool. The level of precision on the finished product and what it makes is unreal!!

It’s also a lathe. Set the piece to spin continuously like the last one, and you can use it like a very slow moving lathe

Amazing engineering as always, Akiyuki. すごくすごい！

the percision is really impressive, especially considiering it was made with legos

Heated Chrome wire cutter, played with it a lot - that brings me back a nostalgia! absolutely love your builds.

He became literally a tech gadget engineer. His hobby became his profession.

few years ago i was the cnc operator at an EPS factory. this thing is better quality than what they had me using..

This would be perfect for lost foam casting

It's such a shame Lego has discontinued mindstorms

この世は理系の皆様によって支えられてるんだなぁと再認識した動画 数字と計算が心地いいのがakiyukiならでは

Very impressive and precise. Thank you

You should make this open souced! I bet cosplayers would love having a fairly cheap way to make precise foam pieces for their armor and props

Akiyuki is KING!

It’s wonderful! Hooray for Lego Technic! I have seen Adam Savage cut styrofoam with a wire, but that takes much skill and hand control, and I’ve never seen anyone make a pair of screws before, wow. Beautiful chess piece too (only 31 more to go!)

Very well done! Thank you for sharing!

So good, really good work

すごい！

Thanks for a great video.

impressive crane base seems really well built and sooo good

this is really cool! it's like a foam lathe

A foam lathe, Impressive!

Very nice work!

That is extremely clever... well done

its a lego styrofoam CNC, my mind is blown

that's pretty neat!

this is so cool

全て計算の上で成り立ってるのは解るが自分の脳がこれを出来るとは到底思えん 科学者ってほんと凄いよね

insane coincidence! i just built something very similar to cut piece for lost foam casting. good job!

Great work dude 😁😁

That is brilliant!

you are a Lego Technic Master ! realy !

すげーーー

Very cool!

Amazing

Incredible, how does the programming work? Do you have to manually input each motion, or do you use some sort of software to automatically translate an image into motion?

Lego cnc Styrofoam cutter? Cool

this would be perfect for metal working

どうやって機械をスムーズに動かし続けましたか?モーターは非常に精密です。レゴのギア間の隙間は問題ですか?

I can see this being useful for foam aircraft like you could program it to cut specific parts or for cutting air foils

It'd be cool if you used this for some lost foam casts!

very cool :)

Nice. The tricky part is tool path generation.

That is the craziest thing I have seen done with Lego robotics yet

0:13 "the cutter is not a lego brick" is very funny to me

That is crazy!!!!

this would be great for the lost wax mould type

That is some impressive g code

Impressive

how did you program the EV3 brick? was the gcode parser written in the EV3 visual programming environment?

That screw piece blew my mind

Unexpected, but still cool.

would be nice if lego made this into a lego set

I wonder if you made the spindel turn a bit fasterfaster and used a shorter wire, sort of like a half oval shape to cut, if it would work as a lathe to make rounded parts

Its amazing what people build out of legos but it not werry ofthen people make something that is actually really usefull

手がおキレイですね(*^^*)

Our boy here opening up new frontiers of what is possible with lego =0

Just wow

The musak was perfect 😂

I think you can make amazing 3D airfoils with this thing. Even large airfoils or flying bodies can be manufactured in small segments and just glued together on a more basic structural frame.

Wow, i cant even imagine how hard wold be to program a slicer for that thing 😨

Combining hot metal and plastic, surely nothing could go wrong.

how cool is that? 🤩

Awesome Project! The thought of the sound of untwisting styrofoam hurts my soul

For me the programming is even more impressive

There are two types of people in this world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data

Would love to see you mount it upside down on something, so even the big 3rd axis slices fall away without help.

Who needs a 3D printer when you've got this

So you've made... a CNC machine. Impressive.

man, what happened to Lego in the years since i was a kid? i only know of lego as the square bricks, not all these fancy tubes and gears and sliders and mechanical devices. it's come a long way, huh

I would love to see a combination of the two last settings a round pillar and a spiral. Instead of a square spiral.

Well, that's fucking neat.

This is essentially a CNC machine for Styrofoam made from Lego.

Best way i have seen to cut a block in half

the selection of music is vastly preferable to most... right. now, make one "chuck" open, on a ring. then stick a hot element up the center. internals would be interesting :)

This is a really cheap way to have a CNC lathe for molten cast negatives. Or just mold casts in general. Has to be cheaper than 3d printing as well.

Titans of cnc has some good vids on wire edm if yall want to see this same concept cutting steel.

Now make a giant minifig out out of foam!!

Who’s going to be the first to make a surgical robot out of lego? It’s only matter of time…

Великолепный лего станок да и работает на все💯%❗. Вы умничка 👍

A fellow Muse Dash enjoyer I see :D

How do make the CAM/write the .gcode for this?

this guy makes a CNC machine out of lego

That's of the the chain

Underated

You could try adding a small arm to push off the spare styrofoam as it cuts

What kind of tolerances does this machine keep?

The most expensive cnc machine known to man

You should try making it rotate faster and use it like a leive

Whaiit… that’s reminds me something. Last step is to add red lazer and anime girl

I want one SO. BAD

😍

레고로서 신기할 뿐만 아니라 실용적인 인쇄기로도 쓸 수 있을 것 같네요

people like you need to be working at nasa

Next video: building a fully functional 10 axis cnc machine from lego.