Hot wire foam cutter - mapping Z and A axes to U and V

I thought of that - but then I would be excluding the possibility of making tapered parts. I have no need for that now - but might in future

I did that - its working fine! Now to sort out the hot wire stretching - a friend uses what looks identical (stainless fishing leader) - but I found out its not, mine is 304 and his is 316. 316 apparently stretches far less when heated

I want independent axes as I have a weight on one side instead of a spring - this allows me to make tapered cuts. It's all working now

I have built a cnc foam cutter with good success . As for the hot wire I have found Nichrome 80 wire 
works great see the below link for what should work for you.
www.amazon.com/dp/B07CJ2JG6D/?coliid=I2O...c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Thinner usually works better but looses temp faster over longer distances and thus requires higher voltage. I tend to
stay between 22 to 26 gauge and use a 24 volt power supply .I am also  in the process of switching from GRBL to
LinuxCNC and have built a few different types of machines that use LCNC. I am also in the procces of integrating in
a 5th axis on my foam cutter you may find this thread helpful.
forum.linuxcnc.org/30-cnc-machines/52683...-foam-cutter?start=0

 

I am using titanium based wire, very strong (it's an alloy, I was given some by a friend who bought a commercial machine - it is reportedly the best available on the market). I've cut more than 2000 profiles so far. I tried stainless steel fishing leader but it is too weak (even 108lb broke). I'm running about 70v out of a voltage regulator that can actually go up to 130v, but that is far too high. I think the wire gauge is around 23 or 24. The higher temperature allows much faster cutting, I can do 60 sheets of 1.5" at 300mm/minute

garthnoakes. How wide is the bow?

No bow - I built a machine that's about 9' total wire space, 4' wide and 4' high. I used a spring on one side and a tube filled with lead weights on the other side, The wire goes to that through a pulley, so I can cut tapers.

Its really a simple machine but I had lots of problems - parallel port issue, blown power supply etc. But now it is working pretty well

Looks like it could handle full 4' x 8' sheets of foam . Cool. Does your DevFoam program also make code for a 5th axis?

It does handle 4x8. I was horrified by a quote I was sent by a company for an 8x8x8 machine - US $34k !! Price of a good new car. Mine cost about $2k total - one wire, not ten - but ball screws are much better than belts, and the 34k machine uses belts. Devfoam has a feature called TwistRot, which seems to be 5th axis