Hot Wire Cutting With Powerlab Chargers
10-09-2017, 02:01 AM
#1
Charging....
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Too close to Chicago.
Posts: 2,433
Hot Wire Cutting With Powerlab Chargers
Was interested in seeing if i could drive a hotwire cutter by changing some settings on my charger. After scrolling through some of the screens/ setting, I found a preset for foam cutting! You will need the FMA link to program your Powerlab from your PC. I simply had to copy Library Preset #28 in to Preset slot #25. Thats it! It Gives me control from 100ma to 40 amps! Yeah, these chargers are great. Now to mass produce some Gremlin wing cores for the club...
10-09-2017, 05:46 PM
#2
Past President of PSSF
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Lacey WA, 1 mile E of Mushroom Corner
Posts: 2,237
I bought a 300 watt Hobbyking Reactor Lipo charger, when I got it and started reading the instructions (I do that sometimes) I found it had a hot wire program built in.
Works great, easy control of wire.
I have a home build feather cut type machine. It makes cutting a good core very easy.
Works great, easy control of wire.
I have a home build feather cut type machine. It makes cutting a good core very easy.
10-14-2017, 06:08 PM
#3
Charging....
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Too close to Chicago.
Posts: 2,433
Started with a set of press board templates,CA'ed the edges and started cutting with brute force. Massive watts and moving the bow over the templates by hand. Not pretty. Every little stall would cause heat to radiate into notches in the wing. Templates began degrading due to the high heat and it snowballed into a complete, smoking mess. Decided "let's try formica templates". Basically same results minus the burning of notches into the templates.
Finally gave up and began by stringing my bow to the ceiling, screwing some small evebolts (not pulleys but close enough) and stringing some weights to hooks on the hot wire. The wing is tapered and I considered rigging up a ratio weight bar and an even more extravagant pulley system. Decided against that and just ran some strings to the opposite side of the table from the weights. Some small timing marks splitting the templates up into eights allows me to simply pinch the string to slow the rate of cut on the wingtip side. Actually worked out very well for the time and costs involved. Running at just enough wattage to progress at about 2 inches a minute didn't cause the obnoxious smoke or the heat notches from slow feed. First two were my best freehand high power cores, the furthest on took about 10 minutes to profile. Worked well for a cheap system on a rainy night.
Finally gave up and began by stringing my bow to the ceiling, screwing some small evebolts (not pulleys but close enough) and stringing some weights to hooks on the hot wire. The wing is tapered and I considered rigging up a ratio weight bar and an even more extravagant pulley system. Decided against that and just ran some strings to the opposite side of the table from the weights. Some small timing marks splitting the templates up into eights allows me to simply pinch the string to slow the rate of cut on the wingtip side. Actually worked out very well for the time and costs involved. Running at just enough wattage to progress at about 2 inches a minute didn't cause the obnoxious smoke or the heat notches from slow feed. First two were my best freehand high power cores, the furthest on took about 10 minutes to profile. Worked well for a cheap system on a rainy night.
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