High density foam

[mobident]

Has anyone worked with carving high density foam?
It would allow CW to be a mold former for numerous other materials - concrete, plaster, etc.

Bruce

[Ron Smith]

High density foam (15# or 18#) carves very well. It's nice not to have the grain issues you would have with wood. The few samples I've been able to do have been excellent. Sorry I don't have pictures of the signs I made. I didn't have the digital camera at the time.

[Greybeard]

Bruce - are you meaning polyurethane foam ?
It's the only one I'm familiar with by that name. If so, machining it can by nasty on two counts. One is that machining it breaks down some of the components, one of which is rather nasty. The second is that the dust produced is extremely fine and difficult to clean up, far worse than wood dust.

John

I produced mouldings with it for ten years for the picture framing trade, and cleaning up moulding "flash" was always a pain.

[thaley]

the only down side is it cost so much but it does a butifule job did 2 peaces for a frind for his boat he bought the star bord hehehe had a peace or two left im gona use for me

[mobident]

Ron and Thaley,
Were did you get your products?

Greybeard,
I'm not sure if what is termed "carvable/molding foam" is polyurethane based or not. I tried to find some last year to carve molds for a plaster project, but didn't ever get around to it.
Bruce

[Jon Jantz]

You are probably talking about HDU which routs very good. Lots of sign companies rout HDU (High Density Urethane) to make beautiful signs...

I have a piece but have not yet tried it in my machine. However I know it works the best of ANY material in conventional CNC routers, so I don't know why it wouldn't be excellent for the Carvewright.

Signfoam is a popular brand of the HDU. Here's their website, http://www.signfoam.com and if you want to see a few beautiful routed signs, go to their gallery.

[HandTurnedMaple]

They are offering free samples of Signfoam on their website. No price list though. Gonna give it a try.

[CallNeg151]

They are offering free samples of Signfoam on their website. No price list though. Gonna give it a try.

I Googled it and found a company that sells Sign Foam with a price list, just to give you an idea of the cost:
http://www.denversignsupply.com/category.cfm?catref=942&catname=Sign%20Foam

[bobreda]

A lot of cnc users use this for signs and such, It is not affected by the weather. However, the signs they make out of this go for as much as $150 per sq foot. The sample they send is approx 9x9 maybe a little too small to put in the carvewright.

Bob

[carrothers]

Walking thru Home Depot today I had a thought about carving some laminate flooring. They have some panels that are two feet wide and four feet long; looks to be a quarter inch thick. My thought was to tape this to a board the same size, do my carving down at least thru the laminate and then remove the tape and lift off the laminate. I would then paint the board (say with gold paint) where the letters/art would show and then reattach the dark laminate with the "cut outs" and the letters would really be visible. . Trim the edges and voila. Has anyone tried anything like this? Thought it might cut down on the finish and paint time.

[gwhiz]

You'd be better to start your own thread with this topic since your question has nothing to do with carving foam...

[gregsolano]

Have not tried this, I install a lot of laminate flooring so I would be interested in seeing pics of how it works out for you!

[chevytrucking]

No price list though.

Their "free" sample is $12.99 shipping.

[ktjwilliams]

I got my samples from a company in Phila., PA, even shipped for free .. The name eludes me at the moment... The stuff carves great in all densities.. Edges are clean, no fuzzies, very little cleanup to the carve and it takes any finish well.. It's weather proof etc... But I found it very price prohibitive... This stuff is very costly ...