When you own an enormous CNC router, you’ve got to find projects that justify it. So why not shoot for the sky — literally — and build the 1980s-est possible thing: a full-scale flying Delorean.
Attentive readers will no doubt remember [Brian Brocken] from his recent attempt to bring a welding robot out of retirement. That worked quite well, and equipped with a high-speed spindle, the giant ABB robot is now one of the biggest CNC routers we’ve ever seen. As for the flying Delorean, short of the well-known Mr. Fusion mod, [Brian] had to settle for less fictional approaches. The project is still in its early phase, but it appears that the flying car will basically be a huge quadcopter, with motors and propellers hidden under the chassis. That of course means eschewing the stainless steel of the OEM design for something lighter: expanded polystyrene foam (EPS).
The video below shows the fabrication of most of the body, which starts as large blocks of EPS and ends up as shaped panels and an unthinkable amount of dust. Individual pieces are glued together with what looks like plain old PVA adhesive. The standard Delorean “frunk” has been replaced by a louvered assembly that will act as an air intake; we presume the rear engine cover will get the same treatment. Interestingly, the weight of the finished model is almost exactly what Fusion 360 predicted based on the 3D model — a mere 13.9 kg.
[Brian] is currently thrust-testing motors and propellers and has some interesting details on that process in his write-up. There’s obviously a lot of work left on this project, and a lot more dust to be made, and we’ll be eagerly following along.
Polystyrene bits everywhere!!! I hate that! Almost impossible to remove, it’s electrostatic and hangs on anything it touches. Alao when the nearby flat was enveloped to increase thermal insulation, polystyrene slabs were used and all the area was looking like it snowed in the middle of the summer. Or some giant git a lot or dandruff. Terrible stuff if you don’t get carefull. Not to mention the noise when you rub two pieces of it.
No problem, just hose the place down with gasoline after you’ve finished cutting. Don’t get any on polystyrene you are wanting to keep!
Sounds like having fun with something like napalm *grin*.
However, dousing my and my neighbours cars with gasoline won’t be what people considers “a sane idea”. “But it evaporates quickly, it needs little heat. By chance I have a match box with me. And a wind resitant lighter. And a rescue torch (you hit its bottom and it spews smoke and flames from the other side). And this little cute flame thrower, also using gasoline. What? People over there need help starting a barbecue? Those near the cars with nice red and blue blinking lights? …”
“Borrow” your neighbor’s cat, turn it loose in the workshop, and send it back home…
https://www.reddit.com/r/StuffOnCats/comments/8vrb66/polystyrene_on_cat/
I made a dust collection system and improved it throughout this project. I invested in a 2Kw industrial vacuum which is connected to the dust shoe and a vacuum gutter on the side of the table to collect excess dust. In the end it works out pretty good, you can compare the beginning of the video to the end of it.
Fantastic job on the 3D modeling.. it looks great. I also like your load cell test rig.
….So, how many times have you sat inside alone at night just pretending?
I think the robot holding a huge hot wire bow would have been cleaner and faster.
A tiny bit of expanded polystyrene had me stumped years ago. I was upgrading a Finnigan quadrapole GCMS (gas chromotograph-mass spectrometer) from a PDP-11 control box to a MS-DOS desktop computer with a custom control board. The control board was shipped cushioned with expanded polystyrene. A small bead glomed onto the control board under a large component. The board operated intermittently and erratically. Took me days to sort it out.
Masterful!
What are the key features and capabilities of the MEGA-CNC router used in carving a full-size flying DeLorean from Styrofoam?
I am trying to figure out if this guy is anyplace near me. I actually have a use for some (and possibly all) of the styrofoam bits.
semi passive solar heating/cooling systems have been built to fill and evacuate a space between south facing glass windows,4″~8″ with foam beads/dust
obviously needs a large volume of space for the
required ducting,thick windows,storage bins and fans
I dont now why, but using this machine to only cut polysterene feels wrong for me.
Its like if you use the big berta to shoot down some squirrels.
This thing is able to shape clay like for the real car prototypes.
Even the energy costs of that thing. Only to build a car model like this?
Maybe his next project is a super efficient water pump for the third world, to be build something usefull.
I’m afraid a clay model wouldn’t fly that great. Power consumption is about 2000 Watt and the largest part of this goes to the vacuum cleaner. And here is your waterpump: https://hackaday.io/project/182068-3d-printable-double-helical-gear-pump-watertight
Happy hollidays.
Thank you for your reply. I should read and watch completly before i comment.
And also thanks for the pump.
Wish you happy holidays
It seems you missed the main purpose, it is meant to fly.
Why aren’t you out designing a pump or something useful rather than leaving negative comments on an article?
Why don’t you go and complain to the companies that actually have the resources to design and mass manufacture pumps to send to third world countries?
There are a lot more things you could be doing rather than criticizing someone for not making something you think is useful just because they have a robot arm that they turned into a CNC mill.
My college uses (or at least used to) a giant CNC to cut out car designs from multiple 4’x4’x8′ blocks of polystyrene. It was a gantry style 3 axis vs this arm type. the quality of bits needed to not dull out is surprising. Also, some of these large CNC can go crazy with even huge blocks of 100s lbs and sling them around like nothing upon encountering anomalies in the foam density. After cutting out the designs, we’d carbon fiber them and finish out the car and compete in certain engineering contests. We’d also use giant vacuums to attempt to control the dust and particles but they’d still get everywhere.
That is pretty badass!! Technology has come so far in the last 10 years alone. Excited to see where things go…. in the future. Yes, pun intended haha