Status: Work In Progress
Last updated: May 20th 2018

The Rascal CNC is a hobby grade CNC machine designed BY the Community FOR the Community with the simple goal of being able to cut foam board airplanes, for more details: CLICK HERE

Make sure you've got all your parts and Rascal Kit ordered before you get started.

Baseboard
The Rascal mounts to a flat sheet of MDF or plywood. This baseboard should be 3/4"x42x42” minimum, but the thicker the better. Pick up a sheet from your local lumber store and then you'll need to seal your baseboard with one of the following:
​

• Paint and polycrylic
• Wood stain

​
It's critical that the baseboard is sealed to prevent it from warping over time. Lastly, frame the underside of your baseboard with 2x4s and mount it somewhere solid and permanent.

If you're like me then you know that plywood firewalls just don't hold up. After a few crash.. I mean hard landings, your motor will either break the plywood or the screws holding it in place will simply let go. This leaves you with an early trip home from the field.

Over the years I have tried a bunch of different materials in search of the best firewall. In my eyes the best firewall would have all these qualities:

1. Durable
2. Easy to work with
3. Cheap

Out of all the material I tried I found that ABS based product work the best. I have used various thickness and brands and all seem to work very well. Even on my performance planes, holding 200g+ motors that operate at over 1200 watts, these firewalls have held up. In fact, since I've been using this firewall material I haven't had a single slipped screw or broken mess to deal with.

ABS is readily available so that's a huge plus. The challenge was finding the right thickness material in a cheap and commonly available product. If you can locate the correct material AND find a cheap product to salvage the material from.. that right there is a DIYers dream.

So head to Walmart, Target, Home Depo, Lowes, or whatever super store you have in your area and grab a simple wastebasket. This one cost only a few dollars and you can make more firewalls than you'll ever need.

​https://www.lowes.com/pd/Style-Selections-7-Gallon-Black-Plastic-Touchless-Trash-Can/3052353

I use Google Drive to host my designs. Follow the below steps to get your plans downloaded to your computer.

1. Click the "DOWNLOAD" button to launch the downloads page for your desired model. On some models, you will see a set of folders indicating all available plan versions. Select the newest version.