Bend Wire Springs and Shapes with This 3D-Printed Machine

Jiří Praus creates sculptures out of brass wire, and like almost anyone else, he hates producing the same part over and over again. To help alleviate this boredom, while still pursuing bent structures, he built an excellent CNC wire bending machine controlled by an Arduino/CNC shield setup.

The majority of his bender is made from 3D-printed mechanical components, including a post on which wire is initially wrapped around for feeding, and a series of rollers that straighten it in the horizontal and vertical directions. Wire is pulled through with a NEMA 17 stepper motor, and although he originally used a partially 3D-printed arrangement for this critical part of the design, he eventually switched to a feeder roller meant for use with welding wire — improving performance significantly.

From there, wire is then fed through a metal plate with a slit in it to position the wire, and it’s then precisely bent into shape via a second stepper-driven rotating assembly. You can see it in the first video below bending hexagons into form, while the second is especially satisfying, as it curls wire into a spring.

STL files for the project — and hopefully even more info eventually — are available on GitHub, and you can follow Praus’ progress on this and other projects on Twitter.