The History & my story

My high-school graduation year! I had discovered aeromodeling in primary school, building a kraft-covered balsa glider with Mr. Kannengiesser.

In my final year I crossed paths with Philippe, an aeromodeling enthusiast. He handed me photocopied plans for a Westerly, a trainer with a 1.5 m wingspan. I pestered my parents into a trip to Germany for balsa and Solarfilm, and built the plane all by myself on my bedroom carpet. Perfectly square but too heavy, it flew only once — with Philippe's radio gear on board, since I had none of my own.

I went on to a mechanical engineering degree, where I discovered industrial CNC machines, then an engineering diploma at INSA. Aeromodeling dropped out of my life for 12 years.

Engineering degree in hand, I left for 16 months of national service on Reunion Island, in the Indian Ocean. I would stay... 15 years.

I took up surfing and shaped my own boards — starting from polystyrene blanks, hot-wire cut over handmade templates!

I became a dad and eased off the surfing. Around the same time, my buddy Éric handed me a crate full of RC gear. The little airplane in me woke up: I built Le planeur de Bruno ("Bruno's glider"), then the Shark, from plans found on the Internet.

I vaguely learned to fly (and to fetch my models out of the sugarcane!), crashed more than reason allows, and made my first balsa-sheeted polystyrene wings, cut with a manual bow.

One evening — to the sweet song of a 56k modem, deep in the middle of nowhere — I stumbled upon a mini scale model of the Chance Vought F4U Corsair: Pappy Boyington's plane in Baa Baa Black Sheep, the TV series of my childhood!

That was it: I was hooked. More precisely, hooked by Papy Kilowatt's website — and there, jaw on the floor, I discovered 4-axis hot wire CNC cutting, able to produce the kit of a complete model in a single weekend!

I spent two weeks devouring everything CNC@NET had ever published. One thing led to another, and I found myself assembling an MM2001 interface — me, who hadn't touched electronics since high school!

Then I built my first machine: a Spartia, the table designed by Papy Kilowatt. I set it up in an old chicken coop turned surfboard workshop, at the bottom of my garden on Reunion Island. At the controls: GMFC Lite on Windows 95, running on a PC rescued from a school's scrap pile.

And it worked:

I spent a lot of time on the decoupecnc list from my rock in the Indian Ocean, answering dozens of beginners — I had just been through every step they were living, in the same order.

I built often, flew little (sometimes with one of my daughters in the baby carrier 😉), crashed a lot. Not the best program for becoming a pilot. For getting good at cutting, absolutely.

I published the plans and build guide of the Super Spartia de Bureau ("Desktop Super Spartia"): a mini version of one of Papy Kilowatt's machines, sized for my desk rather than the bottom of my garden.

I taught myself VB6 and released my first utility: a motion tester for the MM2001.

In 2009 I "met" Pascal Langer on the decoupecnc list. A wizard in electronics and programming. One thing led to another, and we drew up the specs for a USB interpolator, to sit between the computer and any hot wire CNC board. I also had plenty of ideas for a cutting program more versatile than anything around.

Papy Kilowatt joined us as a tester, Roland Poidevin came to help me with the programming, and Loïc — modeler, piercer and tinkerer from Cambrai — signed on as tester and tutorial writer.

The interpolator would be called IPL5X, because it can drive up to 5 axes simultaneously. So the website became the 5X Project: I set up its structure and first articles, then Pascal and Roland took it over.

I moved to Mayotte for two years with my whole family. There — on the terrace — I built a hot wire CNC of my own design.

I developed Complexes, a project-preparation program with a personal projection-based synchronization algorithm that Pascal helped me finalize. And I coded working mock-ups of every screen of the future cutting software.

Pascal wrote a DLL to talk to the IPL5X and another one to open DXF files; Roland did the final integration: RP-FC was born. A versatile, free program that Papy tested intensively, cutting ever bigger and ever more sophisticated models.

The 5X Project site soon offered the interpolator's plans, build tutorials, pinouts for 14 different boards, and the software. Machines were fitted with it all over: hobbyists had their USB solution — mission accomplished.

Pascal, Papy, Roland, Loïc, and the whole community: thank you from the bottom of my heart, guys. You were amazing!

An engineer by training, I had nonetheless spent 12 years teaching math and science in vocational high schools, on Reunion Island and then Mayotte. Worn down by a system standing on its head, I resigned in 2013 — and so did my wife (#team).

I wanted to make and sell my own products. Solo, master of my own time, owning my mistakes as much as my successes. I had been doing it for free for ten years; it would now be my job.

Zero entrepreneurs in my family, 90% civil servants: let's just say I had a lot of ground to make up.

The first wave of hobby 3D printing was just reaching France. I chose to stay on hot wire, away from the reliability lottery of the printers of that era (short term, not the best move — long term, absolutely).

I designed and sold the MiniCut2D, a small 2-axis machine aimed at digital education. It found its audience in FabLabs, schools and with activity leaders — Igor Cochain built his income on this machine for years, something I am very proud of.

To make it usable by everyone, I wrote MiniCut2D Software: intuitive for kids and beginners, capable for experts.

I spent three years evangelizing it: Maker Faire Saint-Malo, Paris, San Francisco, New York, Open Bidouille Camp Bordeaux, Nantes Maker Campus, the KIKK Festival in Namur (thank you Pierre Dradin, for the lodging and the XPS), Educatech... Five or six "Maker of Merit" ribbons, and a spot in the Pierron educational supplies catalog.

After years of development, I released the MC4X (Maxi Cut 4 aXes): belt drive, carbon-spring wire tensioning (a system invented by Turbi), aluminum extrusions, a guiding system of my own invention, laser-cut stainless-steel carriages. Sturdy, built to last, driven over USB.

To go with it, I modernized Complexes into a full cutting program: FilChaudNX. Total freedom over the wire paths, variable kerf compensation with my own algorithm — it can handle any cut. Aeromodellers embraced it; professionals did too.

That was the start of ten years of production of complete kits, backed by an ultra-detailed manual and step-by-step videos: anyone could assemble a high-performing machine in a few days.

Modellers, clubs, FabLabs, engineering schools, craftsmen, architects, artists, companies... More than 140 MC4X machines went out across France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Spain — and even Africa!

YouTube videos, a SketchUp ↔ FilChaudNX plugin, complete projects, online training: intense years.

At Franck Aguerre's request, I implement G-code generation in FilChaudNX. It can now produce the cut files to send to the Mega 2560 — though sending them still takes a third-party tool, as FilChaudNX only speaks the IPL5X protocol for direct USB control.

Many modellers carry on this way... while waiting for something more integrated (HotWire4X — we're getting there, folks!).

I make my business fully nomadic: I stop producing the ready-to-assemble MC4X kits, to be done with inventory and its constraints.

The MC4X is not going away: it is evolving into the MC4X v2. The principle is still "ready to assemble" — but you now order the parts yourself, following my precise, fully documented instructions. I back you up from start to finish, so that everything works the moment you power it up.

For me, no more inventory. For you, the same guarantee of an efficient, accurate, durable, repairable machine — with the sound engineering and the cable chains that made the original MC4X a success. And of course, guidance in use, from the simplest project to the most complex.