Hand held hot wire foam cutter

[Snowman]

I'm going to guess a fair number of you are not familiar with the concept of the hot wire cutter, based mostly on the fact that so much stacked foam scenery--which looks all to often like just what it is: stacked foam...could presumably be or must be cut with a handheld kitchen type knife. Not true at all.

With a DIY device like this, layers of stacked foam can be cut as though they are all one.

As always: I disavow any results you might have from this, or any other similar device/tool, build your own-DIY-or not,

That said, you don't ALWAYS have to sculpt your layers of scenery with a kitchen knife--serrated or not. There are other options ^^^ and tools.

 

[Smudge617]

I'm going to guess a fair number of you are not familiar with the concept of the hot wire cutter, based mostly on the fact that so much stacked foam scenery--which looks all to often like just what it is: stacked foam...could presumably be or must be cut with a knife. Not true at all.

With a DIY device like this, layers of stacked foam can be cut as though they are all one.

As always: I disavow any results you might have from this, or any other similar device/tool, build your own-DIY-or not,

That said, you don't ALWAYS have to sculpt your layers of scenery with a kitchen knife--serrated or not. There are other options ^^^ and tools.

I have the wand already, works well.

 

[westtexjohn]

At the cost of batteries these days, seems a wall wart power supply might work better. Just sayin.....

 

[Smudge617]

At the cost of batteries these days, seems a wall wart power supply might work better. Just sayin.....

I didn't know that you can get a battery operated one, mine certainly isn't.

 

[wvg_ca]

if you have a weller 100/140 watt soldering gun, all you need is a piece of 16 gau copper wire [like the stuff in your walls] ....bend it to the shape that you want ... by the way, you can solder with this too ..

 

[JeffH]

I prefer a long sharp knife. The hot wire cutters work well, but I found it simpler to just shave away with a long knife.

 

[dennis461]

if you have a weller 100/140 watt soldering gun, all you need is a piece of 16 gau copper wire [like the stuff in your walls] ....bend it to the shape that you want ... by the way, you can solder with this too ..

Ouch, you have 16 gauge in your walls?

 

[rgeiter]

I like my woodland scenics foam cutter.

 

[wvg_ca]

Ouch, you have 16 gauge in your walls?

well, the house was built in 1953, with 15 amp breakers ....
later on they went to 14/2 and 20 amp breakers

 

[AirbrushNo5]

This worked OK for me… $22 From Amazon….
And on the bonus side, I didn’t have to break any plaster to get at that 16 gauge wire….

 

[Christiaη]

Just my two cents: Beware of the toxic fumes !

 

[AirbrushNo5]

3M respirator with decent filters and u are good to go

 

[NWP Dave]

Foamwork. Drywall saw and wood rasp with round side works for me. Generally the saw cuts the big angles and the rasp does the contours and smoothing out cut areas.

 

[timlange3]

If you used a hot wire cutter do it in a well ventilated area or you will have sixties flashbacks!

 

[rgeiter]

…and 70’s, 80’s and the grunge era of the 90’s!!!