I thought I would try this out. I needed a way to carve the foam tombstones and I didn’t have coin to spend on a hotwire right now. So this was my quick and dirty foam cutter. I find that because it is so powerful and you can’t keep cutting at that speed on the tight curves… you can vary the heat by just tapping the trigger… more tapping… faster cutting…
Hardware:
One soldering gun.
1 40cm piece of 7 strand copper mains wire.
Recipe:
I basically just followed the instructions on this site. Except my gun is higher wattage than his so it cuts a lot faster and you HAVE to keep moving… but it will do until I bring myself to buy the real deal in the “off season”.
http://club.cycom.co.uk/hotwire/Hot_wire_cutter_for_polystyrene_foam.html
The gun and 40cm of wire.
The 6 surrounding strands of wire are peeled back and cut off leaving only the center strand. Strip 2cm of sheath off each end and insert into your gun.
OK… so I press the trigger just for a second… hear nothing, see nothing… smell nothing… the wire isn’t big enough to give of and radiant heat that I could feel… so what do I do… I touch it…
INSTANT SEAR… pain… swear… laugh at my own stupidity… admire my new brand!
Supplies:
Radio Shack
Home Depot
Inspiration:
http://club.cycom.co.uk/hotwire/Hot_wire_cutter_for_polystyrene_foam.html
http://erikruud.freeservers.com/halloween/tombstones.htm