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Step 2Make the Styrofoam Hot-Wire cutter ...
I made a styrofoam hotwire cutter from some aluminum frame and nichrome wire. A little bit of wood works as an isolator. And my battery charger was perfect for a DC source. Cheaper than buying a train transformer.
Edit: Some more notes on this ...
I picked up the nichrome wire from my local hobby shop for about $.65 per yard. The hardest part is keeping the tension on the frame since the wire stretches quite a bit when hot. You don't want it too hot where the styrofoam smokes. On the 12v setting, it drew about 1.5 amps with 1.5' of wire. Slightly higher current with a shorter length. There are other hot wire cutter instructables on this site which provide more detail on this step. If I was to go with an even shorter length of wire I'd drop down to 6 volts.
In retrospect, I should have made this frame like an X with a bungee on the bottom to keep the wire tight. But it was a hack for a quick one-off. Perhaps version 2 will be more versatile?
Edit: Some more notes on this ...
I picked up the nichrome wire from my local hobby shop for about $.65 per yard. The hardest part is keeping the tension on the frame since the wire stretches quite a bit when hot. You don't want it too hot where the styrofoam smokes. On the 12v setting, it drew about 1.5 amps with 1.5' of wire. Slightly higher current with a shorter length. There are other hot wire cutter instructables on this site which provide more detail on this step. If I was to go with an even shorter length of wire I'd drop down to 6 volts.
In retrospect, I should have made this frame like an X with a bungee on the bottom to keep the wire tight. But it was a hack for a quick one-off. Perhaps version 2 will be more versatile?
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