A New Twist to the Hot Wire Foam Cutter

Intro: A New Twist to the Hot Wire Foam Cutter

I'm not going to go into too much detail on building a hot wire foam cutter here. There are tons of great instructables and videos already.  I am going to show you how my laziness and impatience in building one paid off with a new material to use that will allow you to bend the wire into shapes to cut with.

If you like this, check out my other instructables here.

I also made a video podcast of this below.

STEP 1: The Wire

So when I was building my foam cutter, I did not want to wait for a roll of nichrome wire to arrive in the mail.  I started looking around my house for something else I could try out.  I know that stainless steel conducts electricity but not very well and I happened to have some 1/16th tig wire in my shop.  This stuff is so handy to have around and I have used it for many projects in the past, most notably my make your own springs in seconds instructable. I decided to try it out and it works.  You sometimes have to adjust the resistance by extending the wire longer because this is pretty hard on the power supply.  I can tell if the resistance is too low because the power supply sounds like a weightlifter going for the world record.  The wire does not get red hot but will cut foam easily enough.  The best part about this is because it doesn't get red hot it can easily hold any shape you bend it into.

STEP 2: Basic- Cutting Profiles

if you want to cut a specific shape, you can draw or print it on a piece of paper, then use that as a template to bend your wire.  For straight cuts, clamp anything straight to the table to act as a race or guide.

STEP 3: Intermediate- Round Profiles

By drilling a 1/16th" hole in my cutter table, I can poke a scrap piece of wire up and into a block of foam.  This acts as an axis for the block to rotate around.  You have to break the surrounding material away to get at your piece. It is really fun to break foam and have a cool part fall out in a christmas morning kind of way.  The only thing to remember is that you have to cut into the foam block first, then push up the axis, then rotate, pull the axis and draw the block back away from the wire.  If you try it it will be pretty obvious i think.

STEP 4: Advanced Part1- Multiple Curved Cuts to Make a 3d Mold

I wanted to see if I could build a fiberglass skateboard so I needed a mold. I modeled the deck up in solidworks (but google sketchup would work and is thousands of dollars cheaper [its free]) From the 3d virtual model I created a side profile and a top profile.  I made 2 cardboard templates from the side profile and stuck them to the sides of a large block of styrofoam.  Cardboard will not burn or melt with the stainless wire so it makes a great guide.  I printed out the front profile or dish shape I wanted the board to have and carefully bent the wire to match it.  This I attached to a handle cutter and dragged it along the templates.

STEP 5: Advanced Part 2- Finishing the Board Mold

I pinned the two halves of the cut foam back together with scraps of tig wire. (I told you this stuff was handy)  I traced the top template out and used the table mounted cutter with a straight wire to cut along the line.  This gave me 4 pieces of foam.  If you pull the middle sections out of the top and bottom slabs and then pin them back in place but keep them offset a 1/4" each, you will create a 1/2" cavity the exact shape of your virtual skateboard.  From there you bondo it into a usable fiberglass mold. But I won't get into that, one because its an instructable on its own and two because I haven't finished it yet.  I just wanted to show you what the bent wire cutter can accomplish.

STEP 6: Finding the Wire

If you go to a welding supply store, they will want you to buy a minimum of about $100 of the tig wire.  If you go to a welding shop, they will probably give you a bunch for a couple bucks or a trade (beer and or pizza go further than their monetary value).

Thanks for making it this far!   Ill embed the video podcast one more time

Comments

[Mike McBride]

Hmm. Most of these questions have come a long time ago. So I don't know if you'll read this. But I too am no scientist or electrical engineer and am wondering what I do to make the wire hot. Car battery? Wall plug? Something else? Thank You.

[SkippysDoinStuff]

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your service sir! I love the router-like utility of this cutter! And ... X2 about the power supply.

[chandurock]

excellent boss..

but i want to know about power supply?

could you please send me detailed videos with parts what we want to arrange for this project..

my id: [e-mail]

watsapp num: 9490962430 plsssss bro

[IrfanM7]

CAN I HAVE A DETAILED LIST OF MATERIALS AND INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO MAKE IT

plz cotect no.

[Edgar]

Great, neat, and I bet it would also bend Acrylic, in witch case, you'll have a great Cutting and Moulding Platform, right there!
Again, the Stainless Steel is a great idea, because nicrome wire is brittle and won't allow for hand moulding, so you can mould Acrylic plate in some crazy ways! :)

[KISHMISH]

CAN I HAVE A DETAILED LIST OF MATERIALS AND INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO MAKE IT BECAUSE I M IN URGENT NEED FOR THE SAME FOR MY PROJECT

[Bill WW]

I keep a 12v car battery in my shop for this type work, also for testing 12v systems. A 12v battery will provide PLENTY of amps. Then I recharge it with a standard battery charger.

[DemolisionWolf]

cool stuff man! I like the use of the Tig wire, I'll have to try it! If you need a hand on the scientific math stuff, hit me up!

and I was thinking it would be neat to use the tig wire as a stamp too. like if you want the same shape all the time you could lay the foam flat on a table and have a hand held foam cutter and 'stamp' it down on to the foam

[trackervision]

I want to know about transformer amp , volt , watt for 14 gauge heat resistance wire.

[nahian01]

Hi,
this is a great tool you have done, I have tried to make one, I am using a 12v 2A dc power suppl, and as the cutter i used guitar string but that did not work. Then I switched to the coil wire inside a soldering iron, and it works cool. But the problem is every now and then it breaks.

Could you please tell me what would be the resistance of your wire, and say for a piece of 10 inches, and what power supply are you using with that?

I would also like to know that if I use a smaller piece of the wire, should there be any power regulation that is to be done?

Thank you.

[dave spencer]

I don't get too scientific about it. If it doesn't heat up, I slide the clip to shorten the wire. If my power supply sounds like it's in pain, I lengthen the wire. I did get a reading of .8 ohms for aprox 10 inches. My power supply is an old battery charger that is 6 amps.

[alaskanbychoice]

Great instructable just what I am looking to do. Thanks.