Generally you use a hot wire cutter to make flat profile cuts through foam. With Proxxon’s new ThermoCut 12/E, you’re not just stuck with a boring straight profile — you can bend the wire to cut almost any profile you can imagine.
A U-shaped fixed frame has a pivoting and adjustable length arm on top, and an extendable lower arm holds the hot wire. The arms extend far enough to cut as deep as 7.9″ into the foam and you can cut foam as high as 5.9″. The wire heats up in only a second, and you can vary the wire temperature to fine-tune the cut.
You can pick up the Proxxon’s hot wire cutter with 5 shapeable cutting wires starting at $50. Using the hot cutter requires the additional purchase of one of Proxxon’s power transformers such as the NG2/s, which’ll cost you at least an additional $21. As long as you’re at it you should probably pick up some additional cutting wire for about $20 or so.
Hot Wire Cutter [Proxxon]
Transformer [Proxxon]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
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9 Responses to A Hot Wire With A Different Bent
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Looks cool and I’ve seen these before….but what applications are these used in?
Pretty interesting. I like the low cost of the do-it-yourself version here:
http://www.spacemodeling.org/new/how_to/Foam_Cutter.htm
Not sure if you could bend/twist the wire – I would think it would depend on the wire choice.
we used a stationary wirecutter in industrial tech for cutting styrofoam co2 dragster blanks and styrofoam for a model arch bridge
Hot wire cutters are used in entertainment a fair amount. I’ve personally used them to make large, light weight cornice molding for a set. I’ve also heard of them being used a lot in constructing parade floats. Cutting upholstery foam is another use for hot wire cutters, though probably not this bendable profile unit.
Finally. A tool to get toys out of Chinese packaging.
hey that would work!
These things are absolutely awesome at cutting foam, just remember “Safety First” foam puts off some really nasty fumes like cyanide that can’t be filtered out with a normal respirator. I would recommend doing most of your cutting outside up wind or with a supplied air respirator.
@ Kyle: I use Aviation snips.
I used a piece of coat hanger wire & an old 100 Amp battery charger with adjustable output. I just had to be careful not to set the output too high, or it would melt the coat hanger.