hot wire foam cutters?

[norcalhillbomber]

i have made my frame and what not and tried putting my wire on today but it kept on snapping. i am just using plain copper wire. is there some super uber high tensile strength steel wire that i should be using? or am i just doing something wrong?

[phil7153]

i have made my frame and what not and tried putting my wire on today but it kept on snapping. i am just using plain copper wire. is there some super uber high tensile strength steel wire that i should be using? or am i just doing something wrong?

12 gauge guitar wire.

[norcalhillbomber]

sweet! thank you!

[Ferrarimk13]

how do you heat it up properly?

[norcalhillbomber]

im using a battery charger

[phil7153]

how do you heat it up properly?

model train transformer.

[Ferrarimk13]

ah, thanks guys.

[geolemon]

If you aren't cutting through foam that's more than 9" thick (or however long the blades are, they might be longer), often an electric carving knife is great for cutting through foam.
Just as an alternative - hot wires are certainly more the ticket for cutting through thick rigid foam.

[TwinTown Skater]

Nichrome wire is what I've heard is the standard, but I don't have first hand info.

[grafgulch]

i have made my frame and what not and tried putting my wire on today but it kept on snapping. i am just using plain copper wire. is there some super uber high tensile strength steel wire that i should be using? or am i just doing something wrong?

You can also get a roll of stainless steel wire at craft stores such as Michaels for just a few dollars. I've had better luck with this then using guitar strings.

Paul

[grafgulch]

i have made my frame and what not and tried putting my wire on today but it kept on snapping. i am just using plain copper wire. is there some super uber high tensile strength steel wire that i should be using? or am i just doing something wrong?

I forgot to ask what are you using for a power source? I use an (really old) adjustable amp tranformer. If your amperage is too high you will just burn thru the wire. I don't remember what amperage I use, maybe 2 amps at the most? Someone mentioned using a model train tranformer, but it has to be a older model, like 30 years old. The more modern model train transformers has some sort of circuit breaker built in to prevent it from being useful in this application.

Google homemade hot wire cutters, tons of info on the web about this. gotta love the internet(s).

Paul

[Delmonte]

I went through a sh1t load of guitar strings setting up my hotwire, then i found this guy on ebay.....this is the "right" stuff, it makes cutting the foam a breeze and it doesn't expand as much as the guitar strings when it get's hot

eBay.co.uk Shop - Stu's Eshop: Cable and wire lengths: 5m NiChrome Wire, 0.16mm dia, 50 ohms per metre

as for the power source, i use a transformer that has flow gauge that allows me to fine control the volt, but it isn't necessary

[MrWalrus]

I just build my first hot wire recently, and it's acting kinda funny. I built it based on this, Hot wire foam cutter But when I turn it on the wire doesn't really get hot at all, but the transformer does. Is the problem the wire I'm using? It's 24ga hdr silver crafting wire. I know this isn't a normal wire to use, and i plan on using something else now, but I'm just wondering if the wire could cause the transformer to get hot, or if it's just a bad transformer.

[mikenike605]

i made a foam cutter using a guitar string and a transformer i picked up in goodwill bin full of wall plugins. luckily i had most of the supplies around the house.

[ZampraZ]

Guitar strings break real easy, you should get some nichrome wire off of ebay or try some regular steel wire... For a power source I have a car battery charger and it works fine. If your wire isn't getting hot it's either because the wire has to little resistance which i doubt or because your power source device isn't working properly

[Beelzebubbles]

I think the problem with guitar strings or copper wire is that they are getting annealed while being heated maybe?
if they become annealed, they start stretching as you apply pressure on em, and will eventually break. As some others have said, steel wire might just do the trick as it won't be affected by the heat nearly as dramatically as nickel or copper.