Help please: cutting styrofoam sheets
 

On 7/3/2010 6:56 PM, notbob wrote:
On 2010-07-03, Zz wrote:

What's the best way to cut 1-1/2" or 2" styrofoam sheets? I don't
have a "hot wire" cutting tool.

Make one!

When me and a buddy worked at "a place", we were told to make a
whole buncha foam dividers, about 2" thick, for a whole buncha
containers, about a dozen per container. It woulda taken forever to
cut by hand. Days.

Since we had nearly unlimited resources and were too stupid to know
any better, we thought, "let's make a hot wire foam band saw thingie".
Some 1-1/2" channel stock, some chromium wire, some lamp plug wire, a
110V Variac, and a couple of insulators and we were in business. We
bolted the whole thing together in an afternoon and hooked up it up.
We cranked up the Variac till the chromium wire began to glow and ran
a piece through it. Worked like a charm! We finished that day by
mapping out the piece cuts and gathering foam stock. We finished the
whole project the next day.

You may be able to rent a Variac. I've seen chromium wire on the web
for about $50 roll, but didn't look real hard. I'm sure you can find
it cheaper. I'll let you work out the construction details. Our rig
was just as crude as it sounds, but worked like a thousand dollar
machine. ;)

nb

You could also get the nichrome wire from an old electric clothes dryer
or electric heater. Perhaps a 1,000 watt light dimmer would work as a
heat control?

TDD