Foam Carver Suggestions?

[DisneyDellsDude]

Hello all,

For the carving of my tombstones, I'm looking for a new "hot wire" foam cutter, but don't know which brand to buy. (My old one became lost - I believe it just stopped working with age and someone at my house threw it away) Does anyone have any suggestions? Or is there something even better for carving foam out there?

The foam I use for tombstones is usually the pink stuff that goes behind drywall.

What are your thoughts?

[RoxyBlue]

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=27213

[Bone Dancer]

I have never had a hot wire cutter so I had to find something I did have that worked. I found that a jig saw works ok for cutting tombstone out of the 2 inch foam. I have even used a electric kitchen carving knife to cut up thinner foam board. Not as messy as you might think it would be.
I plan on making a foam cutter to use on my blocks of foam (12x12x18). The Garage of Evil has a design that I will be using.
I have looked at foam cutters before but the cost is to much for my budget.

[Jaybo]

$20 Hot Knife from Harbor Freight.

[DisneyDellsDude]

Originally Posted by RoxyBlue

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=27213

Didn't even see that... and only posted a week ago.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions as well!

[DisneyDellsDude]

And Jaybo, does that knife work well for you?
It seems to have many bad reviews on it's website.

[Allen H]

That knife works great for me- I have three of them. One that i bought didnt work at all, so I returned it with no issues. Its meant for cutting industrial plastic thats the market they made it for, and for that its crap. But it works great on foam.
Check out these guys-http://www.demandproducts.com/ They are the Home Depot to foam sculpting and
http://hotwirefoamfactory.com/home.php?cat= Are great for the hobby home use crowd (I love their stuff too- I used the heck out of their 4' bow today sculpting a zombie seal).
I recommend building your own table- you can get alot more heat out of them and cut much faster- pink foam really drags on the hot wire table.

[Doc Doom]

I made my own hot-wire foam cutter from an old pistol style soldering iron. I simply replaced the soldering tip with a longer piece of regular #10 copper wire. Works great. The best part is you can bend the wire into different shapes.

[flesh1031]

I agree with Allen H. That little blue knife works great. I am using 1'x1'x19" blocks of low density foam that we found at a tractor supply store. I also agree with Allen H that making a table is the ultimate way to go, you can straight cut or scroll cut, it's the coolest toy. I was sick of cutting one side and then the other because this knife is only 6" long, so a buddy of mine made a table for me. He happened to have a 0-120 volt variable transformer laying around (I have it set on 10-15 volts thats all you need to make the wire glow) and we just hooked up the positives and negitives to a wooden bow saw that had a something gauge piano wire spanning the gap instead of the blade. You know what, I'll try to get a tutorial out about it or at least photos... I had such a hard time finding a way to cut these blocks, I can certainly appreciate the frustration, most really awesome knifes and table heat saws are for those with really awesome budgets, not me...

[DisneyDellsDude]

That's good to hear Allen. Flesh, a tutorial would be very nice! It's something I'd be interested in learning about.

Now I did check out hotwirefoamfactory, but why in the world are they trying to charge me $12 for shipping of a $25 item! I am not in that huge of a rush. I do not need it to leave within 1 business day...

That deterred me, and I'm rethinking my strategy. Being half way done with college, I defiantly have a tight budget! But I also don't want something that's going to die on me after my first use.

A fine line I must walk.