# Directions for making a foam cutter?



## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

Does anyone have instructions on how to make one yourself? I'm too much of a cheap*ss to buy one for $25.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=16712&highlight=wire

If you are a member of the Garage of Evil, you can access their tutorial there as well.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

If you are looking for a quick and cheap way to try foam cutters, and there is a Michaels near by, you can pick up a StyroCutter for about $12 with the 40% coupon.


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## Doc Doom (Aug 28, 2008)

I made one from an old hand held pistol grip style soldering iron. Just replaced the heating element with a piece of #12 copper wire. You can even bend it to different shapes.


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## gma (Apr 20, 2012)

Don't have any plans, but I have a tip - if you're building a large straight-wire cutter, I can verify that a Dell laptop power supply (19.5v, 3.34 amp, pn HP-OQ065B83) will drive a 5' length of 20 or 22 gauge nichrome wire perfectly.


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## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

RoxyBlue said:


> Take a look at this thread:
> 
> http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=16712&highlight=wire
> 
> If you are a member of the Garage of Evil, you can access their tutorial there as well.


Thanks RoxyBlue, but I was kind of thinking of the hand held unit. Any plans on how to make one of those? The type that looks like a slingshot or cheese cutter.


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## DandyBrit (May 23, 2013)

Garage of Evil closed down earlier in the year unfortunately.


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## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

Haunted Spider said:


> *****They also make dimmers for lower voltages such as up to 30V vs the 120v dimmer in the photos. I used one on a laptop power supply to make mine.***** There are a few tutorials and videos on this. Hollywood haunters have a few videos where they show how they made their version without great detail, just the basics. King of random on youtube made one with much better detail. It is up to you on what you need and what you want.


So, the 30V is ok to hook up to a 120V power source and will convert it down to a manageable voltage? Where did you find it? Because I had a Helluva time at Lowe's to even find the one I got.
Thanks for the video ideas, I'll check them out.


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## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

Ok, so I was talking to one of the Engineers at work for help on this and I was trying to explain to him what I was trying to build. I was looking at pictures when I came across this.








I showed it to the engineer and he explained that the Bell Transformer is a step down to take the 120V and convert it to 12V; which is why the wire got too hot. A Bell Transformer is found in a Door Bell kit for a house, and as it turns out I have had one all this time.
Today I am going to try and add it to my set up. I had to buy a new junction box to fit the Bell Transformer and the dimmer switch. 
Wish me Luck


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## BillyVanpire (Apr 22, 2015)

check out the King Of Random's foam cutter?

handheld or table style, your choice


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Your transformer does a couple of things - it does step down the voltage so you have more control of the heat. But also provides some safety and isolation, so you don't get zapped by line voltage coming out of the wall.

The big thing is to balance the whole system. You need to have an idea of how much power you want in the wire. That will give you some idea of the amps and volts you need to run. You need a transformer big enough to supply the amperage without burning itself up. 

You could use a 'wall wart' type transformer, or even a battery charger (ie for a car) if you have something like that. I would worry that a 'door bell' transformer might be too light duty. Those things are literally meant to only run for a few seconds at a time (while the door bell is ringing), not for minutes or hours of foam cutting.

Based on the guy in the link above running the cutter off a 6V lantern battery, you might look for a transformer / power supply around 12 volts / 5 amps for starters. That should give you a decent amount of extra capacity for continuous use.


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## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

I watched the videos that you all sent and they were a great help. 
Thank you everyone for your help. 
I was telling an engineer at work about my foam cutter build project and asked him if he could help. A few days later he calls me into the workshop and says "Here, this might work for you." He hands me this handmade AC-DC converter. 
"We don't have a use for this thing anymore. You can have it." We tested it in the shop and actually blew a couple of the transistors in it. One side should have produced 18V, but under a dead short, which is what you have when you run a wire straight between the Pos and Neg sides of a citcuit. We found one set of hook ups on the back that, when attached to a wire, would cut foam beautifully. He said "If it will stay on for 15 min, you're good." 
Here is the front of that box he gave me.








This is the back of it with the wires for the side that worked.








And here you can see the inside of it. You can see the cracked transistor under the orange wire in the bottom of the picture.








I took it home to try it out and it worked for less than 5 min before *POP!!* and Blue Smoke. Damnit!!!!
We then tried stripping out all of the AC side circuitry and just having the Transformer hooked to a dimmer switch. Nothing. Turns out the Transformer was blown that last go around and the dimmer switch was now all on of off.


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## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

I finally got it working!!!

The engineer at work had a variac lying around the shop that will probably be thrown out next time the clean up, so he gave it to me.








I burned up 3 guitar E strings before I tried this picture hanging wire I had lying around on a shelf. It works beautifully and I was able to cut a few stones to work on this week.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Glad you got it to work! That first power supply looks pretty light duty... no heat sinks on the transistors, so I doubt it could do a couple dozen watts without overheating. Which it seems like it did on a couple of occasions!!

The variac will definitely do the trick. That looks to be a pretty hefty unit so should supply your needs well!


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