# 1st Project to birthed from the hot-wire how-to



## Garage-Of-Evil (Jul 24, 2007)

Well here is the latest bit of work on the 1st project to be birthed from this how-to. It's on to wood filler, and then (sunday i hope) building the over 3' tall base for it. This piece is about 4' tall, and it will fit into the thicker base like a mortise and tenon joint, leaving the same reveal on the bottom bit that you see on the sides. The whole thing will be about 7' tall.

I took a couple pics, first is from the perspective of someone looking at the finished piece (can't wait to uplight it!), the second is just a 3/4 view.

The trinity knot I made is a little wonky, but it's as good I'll get it so it's time to move on.


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Holy cow garage, that is beautiful work. very nice job there indeed!


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## Frankie-s Girl (Apr 5, 2009)

Love this sooooo much! I can't see anything wrong with the knot... looks perfect to me.


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

That thing RAWKS Steve! I saw a couple shots on GOE, but these bring it to new heights! You're gonna be having some fun with this foam cutter. Don't let the fumes get to you!


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

I love this.


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## Garage-Of-Evil (Jul 24, 2007)

LOL - Why didn't someone tell me I typo'd "hot wire" as "how" wire in the thread subject. Dammit, I feel like I just walked out of a meeting with my fly down!


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

psssst xyz


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## dubbax3 (Jan 22, 2008)

Its so SMOOOOTH.


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## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

Nice work! That is going to be one impressive stone at 7' tall.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

This is really well done, garage. I'm hoping to get skilled with the hot wire so we can start cranking out inexpensive but really cool looking tombstones like yours.


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## HalloweenRick (Nov 25, 2005)

Very nice!!


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Is there a how to on how you cut the parts out. I could not find it on the site.


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## Garage-Of-Evil (Jul 24, 2007)

How-to is forthcoming. I'll be sure to update this it's done!


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

Garage-Of-Evil said:


> LOL - Why didn't someone tell me I typo'd "hot wire" as "how" wire in the thread subject. Dammit, I feel like I just walked out of a meeting with my fly down!


Zipped up your fly for you.

Nice job! Looks like that hot-wire thing works great!


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## pyro (Oct 7, 2006)

good stuff steve-o


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

That is great! Its very smooth ... doesn't look like you need to use any filler.


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## Garage-Of-Evil (Jul 24, 2007)

Damn real life! I finally got around to working on this again, and have the base roughed, sanded and routed. I have a how-to bit going so once it's all done I should be able to put together a nice bit of instructions to augment the how-to for the foam cutter itself.

The total height is almost exactly 6'9", so it's a big boy. The top piece fits into the base in a mortise/tenon type affair, but will of course be glued in once it's time to finish up and fill in the gaps. The base width is 7", and the top width is 4". It's about 2' at it's widest. Still a lot of work yet to do, but I'm starting to dig it. I LOVE FOAM!


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## Lady Nyxie (Aug 30, 2006)

Great job!


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## Uruk-Hai (Nov 4, 2006)

That looks awesome! Can't wait to see it painted.


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

WOW ... looking better every update!


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

Dang....that is some really clean work...nice job


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## Joiseygal (Sep 3, 2008)

Oh my god that is so nice! I want that tool!!!!!


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

The hot wire tool is unbeatable for foam work. I originally bought mine making scenery for war game table top stuff, but have since found alot of uses for the halloween end.Garage of evil is highly skilled with his cutter though. Gonna take alot of practice to come close to him.Cant wait to see the how-to.


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## Bone To Pick (Oct 23, 2007)

Excellent job so far! Excuse me while I go check out the "hot wire" how-to......


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## Garage-Of-Evil (Jul 24, 2007)

So I finally finished the first crop of stones to be birthed from this thing. Here's some pics:


















I still need to finished the big cross, hopefully this Sunday. All the stones are "life size" having been built from reference pcis and measurements taken at Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, RI. The taller ones go about 39" high.

They were made with a combo of templates created from pics of the real stones and massaged in Photoshop, then cut out on the hot-wire table, a lot of routing and tons of free hand sanding. I took a lot of license when needed, as frankly I'm just not all that artistic but mostly a nerd with enough OCD to keep going until it looks right.

I learned a lot about painting, so it was a valuable project to take on and I'm (mostly) happy with how they turned out.

NOTE: not sure why the 1st pic doesn't want to display right, so sorry about that.


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## Eeeekim (Aug 14, 2009)

I just pooped my pants! Those are amazing. Really! The sculpting is way insane. Your painting is even more so. That looks like real marble.


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Outstanding! Have you consdiered opening up a cottage industry and making them to sell to those who are hot wire challenged? Seriously, the market for quality stuff like this exists and people will pay good money to get something really nice as opposed to the flimsy crap sold at Hallowen stores. Beautiful stones man!


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

Holy crap, that looks great!


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Pooping, crapping...lay off the Taco Bell, people!

They are perfectly realistic. How do they get mounted to the ground? 
(I said "mounted").


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Another thing to add to my wish list: a hot wire cutter. Are they available at craft places like Michael's? I picked up a wood burning tool at a yard sale, but still need a cutter.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

We really need some how-to's for this I made the table but I am still not grasping how these are assembled. can you elaborate on the steps to assemble these things.

BTW my no welding foam cutting table can be found here:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=16712&highlight=foam+cutting+table


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## Garage-Of-Evil (Jul 24, 2007)

Hprop, I saved a lot of progress pics that should help a lot in terms of getting the gist on construction techniques. I'll be very happy to elaborate on any questions past that you have that the pics don't address. You guys are way to good to me, so fire away!
http://www.garageofevilnetwork.com/photo/albums/wip-stone-pics

p.s. HauntForum rocks!


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Steve thanks for the pictures, Wow! a lot of routing - It looks like you used some templates to cut out the basic shape of the foam? what was the material for the template? Did you free hand router those or use a template? they look too perfect for free hand. Can you explain more about what you used the foam table for and what and how you did the router work? They look awesome by the way!


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## Garage-Of-Evil (Jul 24, 2007)

hprop, you bastard. I got to answering you and the next thing I knew I ended up making a how-to for the Network site.

http://www.garageofevilnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/foam-stones-quasi-howto


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Garage-Of-Evil said:


> hprop, you bastard. I got to answering you and the next thing I knew I ended up making a how-to for the Network site.
> 
> http://www.garageofevilnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/foam-stones-quasi-howto


LOL If it was not me it would been someone else.  Thank you for the how too!

edit: The link is not working are you still working on it?


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