hot wire to cut foam

[graham stewart]

nobody,anybody,somebody 🙄

[Henry Barker]

I ran a steel wire from the roof of our shop (5m) down to an electric fence handle, the one with an insulator and spring in, available from most agricultral type places, then made a hole in our bench connected a thin wire from the handle to a stabilo I had under the bench the spring held the tension and we connected it to a 12v battery charger, I was making letters that were 2m high and about 30cm thick, you had to feed through very carefully otherwise the wire twisted and the cut was crooked.

I later bought a huge bandsaw which could cut 30cm blocks, and we pounced patterns and cut like that.

Today I use 150mm necked bits, and rout styrofoam instead.

[IdeaFactory]

Hi am new to this technology please throw some more light how we use this technology to cut foam,,,,
Cheers
WA

[graham stewart]

Thank you Henry for showing some of your work, and info on hot wire.
Graham

[Shane Drew]

quote graham stewart:

Thank you Henry for showing some of your work, and info on hot wire.
Graham

this may interest you Graham http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_102846/article.html

[Chris Wool]

also a good model shop should be able to supply a good quality bow about 2 ft long with transformer.
its used for cutting model plane wings

chris

also class work as usual henry

[Robert Lambie]

i love that bottle of mouse Henry, how did you get the shine on that from a foam? im guessing some sort of primer then sanded and painted? just seems to have a great consistent shine on it. hence why i asked.

[Henry Barker]

We coated the foam with Styrospray 715 and painted it with Standox car paint 🙂

[Robert Lambie]

thanks for that Henry, my sister has a theatre school in the city and i suggested she use foam a while back for some of her props but coating it was going to be the issue because i had only heard of using emulsion on foam and she needed a rich smooth gloss… "now i know" 😕 :lol1:
funny enough, i attended the first night of one of her theatre shows tonight… (my wee girl was in it 😛 ) http://www.uktheatreschool.com proud as punch i was :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

[Nicola McIntosh]

nice one rob….that wasnt jodie in the kfc ad was it? 😉

kidding…cant find the link on the site 😕

nik

[Robert Lambie]

:lol1: :lol1: no thats not her, but a little freind in her class.
its the zombie show thing on the homepage i meant. first showing was tonight. im there tommorrow and saturday also… thank god they have a bar in the place… 3 nights in a row :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Robert Lambie:

thank god they have a bar in the place… 3 nights in a row :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: got your proirities right then 😀

make the most of it rob….she will be bigger than you before you know it…… 😉

nik

[Robert Lambie]

quote Nicola Rowlands:

make the most of it rob….she will be bigger than you before you know it.

wouldnt be hard, nearly there now 😳

[James Martin]

Interesting work Henry, tks for the info and photos

[graham stewart]

Henry is the mousse bottle done in separate blocks of foam and if so what do you fill the gaps with. What sort of foam do you use? Is Styrospray an undercoat/sealer? And any other pictures of your work would be appreciated.

Thanks Graham

[Fran Hollywood]

Henry, that a hell of job, we only use 715 for small projects as we find it has a very short pot life ………… did you do it in sections and sand down the overlap?

Graham we use a CNC hotwire machines, sometimes hand held hot wire tools for freehand stuff and chain/sabre saws ………… just depends on the project.

For information you could try http://www.wintechint.com.au/en/index.html

Rob, you should get your sister to use Foamcoat. A lot of prop & stage makers use it. It contains a fire retardant. http://www.rosco.com/uk/scenic/foamcoat.asp

[Henry Barker]

Its made in sections, sprayed with styrospray, using a hopper gun, which is messy, and not very healthy, must use a full face mask, as the spray seeks out moisture and therefore makes your eyes very sore. (isocyanates)

If you roll it, its no problem, but as someone else mentioned the "open" working time is short, you have to work fast or spend alot of time sanding later!!! We key up the surface of the styrospray after its dry and use plastic padding, and or an industrial filler spray over the joins.

WE are off to Volvo now to stripe some FH12’s but can dig out some more pics, and more info as I find it, we use a foam with density 200, if that helps.

Have been looking at alternatives to styrospray, I have a pallet of Magic Smooth and Sculpt here too which we have been experimenting with.

[IdeaFactory]

thats really nice job done henry,
can I see making of your any project with pics
am really curious on this
Cheers
Ajay