Made myself a HotWire Cutter

Canvas covered foamies (Thrifty Alternatives...)

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Made myself a HotWire Cutter

Postby RRJR » Thu Apr 16, 2015 3:09 am

Started with an old hacksaw frame and a soldering gun.
I removed the tip from the soldering gun and inserted 2 lengths of wire to which I attached alligator clips.
For the cutting wire I took a television coaxial cable and stripped away everything down to the thin copper inner wire.
I then used the attachment points for where the hacksaw blade would normally go to attach the cutting wire and used the tension adjuster knob on the hacksaw frame to pull the wire tight.
I then attached the alligator clips to the cutting wire and with a little duct tape engineering for a hacksaw to soldering gun mount I ended up with a handheld trigger controlled foam cutter.

It worked better than I thought it would. I found I could control the heat of the cutting wire by adjusting how far apart the alligator clips were from each other and when the cutting wire gets stretched from the heat, a quick turn of the hacksaw blade tension knob snugs it right up.

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Last edited by RRJR on Thu Apr 16, 2015 3:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Made myself a HotWire Cutter

Postby dales133 » Thu Apr 16, 2015 3:17 am

Nicely done.
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Re: Made myself a HotWire Cutter

Postby GPW » Thu Apr 16, 2015 5:20 am

What about Bigger cuts ???
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Re: Made myself a HotWire Cutter

Postby rowerwet » Thu Apr 16, 2015 11:25 am

Bow saw frame!
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Re: Made myself a HotWire Cutter

Postby GPW » Fri Apr 17, 2015 6:44 am

Easy enough to make .... in most any size ... :thinking:


NOTE *** The 2 prong plug on the wire is NOT made to plug into the wall ... That plugs into a Variac ...
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