Made myself a HotWire Cutter
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 3:09 amStarted 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.
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.
