Hi Guys,
I could not see this topic on how to make a foam cutter or what type are available in the market...... Take my words back... I was looking under wrong place, should have seen HOT WIRE.... We already have a few threads started here.. Ah well I am modifying this now that I have uploaded all below. So guys enjoy the read, if you think it is repetitive, write your comments, we will get it removed .....
Please can you all give us your images and ideas on foam cutters. DIY and market ones. I need to build one so am surfing the net for all info.
I will upload all the info I accumulate on the way.... Thanks for your input.
The first blog I have found....
"I built a hot wire foam cutter with an oak 1" x 2.5", two music wire arms and some fishing leader. Powered it with a battery charger set on manual 12V 2A.
Cut two templates out of 1/8" aluminum and bolted them to a base. Used some very light EPS foam and got 3 wings cut in 10 minutes.The three following links are to the pages I got most all of my information from.
Two of these pages describe very similar and simple hotwire bows for holding the wire tight. The basic design is simply a strong base (Piece of oak or other hard wood) and two 9" pieces of 1/4" dia. music wire (Landing gear material available at the hobby shop) that are flexed to hold the tension. Wrap your cutting wire (Nicrome, stainless, guitar string) between the two ends while they are flexed and there you have the basic cutting bow. To put heat to mine I simply attached the alligator clips from my car battery charger (one to each piece of music wire) and set it for 12V 2 amp. This worked for several different kinds of wire but not all wire. The links are far more explicit than I am being.
As for creating a template for the shape of the wing, down load Compufoil. The demo version lets you set the wing shape perameters and gives you a printable template to use for making the profile forms. You simply cut the templates out with scissors and attach to plywood, formica, aluminum etc... and cut it out. You can either pin the templates the either end of the foam block you want to cut or mount them on the ends of a base plate like I did. I am not being much more specific than last time since all this is well illustrated in the attached links. Foamflyer gives the exact specifications for the airfoil on the first view of the plane. You just have to figure out how they are entered into compufoil.
The light EPS foam (seems almost too light) is what Foamflyer was using. I took one of my new wings out and taped a makeshift fuselage to it and it flew OK just like that with no tail. Did a great loop and then fell to earth without damage. Crashed it severl times with no damage since it is so light.
http://webpages.charter.net/rcfu/ConstGuide/FoamWing.html http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/slmohr/rcinterest2.htm http://www.public.iastate.edu/~orman/air/cutter/hotwire.html Read more:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3511182/tm.htm#ixzz0niYWsn001. new train model transformers aren't the way to go; some old ones are okay
2. A good way to go is a 12V or 24V transformer from All Electronics.com on a dimmer. 12 volts is probably sufficient for up to a couple of feet. 24 is preferred for big stuff. (You need the same amps either way, but more volts for longer wires. You can finesse this a bit by using very thin wire, but people seem to prefer 16- or 18-gauge stainless steel. It's strong enough to crank pretty taut for striaght cuts.)
3. a lot of people prefer stainless steel to nichrome for hot wire cutters. You can get a roll of
16- or 18-gauge stainless wire from Cabela's for about $9. (And you get hundreds of feet of it! Give some away.)
4. regular guitar strings are pretty low resistance, so you'll need more amps from your power supply if you use them. You can get stainless guitar strings, but you can't beat the cost of the wire from Cabela's.
5. You can gang two RadioShack transformers (or other transformers) of the same make and model together to get twice the amps. (That's what I did, when I decided I wanted 4 amp capability to cut dense and/or strange foams.) But usually it's easier to buy one higher-amp transformer from allelectronics, and costs about the same. " Paul
Read more:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4968914/tm.htm#ixzz0nj7E5IALDeepak