Costing around $30 and up, I just can’t justify the cost of buying a hot wire foam cutter when they’re only used for the scenery building stage and perhaps never again until I decide to build a new layout.
So this idea hit me while soldering track (test-soldering track on my “Try-O-Rama” )
I semi-accidentally touched the solder tip against the foam. It made a hole. Hmm… I was going to paint the sides to prevent the white foam beads from coming off, but then I decided to quickly run the side of the soldering iron against the broken-off sides of the foam - it singed the beads into the foam!
After the iron cooled off, I unscrewed the tip and thought about sticking a thick wire in it, making a loop and shaping it. Voila - instant hot wire foam cutter!!!
Has anyone tried this with a soldering iron already?
There’s a Web site somewhere with directions to do just that with a soldering gun. I don’t want to breath potentially toxic fumes though, so I stick with Sureform tools.
If it’s a Weller soldering gun, the tip should be able to be replaced by a piece of bare copper wire and be used as a hot foam knife. Electrical resistance is what heats the tip, similar to any other electric heating element.
I had been thinking about do this myself to see if it would work but hadn’t quite gotten around to it yet. I should have a chance to do this soon as I’m almost done rebuilding my bench work.
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