Hot Wire Foam Cutter from Soldering Gun?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Here is a guy who used an old soldering gun as a hot wire foam cutter. He simply switched the soldering tip with a shaped coper wire.

http://www.all-model-railroading.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4898

I have one of these guns lying around. Do you think it would work?

2

Looks to me like it would work.

3

It will work but it will get exessively hot in a hurry. Work fast and let it cool down frequently. The commercial cutters that I have seen are less than 50 watts. If your gun has a dual heat switch use it on the lower setting. You can also buy exacto knife checks that screw into smaller soldering irons.

Karl

4

Of course it works, I’ve been doing that for years. I thought everyone knew about that “trick”. I have preformed “tips”. One is roadbed shaped so I can just swipe down the track and have instant roadbed (complete with gutters) cut into the foam. I have a “tunnel” tip for when I flip the foam upsidedown and cut a tunnel through. Mine is a 140W soldering gun. It has a bit of a problem heating the “tip” when it is more than 18" long. The biggest problem is getting stiff enough wire so it doesn’t deform while pulling it through the foam. I often use coat hangers.

5

[D)] I forgot that one. Duh. I must be getting old.

I’ve done that myself. And … coathanger wire has more resistance than copper, so it will simultaneously heat better and allow less current flow. A triple bonus! (with the stiffness)

Coathangers also make good ammeter shunts.

Karl

6

Tex,

Works great! The gun’s tip cut it like butter. My coat hanger is too thick, and didn’t heat up. I need to find a smaller gauge wire.

Kimble

7

Wire coat hangers are 1 of 2 things: HARD as hell to find nowadays and usefull for darn near any repair job known to mankind.

8

You can check out the Hot Wire Foamfactory. They have complete set of tools but also spareparts that might be possible to use together with a soldering gun. They have a wire that is possible to form as some of you described. There are also some tips on how to work with hot wire tools.

9

Yup the larger the conductor the less heat. One of those trade offs. I also use scraps of house wiring 14 gauge copper. I just have to mover the tip slower so it doesn’t distort. With coat hangers make certain the ends connecting to the iron get scraped really well. Some of the hangers have really good insulation on them.