The well equipped poor mans hotwire cutter experiment

The well equipped poor mans hotwire cutter experiment

Warning and DISCLAIMER, all in one:
This entry is based on personal experimentation, and should only be attempted by ADULT, diehard tightwads, like myself.
I will not be responsible for injury or damage to life, limb, or property, if you try anything suggested in this post.

I plan to build my layout, as many on this forum have done, with extruded foam.
The concept of contoured scenery is very appealing, and I've read many entries about the problems encountered when a modeller shapes his foam scenery base with saws, blades, drills, Dremels, and (ugh) chemicals.

The thought of a hot wire foam cutter struck me as a great way to shape the basic countryside.
But at what cost, and how many times will I use such a device?

There are a number of manufacturers and designs of foam cutters that utilize a hot wire to slowly melt this marvelous foam.
As stated before, I am basically a tightwad, or should I say an "enterprising miser".   Whatever.
Not wishing to invest hard earned bucks into a device that will only be used a limited number of times, I began looking for an alternative.

Yep, I found something new to try.
I'll just bet that if you go to your local hardware/supply store, and ask them where you can find the nichrome wire... they will surely say, "what's that?"

Well, I happen to have at my disposal, a variety of variable voltage, variable current, power supplies.
These power supplies are not your garden variety, off the shelf supply, but more like the laboratory grade units that have been designed for a specific application.

Then that brings us back to where will I find nichrome wire?
This is the stuff that glows red in electric space heaters, almost red in hairdryers, and well, you get the picture.
Most of this stuff is very brittle, can't be soldered, (the heat will melt the solder), and based on commercial 110volts AC applications.

So where do I find low voltage nichrome heater wire?
In the average guys garage, where else!

I scrounged the junkbox(es) and came up with of all things, a cigarette lighter from my old car.
These babies will certainly glow red with 12 volts applied (yes, WAY TOO HOT!)
But back at ohms law, if I reduce the voltage and consequently the current, I can get this wire to just the temperature I want.

Now, before you go rip the lighter out of the chariot, bear in mind the current needed will exceed that of most power supplies.
When clipped out of that little spiral, that lit those coffin nails, and unwound, you will have about 12-16" of low voltage heater wire.
It will certainly not go back where it came from once removed.
 
I'm not going to go into all the details of constructing a foam cutter, but will mention that this wire will definitely get hot, must be supported by an insulating, non melting, fireproof material that can be fabricated, and a method of getting the electrical power to the wire on each end without solder.

By adjusting the length of the wire between the connections, varying the voltage/current, you can get this stuff to perform quite nicely.
It is a bendable, relatively rigid, wire that is not round but flattened by design for where it was intended.

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS WITH ANYTHING BUT AN EXPENDABLE POWER SUPPLY!(one you can afford to burn up)
AND MOST ESPECIALLY WITH ADULT SUPERVISION!

Once again, this is an experimenters way of saving a couple bucks. (Maybe)

Your mileage may vary, take only as directed, severe penalty for early withdrawl, Not a member, FDIC!

Submitted for your extremely cautious consideration.

I remain,   Joe

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