Thursday, January 21, 2016
Cut and Shape Styrofoam Efficiently With This DIY "Styro-Slicer"
lifehacker.com: If you do any work with Styrofoam or other similar materials, you know it can be tricky to cut and shape pieces how you want them. This DIY setup will cut any Styrofoam safely and precisely, and can be easily stored when not in use.
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9 comments:
I’m not sure if this has much use in a scene shop, but as far as building 3d models at home, or creating other types of sculptural art on a small scale, it seems a really cool way to get into that form of manufacturing. Building the thing is really interesting too, and I’d probably have more fun creating this thing than making anything with it, but that’s just where my preferences in projects lie, I’m sure that other people would have a lot of fun cutting styrofoam with the cutter. Regardless, I can see this being really handy for a scenic or sculptural designer who wanted to create some smooth or more organic shapes with foam without having to cut through it with a knife or sand it down, though I’m sure that you could use various jigs to create straight edges if you don’t want to just freehand with it. All in all, a neat little project, and for not a lot of money or effort you could have a small hot wire foam cutter. I might try and make one over the summer and see if there’s any way to improve upon it.
Hot wire cutting is an amazing process when working with foam, and if you have the right person with the right set of skills, it is a very useful tool in any shop situation. I really like how this one folds up for easy storage and is completely customizable depending on how you want to construct it. Foam cutting is a great tool to have for any props department or scenery department, or probably any paints department as well. Foam is a great material to work with and use when the right kind of process is utilized for it. Foam does kind of suck for longevity purposes, unless properly sealed and treated in the proper configuration. I don’t know how I feel about having a shop tool be made by the sop itself, but we use jigs all the time and that’s almost the same idea. I would really like to try building one of these.
The styrofoam slicer in this tutorial is really impressive. When I first saw the picture, I thought it was a marketed tool rather than a homemade device. After watching the video, I also thought the explanation was really well done. For the most part, he went at a really good pace and picked helpful visuals to understand the process. I’d definitely need to go over the electrical information again, but the circuit diagram definitely helped me understand what he was describing. As far as I can tell, it is basically a portable bandsaw for foam, so it could be cool to add a slot for a miter gauge and also potentially another angle gauge for the wire itself. I do wonder how long this tool will last, and how it compares to marketed tools that serve a similar purpose. I was also curious how he made the fighter jets since they are so intricate, but when I went to his Youtube channel, it appears that he hasn’t posted that video yet, so I guess I’ll just need to remember to check back later.
This is so cool! The fact that it is a DIY tool and not some really expensive tool like we usually see on the blog is pretty cool. And his instructions were really clear so it's hard to mess it up too badly. Who knows how expensive this project was for this guy as he only really talked about how expensive a couple of the materials were. Not to mention all the power tools that he needed to make the cuts and holes. But if you already have a wood shop at home (or have access to one) this would be not that hard. His materials list is really long if you keep watching the video. But his final product is really pretty and professional-looking. And once you have it made, this would be so useful for making high quality foam sculptures (assuming you have the talent for that and you want to make relatively small things). The easy adjustability on the blade angle is probably one of the best features because I can imagine how hard it would be to make smooth, constant angles through foam if you were trying to do it free-hand.
I thought this was a really good explanation of how to make a foam cutter. He explains things at a pace that would make it possible for someone who has less experience making things to follow along while at the same time not being so simplistic that it would irritate a more experienced builder. Best of all given the way he explained things it wouldn’t be too hard to scale this foam cutter up to a larger size. If this was going to be used in a shop, I think I would change how the wire holder is attached to the frame to some kind of lock able pivot point instead of a bolt that you loosen and tighten. But aside from that this seems like a well thought out and well made tool for not all that much money, and the video got me to really want to try and make one, I don’t have anything to use it for but it seems like it could be a fun project.
I built a hot wire cutter before for small model making but I made it very differently with a coping saw frame. It could be clamped down for "bench work" or could be used in the style of a coping saw where the tool meets the material. But this guys use of PVC got me thinking. A coping saw frame is only so long, but PVC can come in upwards of 8' lengths. So why not make an 8' long hot wire? Well I can think of a few one being it may not be as effective, but it could be great to even have a 4' long hot wire if for some strange reason you need to carve a giant foot out of white foam. We do not use carved foam for every show but I also wouldn't say it is uncommon. Building an adjustable length one of these could actually do us (or Jimbo) a lot of good.
Foam is used a lot in theater in both scenery and props. One of the best ways to cut it is by using a hot wire cutter. While you can make one yourself fairly easily, as seen in the video, you can also buy them. I think this is a great DIY project and could definitely come in handy. One of the problems with cutting foam like this is that it releases toxic gas. While the amount may not be a lot, if you are doing a lot of it, there could be serious medical problems. I’ve also found that it can make some people light headed. And it smells. In the shops at CMU, I wonder how much we would use a hot wire cutter when we have the CNC router, mill, and a vacuum form machine. Another problem with hot wire cutters is that they are “unitaskers” (as Alton Brown would say). Their only purpose is to cut foam. Is it worth it to have one and to go through the trouble buying or making one when it only has one purpose?
fThis is so cool! One of the easiest way to cut foam is with a hot wire cutter, which can make cutting holes and more really intricate shapes out of foam very simple. I find that if you can make one this big, it can make some very interesting shapes simply and easily. It can also save a lot of time if your foam is really thick. One thing to consider, though, is that foam cut with a hot wire releases toxic fumes, which sometimes smell powerfully and can be pretty bad for you to breathe. Even using a rasp or saw on the foam can release fumes, depending on the foam. So it is important to consider the workspace and the people around you when using something like a hot wire cutter. And while a hot wire is very useful, one that big wouldn't be necessary unless it was going to be used all of the time. An easy one to make yourself can be the size of a hand scroll saw, or even smaller (like the size of a battery, say). But overall, great how-to video and a cool end product!
I thoroughly appreciate the in-depth and descriptive aspects of this video. In the past I’ve used a couple of different off the shelf foam cutters, but I’ve never been fully satisfied. They are often flimsy, and the attachments to adapt the cutter for larger/longer cuts only compound the flimsy factor. The next time I need to use a foam cutter, I might make one based off of this tutorial. Though the PVC aspects harkens a little toward my flimsy concerns, I’m sure there are other pipes (that are non-conductive) which are a lot more sturdy. Ultimately, it would be advantageous and extremely useful to adapt this design to cut much larger pieces of foam. Possibly an order of magnitude larger, say 3 feet instead of 3 inches. Cutting larger pieces of foam precisely has always been the largest downfall of incorporating foam into a build. I think the basic concepts presented in this video could be used to make a larger, more durable, and precise cutter than most of the options available on the market.
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