A hot wire cutter as the one I described here only cuts in a straight line. Now I wanted to integrate some installation tube in my styrofoam. So I had to cut grooves into the foam. Cutting them with a knife won’t give a good result and so I had to find a new way to get the right shape. The idea was to bring a piece of wire in the shape I wanted to cut out of the foam and then to slide it through the foam.
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A hot wire foam cutter is a very useful tool to cut any type of styrofoam boards (expanded or extruded polystyrene) into the shape you want. The goal of this project is to build a low-cost cutter mostly from parts I found in my workshop that is able to do precise and straight cuts. Vertical and also miter cuts should be possible. This is a real hardware-only-project: no arduino, no programming, just plain mechanics and electrics: A thin wire is held in place and heated by a current. Continue reading →