Steve Cook
Flying Squad
Whilst playing around cutting some polystyrene for a small diorama, I got frustrated by the small size of the cutters I had. When I bought them about 10 years ago I think I probably paid about £20 including some spare wire and to be fair, they have lasted well and are still on the original set of batteries.
The problem is both the throat depth and the fact that they are free-hand. I've had my eye on a new cutter having seen a review of it on YouTube so decided to take the plunge and spend the £40 inc postage. You actually get two hot wire cutters, a large one for straight wires (10 supplied) and a small sculpting pen with 'free form' wires (3 supplied). A mains adapter is supplied to be shared between them, both cutters have on/off switches.
The larger cutter is designed to be used either freehand as above, or by mounting to the supplied base.
When mounted on the base, the throat depth is 370mm and throat height is 180mm, the latter increasing to 200mm when used freehand. The guide on the left of the above photo can be mounted both widthways or lengthways and is adjusted just by releasing the butterfly nuts on show. In practise it is dead easy to use and a couple of seconds spent setting up the wire with a square will guarantee square cuts.
The wire can also be rotated up to 65 degrees to give diagonal cuts if required although a protractor would be handy to get things spot on. The top surface of the base plate is a plastic coating which provides low friction surface for sliding the polystyrene on.
Adjusting the angle of the wire is taken care off underneath the base, a simple sandwich style clamp performing the duty.
The large cutter comes with three different sets of wires, 32swg, 30swg and 28swg giving wire temps of 216C, 271C and 349C respectively (all at @5v). That should be sufficient for all polystyrene and some of the harder insulation style foams.
The sculpting pen uses a stiffer wire than can be bent to any desired shape, thus allowing complex or square recesses to be easily created.
I need to have a more serious play with it yet, but initial impressions are its well worth the spend. Everything is made from aluminium so weighs very little, and it can be packed down to a fairly small size for easy storage. You can buy either item by itself, but by having only one power supply, you save about £12. I have no connection with the seller other than as a satisfied customer, but as its all made in the UK, that just counts as another positive. If you are tempted, the stuff can be found for sale on ebay here.
Steve
The problem is both the throat depth and the fact that they are free-hand. I've had my eye on a new cutter having seen a review of it on YouTube so decided to take the plunge and spend the £40 inc postage. You actually get two hot wire cutters, a large one for straight wires (10 supplied) and a small sculpting pen with 'free form' wires (3 supplied). A mains adapter is supplied to be shared between them, both cutters have on/off switches.
The larger cutter is designed to be used either freehand as above, or by mounting to the supplied base.
When mounted on the base, the throat depth is 370mm and throat height is 180mm, the latter increasing to 200mm when used freehand. The guide on the left of the above photo can be mounted both widthways or lengthways and is adjusted just by releasing the butterfly nuts on show. In practise it is dead easy to use and a couple of seconds spent setting up the wire with a square will guarantee square cuts.
The wire can also be rotated up to 65 degrees to give diagonal cuts if required although a protractor would be handy to get things spot on. The top surface of the base plate is a plastic coating which provides low friction surface for sliding the polystyrene on.
Adjusting the angle of the wire is taken care off underneath the base, a simple sandwich style clamp performing the duty.
The large cutter comes with three different sets of wires, 32swg, 30swg and 28swg giving wire temps of 216C, 271C and 349C respectively (all at @5v). That should be sufficient for all polystyrene and some of the harder insulation style foams.
The sculpting pen uses a stiffer wire than can be bent to any desired shape, thus allowing complex or square recesses to be easily created.
I need to have a more serious play with it yet, but initial impressions are its well worth the spend. Everything is made from aluminium so weighs very little, and it can be packed down to a fairly small size for easy storage. You can buy either item by itself, but by having only one power supply, you save about £12. I have no connection with the seller other than as a satisfied customer, but as its all made in the UK, that just counts as another positive. If you are tempted, the stuff can be found for sale on ebay here.
Steve