trying to sort out my hotwire as have a 4ft by 4ft by 12.5ft block to cut up!
had to get steel fishing trace as nichrome isnt available in ireland!
using a battery charger, but will only cut when the clips are under 24" wide!
how can i get it to work for the full 4ft wide trace wire?
you could try woodworking magazine type suppliers
they sell nicrhome wire sometimes to guys that draw on wood with hotwire
it is very cheap
also i was wondering if you could run 2 battery chargers together to get more amps
I saw the trailer for Greg Loehr’s EPS shaping video, and he has a hotwire setup that is cutting a blank lengthwise–you might PM/ask him what the deal is there.
My charger has to be on the quick-charge setting (says 70 amps, but it’s from a pawnshop, and I don’t have a meter) but it works perfectly on that setting–it was snapping wires about every rocker pass the other way.
You can get nichrome somewhere most likely, even if you have to order online… just a real good alloy made for that purpose
mine only says it has 11 amps! that was the highest power i could get.
anyone got a pic of a setup run off the mains?
has to be nice and simple as i aint no electrician! :o)
tried to get a variac here and no luck so has to be another way.
thanks
Paul,
You can get nichrome in Maplins, they call it resistance wire. I have some if you want. I works good with my charger. Guitar E string will also work.
.6mm MIG welding wire works well.The steel one for gas welding. Try a light dimmer switch for your variac.
spoke to maplins they said they had none! though i asked for nichrome.
will get some monday and give that a try hopefully 4ft isnt to wide
If they are out of it I have some, also I’ll be in Dublin so I can pick some up there if you want.
Did you get an answer to the Reichold resin question ?
if they have none in cork will give you a call, thanks
they are trying to track some resin down as it hasnt ever been asked for in ireland before.
they havent made any for around 7 months at the factory in europe, so maybe in a few weeks. need it now though!!
i actually used guitar string as the wire for my hotwire bow. and it worked fine. high E string, i forget what gauge is good though… im guessing you have music shops where you are?
Stainless steel wire is pretty good. Heats up easily and lasts for ages. I purchased a couple of meters of braided stainless steel wire for $4 ,unwound one of the threads and hooked it up to a cheap car battery charger. It has cut out 3 blanks without breaking and if it eventually does break theres still another 50 strands left on the wire. There is one huge draw back and that’s straightening the wire. I straighten it by hand as best I can and the pull it tight on the bow. It takes ages and still never gets perfectly straight on the bow.
Still it’s a very cheap alternative.
hey paul
11amps should be plenty for .6 to .7 mm nichrome wire
im cutting at about 8 amps
the wire is almost redhot
and cuts really fast
it must be the wire then just cant get the distance needed with stainless steel wire will give nichrome a try on monday
thanks all
got hold of some nichrome wire, but still cant get a 4ft wide cut!
can just about cut 3ft but its very slow!
any suggestions?
Try 24v Ac as per my other post.
Frankly the battery chargers and model train transformers suck… When they really need to blow 
You should have no problem finding it if you search for postings I have made featuring the word hotwire.
Let us know if you have problems and I’ll find and post it for you.
got hold of some nichrome wire, but still cant get a 4ft wide cut!
can just about cut 3ft but its very slow!
any suggestions?
Hrrm… Steel 20 guage fishing wire and a 24v 6amp laptop transformer?? If all else fails you may consider splitting the blank down the middle and hotwiring both halves. If you block was machine cut your “outsides” will be true and thus your “split” cut isn’t that critical, you just flip em around when templating.
I used fishing wire on mine, works well, your transformer has not got the juice, try it with a 24v one. I got mine from maplins for £12.
My charger works great on the higher amp setting.
I wonder how much diff the clips and their contact with the wire makes? I removed the stock clamps, spliced in some longer wire and put alligator clips on. So I wonder how much current is affected by all that, and how much amperage is knocked down by the gauge of wire and the size of clips. But it is working really awesome at this point. I don’t need it to cut more than a few per year, so there’s that.
Hey Janks!
So I hear. But I had no luck with it and I tried and old one and a new one… After trying lots of different wires.
The homebrew variac worked a treat tho
borrowed a 24v battery charger today worked a treat!!
though at €200 for one is a bet steep.
woody any chance of a pic of that transformer or the catalog number of it? the staff in the maplins in cork aint got a clue.
have you just got the transformer setup from the mains?
thanks
paul