First off, thanks for all the great information on your previous posts. A friend and I have been wanting to make our own blanks for a long time but could never really find all the pieces to the puzzle. Have you ever used or heard of Imperial Foam in Daytona? I called them and they sell 1, 1.5, & 2lb styrofoam (she couldn’t or wouldn’t give much detail on the foam, just that it was styrofoam and we could get whatever size billet we wanted). I know 2lb is the way to go, just wondering if you had ever used their foam? This is probably a stupid question, but here it goes…I found the variac on-line, what is it powered by? Do you hook it up to a car battery, then hook the variac to your hot wire and go to town? I also did a search on that same site for nicrome wire and did not find anything. Are there any local sources you could suggest? I’ve heard you can use Violin string, or guitar string? Sorry for all the questions, but I have been wanting to do this for a long time and am very stoaked to be closer to my goal. Thanks for any info.
I am not familiar with where Imperial is in their technology today. They have always supplied a good product and I’m sure they still do. Some of the stuff we get now is better than what Imperial supplied years ago but that was years ago. On wire, you can get that from Imperial. Nichrome wire is available from any wire company. Look up wire instead of nichrome. You want 25 gauge nichrome 80. The variac plugs into a wall socket.