Okay, I wanna hot-wire

I called a local shop which quoted me $185 U.S. for 2’x2’x10’ if 2lb/cu.ft. EPS. Is this reasonable? That’s about $43 per board. I have a 4 amp battery charger. Can I use that for power across 2 ft of foam? What kind and gauge of wire should I use? What cheap, easy alternative wire will do instead? Where can I get some? -Noodle

I called a local shop which quoted me $185 U.S. for 2’x2’x10’ if > 2lb/cu.ft. EPS. Is this reasonable? That’s about $43 per board.>>> I have a 4 amp battery charger. Can I use that for power across 2 ft of > foam?>>> What kind and gauge of wire should I use? What cheap, easy alternative > wire will do instead? Where can I get some?>>> -Noodle The price for the foam is a bit expensive for normal EPS, what density do you have?? The battery seems O.K any car battery wil do, as long as it’s full anyway. For the string use a violin string, there the best, guitar strings (metal) work good to but sometimes snap( you don’t want this halfway). Make sure you tension the string, I always used a small wooden frame for this. If you don’t know how, mail your adres, I draw you one. Good luck. Peter Rijk.

Thanks Peter. The loacal foam quote was for 2 lb/cu.ft. EPS. I live in Houston. If you know of a good local bulk EPS source, I would appreciate hearing about it. Even if a distant source is cheaper, shipping would probably spend the savings. Yeah, I’ve seen the diagrams with two levers, a stretch spring and a bar. Seems to me the two levers would tend to swivel on that bar, parallelogram style. I’ve been thinking about finding two small leaf strings, and mounting them on either end of a handle, then stretching the hot wire between their ends. I’ll look for violin strings at the local music store. I’m familiar with steel guitar strings, which come six gauges per set. Are violin strings all the same gauge? -Noodle>>> The price for the foam is a bit expensive for normal EPS, what density do > you have?? The battery seems O.K any car battery wil do, as long as it’s > full anyway. For the string use a violin string, there the best, guitar > strings (metal) work good to but sometimes snap( you don’t want this > halfway). Make sure you tension the string, I always used a small wooden > frame for this. If you don’t know how, mail your adres, I draw you one.>>> Good luck. Peter Rijk.

Here is place that supplies wire. http://www.epicrc.com/wire_overview.htm Most good hobby shops should have wire available Anthony>>> I called a local shop which quoted me $185 U.S. for 2’x2’x10’ if > 2lb/cu.ft. EPS. Is this reasonable? That’s about $43 per board.>>> I have a 4 amp battery charger. Can I use that for power across 2 ft of > foam?>>> What kind and gauge of wire should I use? What cheap, easy alternative > wire will do instead? Where can I get some?>>> -Noodle http://www.viser.net/~anthwind