Just wondering if anyone has tried making a curved heat cutter of some sort to cut a rail shape, maybe stainless tubing could be bent to the shape of the rail, I guess the current might have to be stepped up too much compared to wire to produce enough heat, but just thought I’d ask to see if it had worked for anyone.
Jeff Sharp
I haven’t tried but I know there are researchers in Holland attempting to cut curves using computer controlled hot wire check:
http://www.dynash.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=a7a46e89-6600-42f5-9dc7-509414b24f66&lang=en
Yeah, thats the idea, I think a handheld version of it might work for shaping rails. The current would definately have to be stepped up though, as you would have a much greater crossectional area and less resistance over a stainless blade or strip like that than over a 20-some gage wire, I’m no electrical engineer, so I’m not sure if the current needed would be within the realm of safe use.
seen adjustable small handheld cutters used for cutting rail bands
it could be set to cut at fixed angles and then slid along the blank so that the rail band was cut to a fixed angle
shown in the sailboard conposit video
Bendable, shapeable free hand router, might get you close but you’d have to change the wire with the foil…
You could use a wide but thin flat metal to hold the shape you wanted and carefully weld the hot wire to its leading edge.
You could shape the whole eps board using a hotwire if you wanted, probably with just a bit of finish sanding. Here is a site that sells the flat wire I think you’re looking for and other related tools: http://www.demandproducts.com/foamcut.html
Here is a picture of my hotwire bow, thanks to insight from Ken “Airframe”!
here’s a place with some inexpensive ideas…
http://hotwirefoamfactory.com/products/customer/product.php?productid=16194&cat=103&page=1
This may seem like a stupid question (no stupid questions, only stupid people, right?) but how/why do you use a hot wire cutter like those pictured above.
Is the idea that you will get a “truer” cut closer to your template? I am getting ready to glass my first board and if I learned anything in the shaping process, its that there has to be a better way to cut the blank than with a hand saw. I had to spend a huge amount of time sanding down to my template lines and I still don’t have anything approximating a continuous curve. Seems like a hot wire cutter might be more precise, yeah?
…if youll shape an styrofoam board, with the hotwire you cut the rockers from a styro blank…
This is a good site with “how tos” for hotwire cutters.
http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/HalloweenTech/fotmak_MakingFoamTools.html
First of all take a sureform, planer, belt sander, saw or jig saw.
now take a pass at your styro or foam blank.
Now stop
Now take a quick look at the air around you and the ground below you
Mother earth will thank you for using the hotwire.
Aside from the reduced waste and you can use the offcuts for alot of things later…
Yeah - seems like you could take something like one of these…
or one of these…
bend the wire to a rail contour, run it around a masonite template and do your outline and rough rail shape in one pass.
How much power is really required for hotwiring? With a 12 volt power supply, how much current is typically used? A lot of these tools look like they could be fairly easily made and applied to shaping, and definately would create a lot less mess than doing it with a planer.
for a ‘blade’ cutter the power req’s will be fairly large…a heffer ps will be a must or just buy off the shelf plug in unit like shown above…any way you slice it, it wont be trivial…
shaping rails is one of the best aspects of making a board…you sure you want to skip it?
This one looks like a “Fred” that could cut your template and shape the rails at the same time.
This is a good site with “how tos” for hotwire cutters.
http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/HalloweenTech/fotmak_MakingFoamTools.html
Very good link, thanks. I found that one interesting for rail shaping :
shaping rails is one of the best aspects of making a board…you sure you want to skip it?
Haha. If my current catastrophe is a barometer of how things will go in the future, then, yes, yes I do indeed.
John, your idea matches pretty much exactly what I was thinking.
Just realized I’ve got myself a nice powersupply under the hood of my truck. I should be able to just use the battery. Just for this first blank, if I like the way the hotwire works, maybe I’ll then invest in a power supply.
I’ve been thinking along the same lines. A planer makes so much dust and seem such a waste of time when you want to remove more than 2mm of the blank. For micro cuts tho I think you’d have a hard time with the hotwire cutter though. I was thinking of doing hotwire cutting with a straight blade using templates to lean it against to make the initial railbands which would save a serious amount of time, work and dust. Excellent link bdw.
regards,
Håvard
