Foam cutter powersupply

[Noto]

I was working with my hot glue gun the other day and accidently touched the tip of it to the depron I was working on and it melted into it and I had this idea.

I have done a lot of reading about foam cutters and plan on building a CNC foam cutter when I have the funds. I have never heard of this but it seems like it could work. If the tip of the hot glue gun is hot enough to melt the depron if that current was directed through a single wire with the right resistance wouldn't it be able to heat the wire hot enough to cut the foam?

At 1.99 for the cheap hot glue gun I have thats a lot better than a $20 battery charger if it would work. I would have tried this myself but I'm not really sure if its safe to take one of these apart (shock risk) and not sure I would know what to do once I opened it.

Anyone that knows more about electronics have any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
-Daniel

[Andy W]

It is a simple AC heating element, and the currents there are direct AC, so you would have a severe shock risk.
..a

[Kennyz]

If you look back through rcm from somewhere around 90-93 there was an article on how to make a hot wire foam cutter. I had made one back then and used it with good results. I think it used an old ac train transformer as the power supply, but I dont rember for sure. The key is not to go to fast. If you happen to dig it up shoot me a pm.
Ken.

[Noto]

I found that 2 D batteries works pretty well. I just wanted to know if that could be used safely and looks like its just easier to use a car battery charger or a couple D batteries.

-Daniel

[thrust]

Hey Daniel,

Just did a search on rcgroups based on the hotwire gluegun idea and your thread popped up.
i did find some fellows who use modified DC current glue guns for cutting depron, apparently it works really well. Check their "airboat", neat stuff.

its an excellent website..but its not available in english.

and since i *only* build using 5mm(availability issues :( ) depron i thought i'd bring it up.

good luck.

http://www.selftoy.com/selto/read.cgi?board=seltotech&y_number=5&nnew=2

http://www.selftoy.com/selto/board/seltotech/upimg/1064472099.jpg
http://www.selftoy.com/contents/modeling-seltotech/02.jpg
http://www.selftoy.com/contents/modeling-seltotech/08.jpg


again.. exellent website, credits go to www.selftoy.com

- cheers

[Noto]

Looks interesting :). I ended up getting a wonder cutter thing cheap and works well and safe :)