help me guy ....give me some idea to cut down this giant foam 4ft by 4ft foam block. i have bow but to small for that .........any idea ?? thank in advance

Pick up some heavy weight fishing line - 40 pound test or so - and tie an overhand knot every 3 to 4 inches. For a 4 foot block, you will need 6 to 7 feet. Tie a dowel, piece of broom handle or wood block to each end. Working with a friend, use the line like a cross cut saw. The cut will be rough and only as straight as your cutting skills, but you can cut the block into managable chunks. If the foam is dense, you may go thru a couple of lines -- if soft foam, the beads tend to roll out rather than cut.

andrew

You give us two of the three dimensions of the foam. What is the other dimension?

If the third dimension is less than the length of the cutting wire and the throat of the bow is more than the width of the piece that you want to cut off then you can do it with two straight edges that are a little longer than four feet. Draw the cutting line on both sides of the board. Clamp one straight edge along the line to be cut. Clamp the other straight edge parallel to the first on the opposite side of the foam (also along the cutting line). Orient the cutting wire perpendicular to the 4x4 face of the board and guide the hot wire over the two straight edges.

thanks guys ......my foam is 4 feet by 4 feet by 2 in.......anyway i haven't decide which dimesion want to cut yet.....may be will make a new bow to get good cutting. : )

Is the throat dimension of your bow greater than the maximum chord of the wing planform that you envision? If so, then you don't need a new bow unless the length of the cutting wire is less than the span of the wing panel you envision. The method I outlined in my previous post will work very nicely.

I was completely off base -- when you said "giant 4'x4' " piece, I incorrectly assumed you were working with flotation billets - 4x4x12 - which I have used. If nothing else, rough cut your blanks with a serrated knife and use Ollies recommendation of truing with a straight edge. Add your tip templates and cut.

A 40" bow with a 4" throat will cut panels for a 72" wing - provided you have about 38" of wire. A little longer wire will give more working room, especially if you have a heavily tapered planform.