Thread: Foam Cutting Table

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I thought I'd share a variation on the foam cutting tables that are out there. I patterened this one after one on the garage of evil site. The key difference is that this one requires no welding and I use a guitar tuner to keep the tension on the wire tight. When the wire heats it becomes more flexible. When cutting thick pieces of foam the wire bows substantially which can make it very difficult to control when cutting curves or other details. The guitar tuner makes it very easy to tighten up the wire after it has heated up. Before putting in the guitar tuner, I think we broke 3 wires. Since the tuner we haven't broken one yet.

I used a 110vac to 24vac transformer that I got from Marvac Electronics for $7. I added a power cord to the transformer and plugged that in to a $9 lamp dimmer I got from home depot. The 1"x1" tubing, right angle brackets, 2x4 and 2'x2' plywood I also got from home depot for pretty cheap. The wire which is actually a guitar string (.18 works best) and the guitar tuner I got at Guitar Center. The strings were about $2 each and the tuner kit was $11. The alligator clip you see at the top of the string is an idea I copied from GOE. It inserts the power down the wire to the other wire terminal under the table. This isolates the current in the wire to the points between the aligator clip and the connection on the underside of the table.

We experrimented with the dimmer settings to get the right temperature for the wire. You can see the mark we made on the dimmer switch to mark the best setting. Oh, and the guitar tuner is mounted on a piece of angle aluminum we had laying around.

Really nice! Terrific innovations also with the guitar tuner and string. I never thought of using a guitar string.
I need to make one of those cutting tables. Thanks for the pics!

The guitar tuner idea is great! It's a pain to always readjust the tension on mine but this will make it a breeze. I guess I need to stop at Guitar Center tonight.

Wow!!...that's cool! I with Dave I need to make one of these.

Thanks for the ideas! I see an upgrade to my GOE style foam cutter in the near future.