The pink or blue foam sheets can be cut with a knife if the sheets are not too thick. It may take several swipes to go all the way through. They can also be cut wit a saw, although this will produce a lot of granular dust that is very tenacious and hard to get rid of.
The best way to cut these sheets and the only satisfactory way to cut the white "pebble board" sheets is with a hot wire cutter, which melts its way through the foam and seals the cut edges. Small hand held cutters can be purchased hobby shops. I once made my own for cutting full size sheets up to 24 inches thick by stretching a nichrome wire on a frame attached to a a large work table. I tied the wire to insulating eggs at each end and used springs to hold the eggs to the frame so that the wire was kept in tension. The wire was powered from a 0 - 5 volt 35 amp power supply and I adjusted the power until the wire could be seen to faintly glow. Clamping a board to the bench to act as a fence allowed me to rip uniform pieces of any width needed. The huge pieces of foam be used as set pieces in the pilot episode for an unsold children's health and exercise show. > Message: 10 > Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 13:36:40 -0600 > From: "Marty.Thorin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Cutting sheets of foam (was Green plywood allergies: help!) > > Dear Paul and others: > > How do you cut foam? > > With my carpentry skills I have always looked at foam as a weight reduction > technique. Therefore perfect for modules. However, I will start > considering foam for the primary layout. > > I drive a small hatchback that does not hold an intact 4' * 8' sheet of > plywood. I can get the lumberyards to reduce my plywood to 2' * 8' strips > or less. That I can haul home and even close the the rear. > The sick plywood that started this thread was reduced by Home Depot to 4 > boards where each are 1' * 8'. One of these is still intact and stored in > the garage. The other boards were further reduced so I had 3 boards 4 > inches wide and 3 boards 8 inches wide. > Normally I cut my plywood by drawing a line on the board and then using > a hand circular saw with a plywood blade. (Odd shapes are cut either by > hand or by saber saw.) > I then cut and fit the boards into the layout. These latter cuts are > done with various people-powered hand saws. > > How would I reduce a 2 or 3 inch thick sheet of 4' * 8' foam to strips 8 > feet long? These strips need to be between 3 and 8 inches wide. > > Thorin > > S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the Flyer you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
