Foam cutting help

[Gilwing]

Any one have any help in cutting Plastazote (or other type foam). I have a few tools but they seem to be ripping the foam instead of making a clean cut (the tools are new). I was thinking of a wide Spackle knife

 

[jpariury]

Have you tried using a hot knife? (Not, like, a knife which is hot, but an actual tool called a "hot knife")

 

[Ondreij]

Believe it or not ---- I've used an electric carving knife (yeah, the Thanksgiving turkey carving kind) with great success on all kinds of foams - and then you might want to try the final finishing up with an X-acto knife ... I've used those snap-off blade disposable ones with great success, as well.

 

[markusdark]

Some people have used a hot knife - which is basically a wire attached to a battery pack that heats up for cutting. I'm not sure what it will do to the plastizote though. Also, I have seen people buy one of those large trowels - the ones that are used for smoothing concrete/cement - and they sharpen one of the edges to use it to cut the foam.

For myself, I use a belt sander. I trim down the foam to the basic shape I want with one of those disposable utility knives that cost a buck. I use the full blade extended since it is nice and long but usually the blade is dulled by the end of doing just one weapon. Then I use a belt sander to trim/shape it.

 

[Gilwing]

Thanks guys....I too use the x-acto knife but I am terrible at drawing a straight line. I mostly use a yard stick to guide me. I live in an apartment so I don't have a great deal of space to bust out the heavy machinery, I am going to go buy more sand paper to help.

 

[markusdark]

You might want to see about getting an orbital sander. They're hand sized and can do a good job of smoothing away the problem spots. OH! Also a sure form can be used to simply 'file' away the excess foam.

I should note that a hot knife does take a little bit of practice so I'd try just cutting some scrap pieces first. If you move too slow, you'll melt away the foam instead of cutting it and too fast can sometimes snag. Just a trial and error thing.