Source for hot wire cutter for spray foam insulation

[Wayne Whitney]

Hello,

So I'm insulating my house myself with 2 part spray polyurethane foam insulation. I like to overfill the stud cavity slightly and then trim the foam back flush with the studs. Using a hand saw works but is fairly laborious and creates a "snow" of fine foam particles.

What I'd like is a 16" wide straight hot wire cutter on a yoke, then I could run the two sides of the yoke along two adjacent studs and have the hot wire cut the foam in the stud space flush. Is such a device commercially available? Obviously I could make one but would prefer a quicker solution.

Thanks, Wayne

[Diezmon]

If you don't want to drop a lotta cash, it's easy to make one.

I used wire from an old toaster, old power supply(I only need about 24v to get it hot enough) and a "bow"

My bow is a 2x2, 3 feet long, on each end there's a rod sticking out perpendicular about a foot.. the wire is attached to those.

Eezy peezy :)

[Richard J Kinch]

On eBay you'll find the coathanger type that artists use to freehand sculpt foam, which resembles what you want to do.

[nicksanspam]

Probably, but I made one quickly by bolting 2 3' 1x3s together near one end to make a large pair of scissors, then putting 2 more screw eyes near the ends of the long ends, then running 14 ga nichrome wire between the screw eyes, with alligator clips and 12 ga copper wires to a variac. You can tension the scissors with a turnbuckle between the short ends of the scissors, if you like.

Nick

[pbs]

I think he means like this

[Diezmon]

Yep, I did.

But sh*t, mine didn't cost 278 smackers.. more like 15.

[Cliff Hartle]

Model airplane makers use something like this to cut foam cores for wings.