Introduction: Polyfoam Cutter

This project was inspired by an urgent need during my house reconstruction.

I had to cut to size lots of polyfoam tables to cover my ceil of corridor in order to evolve heat insulation. So I made this small machine to help me in this procedure.

In the video you can see it during the cutting progress.

The total cost of this machine stands around $25.

Construction time was about 3-4 hours.

I think the pictures are self-explanatory, but I wrote some instructions to let anyone to do it easily if you need similar tool.

Step 1: The Parts

Metal rod (about 1 meter long)

Some wire (about 1 meter long)

Some screws

Power supply (I used 220V/12V 5A)

You can buy cheap instance from ebay here

Motor Speed Control PWM 12V

Cheap PWM controller on ebay

Wooden slat and speed clamps for ruler.

Step 2: Frame

I was welding the metal frame from a 15 mm x 15 mm metal rod. (blue in the pictures). The top part of it is about 55 cm long to allow us to cut a standard sized (50 cm x 100 cm) foam table. The frame is fixed with two screws to the pedestal.

The fundament is a wooden table which has 4 wood pieces to stand on them and ensure the stability. (green legs) The legs are fixed with screws to the pedestal.

Step 3: Heating Thread

Throughout the hole in the pedestal we can fix the heating thread. In order to set accurately the 90 degree I made a long hole for the winged screw, as you can see in the second picture.

On the bottom side I simply turned around the thread over the screws which connect to the power wire.

Step 4: Electric Parts

I used a 12V 5A power supply and a motor control unit. The last one has a built in potentiometer with on/off switch. The heating thread is originated from an old oven (220 V). It contains a spiral what is quite long (more meters) to use it for a long term. I just cut a ~20 cm long piece from it and made it to straight.

If you do not have expendable oven, I think you can make tries with guitar strings.

Step 5: Final

To make the cutting accurate and straight I use wooden slat tied down with two speed clamps which helps keep on track the polyfoam.

With a ruler from an old tape measure you can positioning easily the slat.

And finally, like it if you liked it :-)