What's It Called?

[Ugg013]

And where can ya get em?

Hey:

There's a tool that looks sorta like a soldering gun but it's for cutting hard foam (it's electric & has a wire that heats up to cut thru the foam). I have no idea what it's called but have seen em on some of those home improvement shows. Tried the big box stores & even Grainger's with no success. Anybody know what they're called & where to get em?

TIA
Ugg

[Steve Pellock]

EPS buildings .com has one type

[JimmieD]

Electric carving knives work well on EPS or upholstery foam too.

[MoparNorm]

It's a hot wire cutter Ugg.
Jim, A carving knife works great on soft foam , but not EFIS hard foam, the wire works trick. There is a guy out here who made one from an old Lincoln buzz box....= )

[JimmieD]

It's a hot wire cutter Ugg.
Jim, A carving knife works great on soft foam , but not EFIS hard foam, the wire works trick. There is a guy out here who made one from an old Lincoln buzz box....= )

Okeydokey. I thought this was in reference to EPS [Expanded Polystyrene] Foam. I'm surprised it would tke that kind of amperage to cut. Looks like I better do a search on what this EFIS foam is....

[Sickcall]

Jimmie, EFIS is a single coat acrylic stucco system used on new tract homes and commercial buildings today. The underlayment so to speak is a styrofoam type insulating material which is coved with the single layer of stucco. The hot knife is used to cut the styrofoam.

Very little of brown, scratch, and color coats done anymore except in mostly custom home applications.

[MoparNorm]

Okeydokey. I thought this was in reference to EPS [Expanded Polystyrene] Foam. I'm surprised it would tke that kind of amperage to cut. Looks like I better do a search on what this EFIS foam is....

I don't think it DOES take that much amperage, but this guy can cut...very, very fast....= )

The foam is cut into crown molding shapes, columns, shapes, etc. and then as Sickcall stated, covered with a single finish coat.
They used this a lot as faux bollards at shopping malls...until the skateboard crowd figured out that the plaster is 1/8" thick, even though it looked like solid concrete.......lots of damage was done in that experiment.

[JimmieD]

OOooohhhh, THAT stuff! Got ya, now I know what it is.

[Ugg013]

Guys:

Thanks for the info. I think I'll go with the wire in the Weller thing I heard. Don't want to go with the high amp jobbie cause I'll probably blow out the entire midwest grid and catch big trouble for it. HA! Besides, I'll just be doin some simple cuts.

Later
Ugg