The Mach 11 Foam-Erator Extreme (Turbo) How-To - VIDEO UPDATE

Some of you folks are using Internet Explorer (why!?) so I resized the pics to help ya out. They don't have any sizing issues now

Now that the mad scientist at GoE Labs has show us how to build a $20 dollar variable hot-wire power supply the question is how do you take advantage of it?

This quick quasi how-to is my solution. You'll also notice later on that I put my foam cutting power supply in a nice project enclosure, rather than a utility box. I need to state very clearly that I only did this so I can rib Pete about how much better mine looks. It it built just like Pete's, and in fact was the second out of the three we've built to test the design. Number three used a single pole SLIDE dimmer. Yours should too, it's only 3 bucks more and it works much better, plus you always know when it's off. Trust me, you'll appreciate this. I still have an Indiana Jones like imprint on my palm from a lack of this very feature.

Before I start I want to state again that Pete deserves a lot of praise for this. If you've ever shopped around for a good one, you'll realize he just saved you a LOT of money.

Why did I build this?

Every year I threaten to toss all my old foam tombstones and start from scratch. It's long overdue as I made them ages ago. Like all of us I get a little better at this stuff every year and the old stones aren't keeping up well with some of the newer props.

I've long drooled over the pro type hot-wire setups, but they seem to start around $150 bucks, and all you get is about a 12" work surface. Seems like a hell of a rip off to me. Once the $20 dollar variable power supply was sorted out and proved a winner, my wheels started turning. I wondered how I can make something a lot better than an entry level pro setup, for a lot less. I was already in for $20, could I make the whole rig for under $50? I'm a freakin' haunter, of course I can!

The criteria was:
* A big work surface
* I wanted to work big pieces, so like a bandsaw I wanted the wire dead center, with at least a 15" throat
* A long wire, for thick pieces

I ended up with a 30x30 table, the wire dead center and a 10" tall wire length. Here's how:

First, I needed to fab up a long "|_|" shape to act as a bow for the hot wire. For strength I chose 1/2" steel stock. Here's an action shot of my buddy Jack helping out with the fab, cutting and grinding the pieces down before I welded them up.

Sparks are fun!

Once the all the pieces were cut I welded them up. As usual my welds won't win any beauty pageants, but they're plenty strong. And yes, there are two. Jack wanted one too, so this was a double build.

Once they were welded up I ground them down for a little clean up

After that I welded some mounting tabs and primered them

As you might have guessed the lower leg will be mounted under the table surface. Here's a pic of me placing the frame on the rough cut table surface so I can eyeball up how it's shaping up

The table surface is 3/4" MDF as I had some laying around. Don't worry, it's cheap. It's also heavy and easy to work with. PSA: it also makes some nasty dust. Use a mask of some sort when you're sanding/cutting it. The dust from this stuff is no good for you.

Once I had the table surface cut, I squared up the piece and I rounded off the front corners. MDF is easy to mill, I just did this with an orbital sander and some 40 grit. I then slot cut it with my router as I'm going to use some T-Molding I have to pretty up the finished product.

With the slot cutting done, I drilled a 5/8th" hole dead center, and then it was Formica time. I had some silver formica on hand that will look and feel slick so that's what I went with.

Fast forward a bit, and I had the Formica applied and used my laminate router to trim to the piece. Then I tapped in the red T-Molding. I made some "legs" out of wood blocks cut from a 2x4. This is just allow clearance for the lower frame leg. After some silver spray paint I mounted the frames and ran lamp cord through the legs (which will attach to the power supply).

I use guitar strings for wires. They're usually a nickel-alloy (perfect) and any "mom and pop" type music store will sell singles, usually dirt cheap. Another nice thing is that they have a ball end, so you pass the string through the bottom of the frame and the ball end locks it, then you pass it through the top leg and as you see I attached two screws that act as a cleat. Just wind it around them a couple times and your done. You'll notice (and this is very important) that I used small plastic anchors from an anchor screw kit as insulators. If the wire contacts the metal frame you're SOL, so make sure you use them or you're going to pop wires as soon as you fire up the power supply. Here's a close up of the anchor insulators, the wire and the cleat setup. I also used a bit of electrical tape here to ensure no incidental wire contact happens with the frame.

For you doubting types keep in mind that the wire only heats from clip to clip, so no, the plastic wont ever melt. And the cleat setup, besides being easy as pie, holds the wire tension wonderfully. With the GoE Labs power supply I recommend a gauge .18 string. Seems to be just the ticket. I ran out and used a .11 string in these pics and it worked great as well, but I had to be careful to keep the power down as it would easily overheat it on full.

And yes, I did have some Owing Corning Foam-ular 250 foam laying around. Cutting out those numbers from it took about 2 minutes. It's amazing how much detail you can carve, and how easy it is. Really intricate scroll work is a snap, and as the cuts are all square so you can cut a cool shape, then put it on end and cut it half for two (or more) mirrored copies.

I hope you build something similar, as this is going to make quality foam projects a lot easier in the future.