Cutting flat Foam
12-08-2008, 12:35 PM
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Cutting flat Foam
Thought I would pass this one along ...
I've been building blue foam planes for the past (2) years, and it was only last night that the proverbial light bulb went off. I've always had trouble keeping the blade of my hand held #11 X-acto knife at a perfect 90 degrees, especially on long, curvy cuts. I did purchase a hand held mat cutter at a local crafts store about a year ago which worked great on the straight cuts but was useless on the curves. What I didn't realize until last night was that I had the perfect tool sitting in my tool box already! It's called the Master Airscrew Balsa Stripper. If you don't already own one, you can pick one up for around 7 bucks, and unlike the mat cutter I have, the #11 blades it uses cost pennies compared to the replacement blades of the craft store tool.
The only trick is that you need to pull the blade in tight against the unit. Works great against a straight edge or "free handing" around curves. I haven't tried this tool on any of the white foam materials (yet), but suspect that in will work just as well.
I've been building blue foam planes for the past (2) years, and it was only last night that the proverbial light bulb went off. I've always had trouble keeping the blade of my hand held #11 X-acto knife at a perfect 90 degrees, especially on long, curvy cuts. I did purchase a hand held mat cutter at a local crafts store about a year ago which worked great on the straight cuts but was useless on the curves. What I didn't realize until last night was that I had the perfect tool sitting in my tool box already! It's called the Master Airscrew Balsa Stripper. If you don't already own one, you can pick one up for around 7 bucks, and unlike the mat cutter I have, the #11 blades it uses cost pennies compared to the replacement blades of the craft store tool.
The only trick is that you need to pull the blade in tight against the unit. Works great against a straight edge or "free handing" around curves. I haven't tried this tool on any of the white foam materials (yet), but suspect that in will work just as well.
