I can’t cut this straight for shit, using a razor to make initial hole, then fitting electric knife in, and going around, the issue for me is the corners, I can’t get them to look good, I fucked up 3 pieces of foam so far, any tips?
Have heard elsewhere that a “hot wire” foam cutter is what you need for precise foam cutting.
Haven’t actually used one myself, but if I was going to try similar to what you’re doing I’d get one (just googled, this came up first, no idea if it’s best or not):
1 Like
Probably going to end up trying that
^ This.
I am too cheap to invest in one of those. Tried to make one using a 9V battery and failed. Ended up buying a knife attachment for my soldering iron. It was not perfect, but was much better than my attempts using a box cutter razor.
EDIT: if you happen to have a soldering GUN, you can prolly make a cutter “tip” with a wire coat hanger.
1 Like
I am VERY tempted to get the Proxxon Thermocut 115/E if I can somehow justify the purchase lol, probably going to end up going with a pen though.
When I cut my Pelican case foam, I made a cardboard template of the firearm, and a hot wire cutter.
I think the hot wire cutter I bought was like $10 on Amazon.
I highly recommend this method, worked like a charm.
2 Likes
how did you end up making a cardboard template? Just trace it with a marker and then chop it up with a knife?
An electric knife you use to to slice a turkey works wonders cutting foam straight!
Traced the firearm with a pencil on a piece of cardboard.
Cut it out with a Olfa knife.
I found it easiest to use toothpicks to secure the template to the foam and cut around it with the hot knife.
Easy.
I tried but I just don’t do well on the corners with it, also have a hard time holding it straight at a 90 degree angle, I feel like it’d work better for bigger foam
You tried with the cardboard template and a wire foam cutter?
You almost can’t screw that up.
Going to try that next, I heard that the small hot wire foam pens don’t work well on polyutherene foam, might get a hot knife
I haven’t tried this but I would look at it like cutting batt insulation.
Make a template out of luan plywood, I would imagine you can get pretty detailed with it, hot glue some wood blocks onto the template, compress the foam with the template and cut with a knife. If the foam compresses well you should be able to get a clean cut.
A quick google search shows free cardboard pistol templates, may make it easier to create a luan template.
Unfortunately there is none for my pistol, I considered getting pelican to custom cut and send me the foam since it’s not too expensive, even got a 3d model of my pistol but unfortunately the 3d model comes with a SRO sight, and I’m not good enough with 3d editing to remove it, so gonna go with the good ol chalk and hot knife, see how it goes.
I live in an appartment, I can’t get any of equipment to do all that lol
I have one of these for my AR pistol. Very nice. Case isn’t as heavy duty as a Pelican but better than an Apache.
2 Likes
Bought a proxxon thermocut 115/e wire cutter, and it’s the best that anything’s worked, still not perfect, but that’s on me, and I’m happy with how it came out (Except the mag cutouts but fuck it I’m not re-cutting)
Looks good.
One thing to remember is do not store your gun in there. Only use it for transportation. If you have any cleaning solvent on the gun and leave it in the foam, there is a good chance it will melt the foam and stick to your gun.
Damn, so where do I store the gun?