How to Use Foam Cutting Tools

Foam cutting tools are designed to cut through plastic foam with a heated, shaped wire or blade. The heat melts the plastic as you pull, push or glide the tool over the plastic foam, which cuts the foam. The design of these tools is pretty simple. Each has a plastic, wood or cardboard handle, a wire and a power source. These tools can be used to create decorations, costumes and other interesting objects.

Things You'll Need

• Foam cutting tools Power outlet

Instructions

1. Use a sculpting tool to shape and sculpt foam. This tool has a wire stretched between two hinged arms. You can cut straight lines with this tool by leaving the arms in the open position, which keeps the wire taut and straight. To sculpt valleys and curved shapes, push the hinged arms inward to drape the wire into a U shape.

2. Engrave plastic foam using an engraving tool. This tool looks like a long stylus with a handle. The only part that heats up is the tip. This makes it the perfect writing tool for foam projects. You can engrave shapes, letters, numbers or textures by holding the tool like a pen and scrolling it over the surface of the foam.

3. Cut foam using a hot knife. These foam cutting tools look like an engraving tool, except the entire wire heats up rather than just the tip. To use this tool all you have to do is let it heat up and then draw it through the foam.

4. Create special designs using templates and the foam cutting tool of your choice. You can use simple objects as templates, things such as flower pots, wooden forms and cardboard forms. All you have to do is place the template on the foam and use your hot knife or sculpting tool to remove the foam that lies outside the template. You can also use a hot scroll table to create cutouts and other special designs. To use a hot scroll table, select a blade and an angle, and then place your foam on the table's surface. When the blade heats up, push the foam against the guide and cut the shape, curve or angle.

Tips & Warnings

• Foam cutting tools use heat to cut so be careful not to burn your hands when working with them.