How to Make a Hot Knife to Cut Acrylic Sheets

If you need to cut acrylic sheets, a hot knife will make the task proceed much more smoothly. Hot knives can be expensive to purchase, but one can easily be made from an old soldering iron tip. Your investment in this project will only be the cost of another soldering iron tip. Do not use your regular soldering tip for this, since you will be reshaping the tip.

Things You'll Need

• Soldering iron tip
• Pliers
• Goggles
• Hammer or mallet
• Old soldering iron

Instructions

1. Hold the soldering iron tip by the screw-in end with the pliers. These will keep your hands and fingers safe.

2. Put the goggles over your eyes to protect them from flying debris.

3. With the soldering iron tip on top of the work surface, beat the tip to a flat point with a heavy-duty hammer or mallet. Choose a hard surface that will not be damaged by hammer blows, such as metal, stone or a disposable piece of wood.

4. Screw the new cutting tip into your soldering iron and use it to cut plastic, acrylic, foam and anything else you can think of.