How to Make a Styrofoam Hot Knife

In many cases, Styrofoam can be cut with a long, serrated knife, but sometimes you need some heat to slice through the material. Here is how to create your own hot knife to make shallow cuts in Styrofoam, which can be deepened by progressively cutting along the same line until the piece is cut through. All you need for this project is a soldering iron, a hammer and an old soldering tip as well as some safety equipment.

Things You'll Need

• Goggles
• Heavy hammer
• Old soldering iron tip
• Soldering iron

Instructions

1. Put the goggles over your eyes before you begin.

2. Place the old soldering iron tip on top of a firm surface.

3. Use the hammer to flatten one side of the tip of the soldering iron. Use several small taps with the hammer to achieve this rather than a few heavy blows. The smaller taps with the hammer will take longer to flatten the tip, but the tip is less likely to slip, causing injury.

4. Turn the soldering tip over to flatten the other side. You will notice that the tip has been flattened on two sides to form a point which can be used for cutting.

5. Attach the flattened tip to your soldering iron and turn the iron on to heat the tip to cut through Styrofoam.