# cutting polystyrene



## quizicalkat (Jul 7, 2007)

I'm just about to embark on a habitat making project with polystyrene and wondered what people use to cut it - is a knife better or one of these?

Terrain Scenery Wargame Hot Wire Polystyrene Cutter on eBay (end time 01-Dec-10 10:32:16 GMT)

Thank you


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## spatte88 (Jun 29, 2009)

I use the wire cutters from this company Hotwire Foam Factory, plus they have how to videos on their website. Check out my signature for links to vivs I've built.


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

Depends what effect you're trying to achieve, I do a fair bit of polysculpting at work and use a hot wire cutter, breadknife, scalpel, sandpaper, hacksaw blades, rasp, blowtorch, soldering iron etc..., whatever I have to hand that gives the finish I'm trying to achieve.

For the best results the most important thing is to use the right foam, go to an insulation specialist and get _extruded_ foam which doesn't have the crumbly bead structure of packaging foam, it's not expensive.


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## quizicalkat (Jul 7, 2007)

Graham said:


> Depends what effect you're trying to achieve, I do a fair bit of polysculpting at work and use a hot wire cutter, breadknife, scalpel, sandpaper, hacksaw blades, rasp, blowtorch, soldering iron etc..., whatever I have to hand that gives the finish I'm trying to achieve.
> 
> For the best results the most important thing is to use the right foam, go to an insulation specialist and get _extruded_ foam which doesn't have the crumbly bead structure of packaging foam, it's not expensive.


Ohhhh thank you :notworthy: I didn't know that!

I am trying for a desert effect for my desert iguanas:flrt:


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

> I am trying for a desert effect for my desert iguanas


A useful tool to achieve that wind and sand eroded rock look is a wire brush, brushing it gently across the surface gives a nice striated look like this...


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## quizicalkat (Jul 7, 2007)

ohhhh - thank you again :notworthy:

:flrt:


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