Cutting Foam Core

I've not tried it before but couldn't you remove a rail from a piece of O27 track and use that as a cutting edge?

You want to use an Exacto Knife with a #11 blade.  This blade is designed for fine cutting.

 

use that same #11 blade wild Mary suggested,

make sure you have plenty an switch them often

to make sure you are using sharp blades.

work carefully and don't try to cut through

the foam core in one pass. take 3-4 passes

to carefully cut through the foamcore and you

will end up with cuts that are clean, crisp,

smooth and neat.

I like that idea of using a piece of rail as a

cutting edge for curves!!!

Maybe an exacto knife works better but I used a hacksaw to cut my some styrofoam a few months ago, made a mess though, so maybe an exacto knife will keep it cleaner and no mess to clean up. Cut up some styrofoam that I glued together for a hill.

 

Lee Fritz

Thanks for the tips so far.  My concern is making the correct cut to follow the curve.  This will be a single track down the center of a street.  I actually like the idea of pulling rails off of a piece of track to use as a template.  Because the cuts require multiple passes to obtain a clean cut, that just might be the answer.  Otherwise I would just penetrate the foam and drag the blade along the line using the already in place track as a guide.  I learned very quickly that a single deep cut is asking for trouble.  Will have to try the pulled rail trick this evening.

 

Kobalt Boxcutter from Lowe's..

 

Sharp, cheap. If the blade gets dull, toss it and put in a new one.

 

Gilly

And the old rail as a template worked just fine.  Cannot complete project however due to water flowing where there should be none.  The joys of home ownership.

 

What about using a foam wire cutter?

I'm with Gilly on using a case cutter with a NEW blade especially if I'm cutting a large piece. I also use a #11 Exacto knife, but the handles are too small or either my hands are too big.  I can get a better grip with a case cutter.  As far as cutting a curve, can you find a rounded metal object the right size to use as a guide?

 

D.A. 

Hi 

i use a gig saw with fine blade in it.

 It cuts well and fast.

Search google for "foamwerks" and there you'll find some amazing tools made specifically for cutting foam board in almost any shape or configuration you could imagine and they're tool's are priced right for the working man's salary. I own almost every tool they make and I'd never buy anything else.

what ever you use make sure th have a fresh supply of new blades, The paper will pull when the blade starts to dull.

That won't work.  Foamcore board is foam sandwiched between two sheets of card stock.  Foam wire cutter (hot foam knife) is for foam only.

I agree with multiple light pressure cuts with a guide. Too deep tears out the foam core from between the card stock.

 

I use a box cutter too. Utility knife blades aren't sharp enough. The X-Acto is too small for shaping.

 

The FoamWerks tools do look nice. I rabbet the building walls and bevel the ridge. Freehand is a little tricky.

 

All learned the hard way.

Xacto makes an actual foam core cutter. I bought several from Walmart online. Cost about 1/2 the price as compared to Michael's. Nice little cutter!

After reading your post, I did a search, and found this video on YouTube.  The little gal doing the cutting made me a little nervous because her fingers were too close to the blade sometimes.  

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grljurQ_tcQ

 

D.A. 

I have to second the thought about using sharp blades. I'm cutting a lot of green extruded foam board and I find that the blades dull very quickly. When you examine the blade it stills seems sharp, but it start pulling on the foam and making a choppy cut. As soon as I change the blade it cuts smooth as butter.