Prentice,

Search is your friend.  Your request benefits from its unique terms, which include the words 'foam' and 'cutter' and the phrase 'hot wire'.  Go to the OGR Forum Advanced Search page and fill it out this way:

When you click on the 'Search' button it brings back a number of nicely related posts from over the last few years.  I'm thinking that there's a good chance that you'll find just what your looking for in the list of hits that comes back.  From what I see even if it's not perfect it should be close.

Mike

I use hot wire cutters from Hot Wire Foam Factory that I get directly from product representatives at east coast train shows such as the upcoming TCA York show and the Great Scale Model Train Show at Timonium Fair Grounds in Baltimore County, Maryland. Pat and John of Hot Wire Foam Factory are GREAT people with whom to deal!!!!

The photos below are from many years ago at the TCA York Show of a demonstration at the booth of my former business showing how to make and decorate a tunnel. The structure of the mountain is cut, shaped, stacked and laminated pink insulation foam that was formed using a Hot Wire tool.

In the first photo in the undecorated part of the tunnel, the lines between the foam slabs that were shaped by a Hot Wire tool are visible. The tunnel portals and retaining walls in both photos were both cut and carved using Hot Wire tools.

Prentice,

I do not have experience with the table foam cutting units from the Hot Wire Foam factory, however I will second what Randy stated about Pat & John. They are very good people to work with and will help you in deciding on what to get. I reached out with a question concerning the purchase of their hand-held units through their website and John actually called me. We discussed what I wanted to accomplish with their foam cutters and he recommended what I needed and I purchased the items from them at a train show they attended. I'm very satisfied with what John recommended for me.

@pphegena posted:

Hi Everyone

Does anyone have experience with Hot wire foam cutting machines i was looking at 2 different ones the Hercules 8500 DHWT and the Proxxon 37080 Thermocut any opinions on what one might be better?

Regards

Prentice

I have the Proxxon.  It is very well made and should last a long time.  It is limited by the distance between the hot wire and the arm and the top of the arm and the table, so for anything larger than that it won't do.  Also for free cutting a mountain or hill, etc it won't work either.  I bought it because it is well built.

John

I have this one, I bought it used here on OGR for peanuts, it's worked well for me.  Obviously, it's suited for some tasks and not for others.

I made my own.  It has adjustable tension and a much larger and more solid platform:

I used it to make these