R
Rich Grise, Plainclothes Hippie
http://www.neodruid.org/images/CutFoam-640x480.jpg
Whoa, dude! I was interested in the thread about cutting styrofoam with a
hot wire. Well, some months ago I saw a hank of nichrome wire on ebay, for
a couple of bucks, which he said was #36, and just today I mic'd it [yes,
that's proper use of the apostrophe - go look it up! - Rich the Pedagogue]
at about .0047, maybe .0048. The thou on Joe's mic are like an eighth of
an inch apart, so I had to interpolate the tenths.
Anyway, in the ad that I bought it from, it said, "28 ohms per foot." I
ohmed it out, and it was within as close as I could get the probes to a
foot apart.
BTW, the reason I bought it is because I was entertaining fantasies of
building a THC evaporator. [still am, actually - Rich the proofreader]
But that's a different story. %-) What prompted this post is that I have a
"7.5VDC, 1A" wall wart that came with some kind of radio that somebody
threw away, a set of Radio Shack clip leads, and this nichrome wire.
"Hmm", I says to meself. Did I say I'm still stoned from that ONE HIT!??)
But I remembered that "cut foam with a hot wire?" thread, and I thought,
what's the worst that could happen? So I took a piece almost a foot long,
clipped the clip leads to the ends - you can barely see the red-booted
clip and red VOM lead, which for the pic have been disconnected. I just
clipped the wall wart to a piece of this nichrome wire, on top of a couple
of pieces of ceramic tile I'd scrounged, and it didn't get red, but it got
uncomfortably warm to the touch, like, if I'd held it tightly between
thumb and finger, it'd have left a mark in a few seconds. I don't know how
to estimate temp, but I'd say more than 120 F, but decidedly less than
450! So, anyways, this nichrome wire is lying there dissipating heat,
and I grabbed this styrofoam block, and picked up the wire by the clips,
and, well, I cut the styrofoam. It was kind of a weird feeling,
actually - I felt almost no resistance (in the mechanical sense) as if I
were cutting butter, please excuse the trite hackneyed cliche. ;-)
Just for context, in the pic you can still see the nichrome wire, and it
looks like it goes into the right-hnad corner of the small block and out
of the top corner? Well, here's the thing. I was so freaking excited at my
wonderful new discovery that I left the wire lying about where you see it
in the picture, and by the time I got around to unclipping the leads from
the wall wart plug, the wire had already melted itself into the botttom of
the small block.
The cavity that looks like a hole somebody tried to drill, who didn't know
what an ordinary drill bit will do to that type/form of styrofoam, is a
hole somebody (I) tried to drill, not knowing what an ordinary drill bit
will do to that type/form of styrofoam. ;-)
But the way the wire cut through it! I did feel the difference, but that
cut is amazing! I did that by hand! Imagine if I put it in some kind of
fixture!
BWAHAHAHAHAAAA! Styrofoam cut to your spec - $0.12 per square inch of new
surface!! ;-D ;-D ;-D
http://www.neodruid.org/images/CutFoam-640x480.jpg
BTW, if you get another server error, please, please let me know, because
as I've said, I'm inside the firewall, and I have to trust my own
blundering configurations to expose just the right stuff to the outside
world. Damn, I'm still stoned, on that one hit, and it's been a couple
hours! I might have another little hit soon though, since it _has_ been a
couple hours. %-}
Oh, yeah, before I hit "send" if you're wondering where that particular
particularly nice block of styrofoam came from, it was in a box that
somebody had shipped some big light bulbs that they've installed in the
shop. Like the size of a 1,000 watt bulb, but halogen or mercury or
something - anyway these big bulbs were packaged in these cool blocks of
foam. (inside corrugated cardboard boxes, of course.)
Cheers!
Rich
Whoa, dude! I was interested in the thread about cutting styrofoam with a
hot wire. Well, some months ago I saw a hank of nichrome wire on ebay, for
a couple of bucks, which he said was #36, and just today I mic'd it [yes,
that's proper use of the apostrophe - go look it up! - Rich the Pedagogue]
at about .0047, maybe .0048. The thou on Joe's mic are like an eighth of
an inch apart, so I had to interpolate the tenths.
Anyway, in the ad that I bought it from, it said, "28 ohms per foot." I
ohmed it out, and it was within as close as I could get the probes to a
foot apart.
BTW, the reason I bought it is because I was entertaining fantasies of
building a THC evaporator. [still am, actually - Rich the proofreader]
But that's a different story. %-) What prompted this post is that I have a
"7.5VDC, 1A" wall wart that came with some kind of radio that somebody
threw away, a set of Radio Shack clip leads, and this nichrome wire.
"Hmm", I says to meself. Did I say I'm still stoned from that ONE HIT!??)
But I remembered that "cut foam with a hot wire?" thread, and I thought,
what's the worst that could happen? So I took a piece almost a foot long,
clipped the clip leads to the ends - you can barely see the red-booted
clip and red VOM lead, which for the pic have been disconnected. I just
clipped the wall wart to a piece of this nichrome wire, on top of a couple
of pieces of ceramic tile I'd scrounged, and it didn't get red, but it got
uncomfortably warm to the touch, like, if I'd held it tightly between
thumb and finger, it'd have left a mark in a few seconds. I don't know how
to estimate temp, but I'd say more than 120 F, but decidedly less than
450!
So, anyways, this nichrome wire is lying there dissipating heat,and I grabbed this styrofoam block, and picked up the wire by the clips,
and, well, I cut the styrofoam.
It was kind of a weird feeling,actually - I felt almost no resistance (in the mechanical sense) as if I
were cutting butter, please excuse the trite hackneyed cliche. ;-)
Just for context, in the pic you can still see the nichrome wire, and it
looks like it goes into the right-hnad corner of the small block and out
of the top corner? Well, here's the thing. I was so freaking excited at my
wonderful new discovery that I left the wire lying about where you see it
in the picture, and by the time I got around to unclipping the leads from
the wall wart plug, the wire had already melted itself into the botttom of
the small block.
The cavity that looks like a hole somebody tried to drill, who didn't know
what an ordinary drill bit will do to that type/form of styrofoam, is a
hole somebody (I) tried to drill, not knowing what an ordinary drill bit
will do to that type/form of styrofoam. ;-)
But the way the wire cut through it! I did feel the difference, but that
cut is amazing! I did that by hand! Imagine if I put it in some kind of
fixture!
BWAHAHAHAHAAAA! Styrofoam cut to your spec - $0.12 per square inch of new
surface!! ;-D ;-D ;-D
http://www.neodruid.org/images/CutFoam-640x480.jpg
BTW, if you get another server error, please, please let me know, because
as I've said, I'm inside the firewall, and I have to trust my own
blundering configurations to expose just the right stuff to the outside
world. Damn, I'm still stoned, on that one hit, and it's been a couple
hours! I might have another little hit soon though, since it _has_ been a
couple hours. %-}
Oh, yeah, before I hit "send" if you're wondering where that particular
particularly nice block of styrofoam came from, it was in a box that
somebody had shipped some big light bulbs that they've installed in the
shop. Like the size of a 1,000 watt bulb, but halogen or mercury or
something - anyway these big bulbs were packaged in these cool blocks of
foam.
(inside corrugated cardboard boxes, of course.)Cheers!
Rich
