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FYI: foam cutting tool at harbor freight

Re: FYI: foam cutting tool at harbor freight

I just ordered one, figured that for that price, its worth a try. I usually cut mine with a Benchmade, so this is most probably gonna work better. Dont really have anything to cut right now, but, when I do, Ill be sure to post a review
 
Re: FYI: foam cutting tool at harbor freight

I have one used it to cut some foam for my pelican case,was very messy and just didnt seem to be hot enough to cut thru the foam quickly,dont know if having it on an extension cord was effecting the temp setting but it made a hell of a mess with alot of smoke even outside it seemed(smoke) to go right back into my face.
 
Re: FYI: foam cutting tool at harbor freight

Was just on their site. I need to go back and add this to my wishlist. Thanks.
 
Re: FYI: foam cutting tool at harbor freight

I've had two of these.

The first one lasted long enough to mangle one piece of case foam, then would not heat up enough to cut anything else. The second one is doing much better. Remember that for the most part, anything bought at Harbor Freight is a crap-shoot.

One big downside to the HF one is that there is no lock for the trigger, so you have to keep mashing down on the button to get it to run. This was cured by taping it down with electrical tape and unplugging it when not in use.

There is a thread here on cutting foam and an awesome external link to a website with instructions and lots of pictures. Using the directions on the external site (sorry, I don't have it available) I built my own foam cutter for less than $50 and two hours. $20 of that was for a large spool of Ni-Chrome wire...which will undoubtedly last the rest of my life. This setup is vastly superior to a hot knife

The HF knife is now relegated to smoothing-out duties, at which it works quite well. If this one dies I'll probably plunk down the cash for a proper hot knife.