Thread: Sophisticated cutting device for lost foam castings

I can see that your sophisticated assembly facility has similarly specialised precision resources to my engineering works.
I have sent you a PM for IP and resouce collaboration in the near future.
Cheers,
Joe

Gotta love it

Hi Michael,

So simple its brilliant, as are all the best ideas when someone else comes up with them. I would have been messing about with a fixed length of wire and a variac*

Thank you again.

Stuart


*which I dont own.

Do you sell the plans for that?

No plans, but feel free to send me $20 for the privelige of using the design...

Michael

You may see several similar machines coming onto the market soon, but rest assured they will have many different features to yours so that copyright won't be an issue. My soon to be released model plans to use a supercheap charger and a record vise.........

Ewan

Recipe for failure that - incorporating cheap foreign parts like a Record instead of quality components like a Dawn.

tsk, tsk.

Michael

About 20 years ago I was experimenting with a foam cutter, (though mine didn't reach this level of sophistication) though I ended up not continuing on with it.
I used the heating element wire from an old clothes dryer. Not sure if this is Ni Chrome or not but seem to work ok.

bollie7

Hi Michael,

I used to build power supplies for foam cutters, just a simple constant current source. Many happy hours cutting out cores for model aircraft wings.

But, you've drawn my attention to another, possibly more substantive matter of mutual interest...

Regarding the subject of your precision wire tensioning device, you'd no doubt be aware that keeping wire tension constant as the wire heats up is the subject of many patents, and I'm pretty sure your design is infringing on a substantial number of them, Professor Styrene Monomer's patent on the application of coiled high tensile tensioning devices to electrically heated rigid foam cutting elements might be worth further research.

I can be persuaded to keep quiet for a nominal financial consideration...

Regards
Ray

(Damn. He could have me there! )

Tell you what Ray - to keep you quiet I'll give you 50% of all the moneys forwarded to me for the use of this design. (Although the deal is off if none of the patents mention having a dovetail section on the wire tensioner to allow for extra aerodynamically generated down force from cross breezes)

Bollie, it would have been Ni-Chrome wire. The roll I have is from a place that used to make their own heating elements. The only advantage of the wire I'm using is that it hasn't been tightly coiled, highly heated and all that so it's a bit easier to use than a salvaged element.
Electron tamers like Ray also like to use it occasionally for high power resistors as it tends to handle heating better.

Michael