Cutting Foam smoothly???

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Aiden26

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Ok, so I made my first attempt today with cutting some foam peaces. Only problem is that it had a rough edge. So I changed my blade to a new one and tried cutting again. Still a rough edge. Is there some sort of technique to cut foam? Like use a certain amount of pressure or cut at a certain angle or something like that?
 
Can you post some pictures so we can see exactly just how rough looking your cuts are? What are you using exactly to cut the foam with?
 
Ok, so I made my first attempt today with cutting some foam peaces. Only problem is that it had a rough edge. So I changed my blade to a new one and tried cutting again. Still a rough edge. Is there some sort of technique to cut foam? Like use a certain amount of pressure or cut at a certain angle or something like that?

What type of blade are you using? Best blade(in my opinioin) is the #11-z series.
 
For me this is what works best, assuming you are using an x-acto knife. Trace out your part. I like to use a non pencil as it effectively scores the foam. Then I do a very slight pass along a long straight section, but not very deep. Only slightly deeper than the pencil mark. The next cut gets about 2/3 of the way through the foam. The last cut pushes through the bottom of the foam and touches my green cutting mat. After 3-4 of these operations I will use a kitchen knife sharpener to get a new edge on the blade. I will repeat like this until I here the slight "tick" of the tip of the x-acto being broken by a particularly sharp turn on a cut when it gets caught in the cutting mat. Hope this helps!
 
I used a box cutter on my first Halo 4 build. It worked okay, using the same method. The only real time I saw problems was on sharp angles or curves. The blade is simply too long to facilitate that type of cut. You should be able to pick up a x-acto handle, a pack of blades, and a knife sharpener for $15-$20.
 
I use a wood carving/shaping tool by x-acto. it has a longer and more curved blade than usual along with a fat handle which really helps me to get certain angles into the foam. i also have an x-acto set with different blades but I have found the wood carving tool indispensable for making a whole cut through the foam in one swipe.

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I'm still a new comer here and I've seen some problems with my edges coming out a bit frayed looking as well. I usually ignored it on the areas that are going to be glued down anyways but I use my dremel to sand/smooth out the rougher areas on the edges that are going to be seen.
 
I'm still a new comer here and I've seen some problems with my edges coming out a bit frayed looking as well. I usually ignored it on the areas that are going to be glued down anyways but I use my dremel to sand/smooth out the rougher areas on the edges that are going to be seen.

How well does sanding work? I too was thinking about sanding them down.
 
I'm just getting started in EVA foam as well and I bought some disposable stanly box cutters, the ones with break off tips, and I must say that they work wonders, I also think they could be sharper than my x-acto knife. My brother also has really expensive carbide and titanium nitrate blades for his box cutter, but still they don't seem to beat these stanley's! I think part of it is do to a rigidly feel on the blades, there not smooth.

From my experience you need to do a saw like motion, or keep your blade at a sharp angle so you are dragging to blade through your cut instead of pushing.

I would also like to know where you can find a razor blade sharpener.
 
For all of you that want a bit of info via video tutorial for working with foam (cutting techniques, sanding with a Dremel, cutting for contour, detail lines, etc), I have made several videos that you should check out when you get a chance.

www.youtube.com/EVAkuraArmor

One thing that I found out after I posted the video on smoothing out rough edges with a Dremel is; use the barrel sanding bit to do the first pass, then, remove the sanding bit, and use just the rubber barrel to finish the surface. It will make it almost as good or better than the EVA's stock surface :)
 
For all of you that want a bit of info via video tutorial for working with foam (cutting techniques, sanding with a Dremel, cutting for contour, detail lines, etc), I have made several videos that you should check out when you get a chance.

www.youtube.com/EVAkuraArmor

One thing that I found out after I posted the video on smoothing out rough edges with a Dremel is; use the barrel sanding bit to do the first pass, then, remove the sanding bit, and use just the rubber barrel to finish the surface. It will make it almost as good or better than the EVA's stock surface :)



Awesome tutorials I gotta say
 
Buy a set of 100 individually packed, disposable scalpel blades. They are cheaper than exactos and sharper. Also there are tonnes of different shapes and sizes of them to fit your need/liking. Here is a sample of some of the kinds that you can find.
2012-10-14-143145934956.jpg
 
For all of you that want a bit of info via video tutorial for working with foam (cutting techniques, sanding with a Dremel, cutting for contour, detail lines, etc), I have made several videos that you should check out when you get a chance.

www.youtube.com/EVAkuraArmor

One thing that I found out after I posted the video on smoothing out rough edges with a Dremel is; use the barrel sanding bit to do the first pass, then, remove the sanding bit, and use just the rubber barrel to finish the surface. It will make it almost as good or better than the EVA's stock surface :)

Thanks for the videos!
 
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