Cutting Foam Board

[LeonardS]

I purchased a 4' x 8' sheet of 2" thick Dow Corning Foam Board. What is the best way to cut this foam to get a nice edge? I am going to place this under the telescoping cover and above the inner cover on each of my hives.

[jmgi]

Because of the thickness its hard to get a straight square cut doing it with a long sharp knife like I do, but I don't see why you couldn't cut it on a table saw to get a better cut, or maybe a hand held jigsaw or circular saw. John

[twgreen3]

I use a hot wire. An electric fence wire and battery charger work good. This may not be worth it if you just have a little to do. Table saw does work also just not as clean of an edge.

[RiodeLobo]

Table saw works great, fast and easy.

[mgolden]

Table saw with a carbide tipped finishing blade makes a very clean cut.

Keep your hand on the piece next the fence, cause the blade can catch it and make a nasty gaouge in it.

[BeeCurious]

LeonardS,



How deep is the edge of your covers?

[LeonardS]

The telescoping covers are the Mann Lake units. Probably about a 2" edge. I am going to place the insulation on the inner cover, then wrap the hive with 15 lb. felt/tar paper and fold it over the top of the foam. Then I will place the telescoping cover over that.

[LeonardS]

We had a home builder in the office and he suggested a circular saw with the blade installed backwards.

[crofter]

Caution advised! You really need to control both pieces and preferable use a splitter. I had a chunk suck onto the blade of a table saw and pieces shattered and flew all over. You would not think the blade could get hold of it so!

[libhart]

My POS jigsaw won't cut a square edge on wood worth a darn but it goes through EPS board like butter.

If you're cutting a lot of it though, want a nice edge, don't have a saw already, then here's the way to go that doesn't require storage space. This is the cheap version mind you
http://www.harborfreight.com/130-wat...ife-66182.html

[billybwf]

We had a home builder in the office and he suggested a circular saw with the blade installed backwards.

The blade backwards on a saw is how we cut vinyl and other softer material so it does not break.

[westernbeekeeper]

I used my table saw for the exact same application and it worked fabulously.

[ByGonzah]

What are you using as a moisture board?

[Capricorn]

Last year I used a hand held jigsaw. Worked nice, clean cut. Somewhat messy, but better then the other method I tried, which was a utility knife. I haven't tried a table saw.

[Adrian Quiney WI]

I cut some a week or two ago with a cheap handsaw from Home Depot. It was a lot easier than what I tried last year with a big knife. Also I noticed that the foam was scored at 16 and 32 inches in the long direction which made things even easier.
http://s1110.photobucket.com/albums/...9-02141818.jpg

[LeonardS]

What are you using as a moisture board?

No moisture board, but I will have an upper entrance in the candy board to let out humidity.

[blueribboncookies]

We cut A LOT of this type of insulation when we built our house.
1. Use a long metal straight edge and a carpet knife with a SHARP/NEW blade.
2. Score the insulation as deeply as you can.
3. Place your sheet of insulation so your weight is on the main part of the sheet.
4. Let the part you want to remove hang over the edge of something - a saw horse, a table edge, etc.
5. Use a 2x4 to put pressure on the edge you want to remove until it breaks along the score.
Ta dah!

PS - We didn't have luck with a table saw or a circular saw - too dangerous, too.

[Acebird]

Utility knife or a carpet knife will work as described but it is a broken edge. This edge could be squared off by using a sanding block with coarse sandpaper. This is a bit messy.
As mentioned before a hot wire does make the best cut because it seals the edge. Getting the current in the wire and the wire feet rate takes a little practice to get the best cut.

When I was building cardboard airplanes I cut a lot of this foam for the ribs of the wings and actually built a pentagraph for the application. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some nitenel wire for the cutting blade which is an exotic metal that worked perfect.

[crofter]

Most online RC hobby supply places will have it. Inconel is commonly used but you probably could get away with stainless steel as you would not need a long length exposed. I have cut wing cores for RC planes as Acebird mentions and was cutting 30 inches deep so the inconel can be stretched tighter in that case. The wire needs to be somewhat shy of visibly red so you have to play with resistances and power supply depending on your wire size.

I have cut lots of foam on the table saw and sure got a surprise when I got violent results. Thanks Blueribboncookies. I will still cut it on the table saw but not without a long splitter to be certain neither the sheet or the off cut can move sideways against the side of the blade.

[Keth Comollo]

Table saw works perfectly.