The hot knife has become a convenient assistant for needlewomen and craftsmen. They can easily cut any synthetic materials. The edges of the products are smooth, processed, thanks to melting, and without effort, easily touching.
It greatly simplifies the cutting process:
- ribbons,
- felt,
- foamiran,
- plastic,
- expanded polystyrene,
- foam and other synthetic materials.
Hot knives are available in three types:
- stationary, equipped with a housing with a power supply and a tensioned string,
- manual, equipped with knives with blades,
- desktop
The models are similar in principle, but differ in results. Each device has a step-down transformer. However, with a string the material is cut only in a straight line, and with the blade of a hot knife you can make shaped products from fabric and other materials.
Advantages and disadvantages
Thanks to the thermal knife, the creation of multilayer products is greatly simplified.
Its advantages for needlework are obvious:
- No need to use candles or scissors.
- The cuts are obtained without soot.
- High cutting speed increases.
- The ability to neatly join the edges of the material.
- Comfortable to work both sitting and standing.
- Backlight,
- Ruler for cutting cut calculations,
- Uneven temperature conditions in different areas.
Disadvantages include:
- Electricity costs.
- Unpleasant odor from materials such as brocade, organza, plastic, which provokes coughing.
- Lack of quality certificates for many models for home use.
Universal scissors with ratchet mechanism
I don’t know which factory makes this design of scissors, because I’ve seen them under different brands. If you put Uponor, Rehau, Kraftool and Zenten scissors next to each other, the scissors will differ only in color.
I think that these manufacturers simply order these scissors from a third-party manufacturer for their own brand. Oddly enough, the cost of these scissors is different for everyone. Zenten and Uponor cost about 4,000 rubles, and Kraftool and Rehau about 3,000 rubles.
This pipe cutter format is the best I have ever owned.
These scissors are equally convenient and easy to cut both small-diameter pipes made of soft materials, such as polyethylene, and hard polypropylene pipes with an aluminum layer.
The maximum diameter of pipes that these scissors can cut is 42 mm.
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Link to spare blade
How to make a thermal cutter for ribbons with your own hands
To make your own hot knife for cutting satin ribbons you will need:
- a simple transformer with a power of 30-60 watts for halogen lamps,
- insulated wire with a cross section of 1.5 mm,
- a piece of nichrome wire 12-13 cm long,
- bolts, screws, nuts.
6 steps to make a hot knife for cutting satin ribbon
- Convert the transformer to 5-volt voltage using the secondary winding.
- Make a rectangular body from wooden blocks with a fiberglass lid, where to fix the transformer.
- Make holders from galvanized bolts 90 mm high and approximately 6 mm in diameter. Secure them to the body parallel to each other.
- Using a hacksaw, cut 12 mm long holes at the bolts of the holders for fastening the wire, which, after inserting into the slots, is wrapped around the bolts and then clamped with nuts.
- Tension of the wire when heated will occur due to the elasticity of the surface material of the device.
- The front panel is equipped with an on/off toggle switch.
Foam Linear Cutting Cutter
To create a device for horizontally cutting foam sheets, prepare a table. Attach a pair of vertical risers with insulators to it. Stretch a piece of nichrome wire between the risers, the end of which is connected to the contacts of the transformer.
When a hot foam cutting knife is heated, the thread cuts through the foam easily and stays taut with the help of a suspended weight. For vertical cutting, the wire is stretched vertically, and a manufactured frame made of metal or wooden blocks is fixed on the working surface.
Cutter for shaped cutting of foam plastic
Processing large foam sheets with a stationary cutter is difficult, so it is better to use a hand knife for cutting foam. It can easily be made from a jigsaw, replacing the cutting part with nichrome wire.
First, the cutting part of the jigsaw is removed. A wire is connected to the handle. They are isolated. Nichrome wire is connected to the cable using nuts. In addition, you can take a soldering iron and replace the heating element with nichrome wire. Thanks to this device, it is easy not only to cut sheets of foam plastic, but also to make recesses in them.
Metal plate cutter
To modify a soldering iron into a hot knife for foam or synthetic materials with your own hands, you can use a copper or steel plate, carefully sharpened on one side.
It is important that the sharpening angle is small, because the material is cut using both the blade and the plate. This device has one drawback - the optimal temperature is selected experimentally. With such a hot knife it is convenient to cut even plastic.
Scratch. Knife for acrylic and more
In October 2022, I was repairing the taillights in my wife’s car (they still work, pah-pah-pah), and in the process I started thinking - after all, there must be a tool in China for cutting plastic and other acrylics, aren’t they cutting it with hacksaw blades? Quick summary: the blades themselves are simply gorgeous. A pen - well, it’s better to look for something else, fortunately there are already options. Well, as usual, I’ll immediately warn you about prices and other things: at that time I didn’t find any better offers. Offline, I have never seen such cutters before or since. So if you have some kind of conventional Leroy around the corner, where such knives and cutters are given out for free, then I’m terribly happy for you, but this doesn’t make me feel either warm or cold. Actually, the product is as simple as... Well, like any stationery knife, yes, and there’s nothing special to describe here. Appearance
The key difference from stationery knives is that the blade is fixed. That is, we move the latch, remove the old blade, install a new one, and push the latch. All. The blade does not hide, it always sticks out. Well, you can remove it and put it inside the knife, but folding it like a regular segment knife will not work.
By the blades. I immediately bought even thinner ones, for digging where regular ones cannot reach. They naturally have lower rigidity, cutting with them is not as pleasant, so only for bottlenecks and extreme cases. Or maybe some kind for figure cutting.
This is what the working part of the new blade looks like:
So - after a year of quite active, but periodic use (and I mainly cut acrylic with it, but paths on circuit boards, and cut dozens of meters with it)
Now - how it cuts. In short, this is how I lived. I specifically took an old Soviet PCB with a thick layer of copper as an example, because when you cut a modern one, you get the feeling that you just need to put a cutter on it, and it will cut through it under its own weight. Here I applied a little, but the force is NOT FAR the same as what you have to apply to a hacksaw blade.
And so - some kind of acrylic, or something like that, thickness 1mm:
For one cut (and in all photos, both textolite and acrylic, this is ONE cut) - well, about 0.5mm. I sawed through almost half the 2mm in a couple of cuts.
After that, it also cuts the paper. Especially the other side 
Now about the cons.
There is only one minus here - the handle, this gray cover, can snap off when applying force. But here, as usual, you don’t have to make an effort
To sum it up: the blades are fire! I don’t know if the quality has deteriorated during this time, but what I have is just a thing. For some time I just scratched everything - it scratches so softly and pleasantly. Is it expensive? Maybe. But one blade per year doesn’t really count. If you’re cutting acrylic, I think it’s even simpler. If the textolite is constant and in large quantities - well, yes, it’s heavier. But economists can also sharpen
Thin blades are more flimsy, in my opinion less hard, and you can’t really scratch them under the ruler. Well, or you need to get used to it.
But I would advise you to look for some other pen. Something like this looks like a more reasonable solution. But I haven't tried it, so it's not certain.
UPD: I forgot one more photo
What you need to know about cutting foam
Due to its low cost, polystyrene foam is widely used for insulation. When cutting, due to the low density of the structure, a lot of debris is formed, which becomes electrified and sticks to everything.
To cut foam plastic you can use:
- sharp knives,
- hacksaws for wood or metal,
- soldering irons,
- "Bulgarians"
- thermal cutters,
- machines,
- jigsaws with heated files.
When using non-heating devices, the material will crumble.
How to cut sewer pipes
Currently I use special Ridgid pipe cutters. I have two pipe cutters. One for pipes with a diameter of 32 and 40 mm, the second for pipes with a diameter of 50 mm.
The plastic body of the pipe cutter has a built-in cutter, which immediately chamfers the pipe when cutting it. Therefore, sewer pipes can be easily inserted into each other, even without lubrication.
The cost of a pipe cutter is about two and a half thousand rubles at the time of writing.
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Buy Ridgid 50 mm pipe cutter on Yandex Market
I cut sewer pipes with a diameter of 100 mm and above using a grinder with a diamond blade for concrete. This disc cuts rather than melts plastic. I also use it to chamfer the pipe.
Assembling a hand cutter on nichrome thread
To make the device, prepare:
- nichrome wire 0.8-1 mm thick,
- a couple of ice cream sticks,
- a couple of metal strips from a children's construction set,
- bolts and nuts with a diameter equal to the holes in the metal strips,
- block for a pair of AA batteries,
- a couple of AA batteries,
- small button.
- Attach wooden sticks to the battery pack. Apply hot glue to their edges and attach them to the battery pack from the side where the metal terminals are located.
- Drill holes in the strips for the cable. Stepping 5 mm away from the battery pack, drill holes in the wooden sticks with a diameter of no more than 2 mm.
- Pass one wire from the battery pack through both holes to a parallel wooden strip. Pin the button. Cut a piece of wire at a distance of 1 cm from the power supply.
- Solder a button on one side of the wire, and a piece of wire on the other. Glue the button to the bar. Use the same hot glue to insulate the soldering areas.
- Drill holes at the top of the wooden sticks. Bolts are inserted into them to secure the metal strips. Screw the bare ends of the wires from the power supply onto the bolts.
- Thread nichrome wire through the holes of the metal strips. Secure its ends with a screw, nut and washer. Remove excess. Insert batteries into the power supply.
Suitable Tools
There are many options for cutting plexiglass 2 mm and thicker at home. We will analyze in detail the most effective and easily accessible ones.
1. Hacksaw
In terms of hardness and processing complexity, plexiglass is comparable to beech. It is enough to simply cut it with a hacksaw or, if the amount of work is small, with a homemade cutter made from cutting blade. For processing, choose a blade with frequent small teeth. First, the workpiece is marked and a cutting line is drawn on it. Most often it is straight. Cutting a curved part with a hacksaw is very difficult. It is good to mark with a felt-tip pen or marker. It leaves a clear trace. You can do it differently. Scratch the line with a sharp nail or knife. You need to saw slowly, avoiding excessive heating of the part. To prevent the blade from sticking, it is recommended to periodically water the cutting area with cold water. The cut from the hacksaw is uneven and requires polishing.
Cutter
It is convenient to use for small volumes of work, when the sheet thickness does not exceed 2-3 mm. Construction stores sell cutting equipment. With its help, straight cuts are made, but curved ones are difficult to make. Before cutting, the workpiece is marked. Then press the metal ruler tightly against the intended line. The cutter is carried with force along the sheet. Do this several times to make a cut about half the depth of the plate. Then they place it on the edge of a table or workbench and break off the edge with a precise movement.
The cut is uneven and needs to be sanded. In some cases, a homemade cutter made from a hacksaw blade for metal is used. They take a blade, sometimes even a used one, and give it a sharp “nose” on a grinding wheel to make it easier to saw. The opposite edge will be the handle. It is wrapped with electrical tape. The homemade cutter is ready. They work with it in the same way as with a hacksaw.
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Jigsaw
For work, choose only a jigsaw with an adjustable speed. It is best to use metal files; if this is not possible, wood blades will also work. Moreover, they should have small and frequent teeth. With a jigsaw it is possible to make not only a straight cut, but also a curved one. True, this will not be easy to do. In any case, start with markings.
The file is placed on the cutting line and the tool is turned on. Select the lowest speed and minimum speed. Try to move slowly so that the saw does not heat up. If signs of melting of the material appear, stop the work and pour cold water onto the cut. Melting is easy to notice. The plastic in the area of the cut becomes milky white, smoke and a characteristic odor appear.
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Electric milling machine
Using a cutter, you can make a high-quality, even cut, but at the same time the cutting unit works quickly. For cutting, choose a cutter with a thickness of no more than a millimeter. Another disadvantage is that there is a lot of smoke during operation, as the acrylic gets hot. Without cooling, it can not only melt, but also foam. Therefore, it is necessary to supply water to cool the cutting area. The easiest way to supply coolant is from a plastic bottle with a small diameter tube inserted into the cap. In this simple way you can achieve a transparent and even cut.
Is it possible to cut plexiglass with a grinder?
Experts recommend doing this only if the sheet is thick enough. Its thickness must exceed 5 mm. Using a grinder, only straight cuts are made; curved ones are not possible. The tool cuts quickly, the acrylic glass does not have time to overheat and melt. It does not stick to the cutting unit.
For work, choose a disk with three large teeth. It is designed for wood processing, but works well on plexiglass.
Assembling a stationary vertical cutting machine
Using a stationary vertical cutting machine is more convenient than a manual one, because you only need to move the foam sheet. This promotes precision of movements.
To make the device, you need a flat and smooth table surface.
- A block is attached perpendicular to it, and a wooden crossbar is attached to it at a right angle.
- Using an angular ruler, mark the point where the filament will pass, and drill a hole with a diameter of 6 mm into which the wire is threaded.
- The lower end of the string is put on a self-tapping screw, which is screwed in next to the hole.
- A spring is attached to the top screw, and a nichrome thread is attached to it.
Rules for carefully cutting plexiglass at home
Cutting plexiglass at home requires certain skills and knowledge. Otherwise, there is a high risk of injury and material damage. Today we will tell you what safe methods of cutting organic glass exist.
Plexiglas, also known as acrylic, polymethyl methacrylate, and metaplex, is a hard, transparent synthetic polymer. Unlike ordinary glass, polymethyl methacrylate is characterized by high strength, water resistance and resistance to various physical and chemical influences.
The material is widely used in industry, construction, national economy, outdoor advertising, landscape and interior design.
To cut plexiglass at home, you can use a regular hacksaw
Cutting plexiglass at home is extremely rarely required. This issue is often dealt with by specialists in workshops that cut synthetic plastic, glass and other building materials. However, sometimes the skills of cutting polymethyl methacrylate can be useful in everyday life.
A hacksaw is available in every home, so this method of cutting organic glass is considered the simplest and most accessible:
- Clear the work surface of construction debris, broken branches, small stones and dust.
- Place a sheet of polymethyl methacrylate on your workbench. Use a marker pen to mark the cutting lines.
- In the process of cutting the blade, control the evenness of the hacksaw stroke and the pressing force. To prevent the material from starting to melt, try not to rush. Otherwise, the cut line will turn out uneven and slightly melted.
This method of cutting organic glass has one significant drawback - the roughness of the cut site. Sand the edges of the plexiglass with sandpaper or a file.
“Cutting plexiglass at home”
From this video you will learn how to cut plexiglass at home.
Jigsaw
To cut polymethyl methacrylate, an electric jigsaw with special files for organic glass is used. Plexiglas files have a special marking - the letters of the Latin alphabet MP.S.
To cut plexiglass at home, a jigsaw with saws marked MP.S is often used.
When cutting the blade, you need to control the speed of the tool.
The higher the number of revolutions, the higher the speed of the jigsaw. At high cutting speeds, the synthetic polymer begins to melt.
The cut area becomes white and sealed - such material is unsuitable for use.
The feed speed and number of revolutions of the file are selected experimentally. Before you start cutting the working blade, it is recommended to practice on unnecessary fragments of polymethyl methacrylate.
An electric jigsaw is used to create straight and curved cutting lines.
Laser
The most convenient method for cutting acrylic is called laser. However, this method cannot be used at home; it is used exclusively in industrial production.
A thin laser allows you to make precise cuts and cut out even the smallest details of a future design or product. If necessary, you can contact a specialized workshop or enterprise that produces organic glass and products made from it. It is recommended to make drawings in advance and apply markings to the polymethyl methacrylate sheet.
The laser allows you to accurately cut even small parts of plexiglass; it is used only in industrial production
other methods
Organic glass, as a type of modern building material, is in great demand among builders, designers and even farmers. Sometimes it is not possible to seek help from a specialist who cuts polymer, so you need to know what other methods of cutting plexiglass exist.
In some cases, the use of a circular or band saw is allowed. A circular saw helps to make an even and neat straight cut, a band saw is used for making workpieces and small parts.
Nichrome thread, which must first be heated well, accurately and accurately cuts fabric with a thickness of 4, 6 and 8 mm. This method is not suitable for cutting thicker polymethyl methacrylate sheets.
Hot nichrome thread is widely used for cutting plexiglass
To cut a single piece of plexiglass into parts, some craftsmen use a slotted screwdriver.
The blade of the tool must be heated with a 25 W soldering iron, pressed against the acrylic and drawn a line. After the polymethyl methacrylate begins to melt at the site where the cut is formed, the canvas is broken manually.
The cut area should be sanded or sanded.
Plexiglass is characterized by low fire resistance; for this reason, it is not recommended to work with this material near an open fire.
Working with organic glass requires precision, care and caution. Failure to follow simple safety rules can lead to dire consequences. Thus, when working with polymethyl methacrylate, it is necessary to wear protective clothing and glasses that reduce the risk of injury or burns.
Compliance with a number of safety rules, the correct choice of tools and a responsible approach to business are a guarantee of high-quality cutting of polymethyl methacrylate.
Step-by-step production of a thermal cutter from improvised materials
For one-time use of a hot knife for cutting plastic or other materials, the purchase is not economically rational.
The most primitive thermal cutter can be made from a guitar string and 5 large flashlight batteries. Connect the batteries into one cell. Connect a string to the ends of this block, creating a closed electric arc that will heat up. When the heated string comes into contact with the surface, the material will melt, breaking into halves with smooth edges. This device can easily handle cutting a sheet of plastic or 2-3 blocks of foam, and then you need to replace the batteries.
How to cut plastic with a special knife
You can use a special knife for cutting plastic if the thickness of the material being processed is up to 3 mm. Thicker sheets are cut using other methods.
- Place a ruler along the line and draw a knife along the guide so that a groove is formed on the surface of the sheet.
- Then the knife is passed several times along the recessed surface.
- Afterwards, a sheet of plastic is placed on a hard surface with the cut facing up so that it is located along the edge of the tabletop.
- To fix the position of the sheet, it is recommended to use clamps.
- It is necessary to quickly and evenly drive the hanging section of plastic down, thus deepening the groove along the entire length until a crack appears that runs through the entire thickness.
As a rule, the result is a straight and almost smooth edge. The process is identical to the glass cutting process. The difference is that you can mark a cut line on the surface of the plastic several times.
How to cut polyethylene pipes
I cut pipes up to 50 mm in diameter with Ridgid cutters. As I said earlier, these pipe cutters remove the bevel and then the pipe fits nicely into the compression fitting.
I cut large-diameter polyethylene pipes with a reciprocating saw with a large tooth. There are cutters for plastic pipes with a diameter of 100 mm and above, but such cutters cost from 50,000 rubles. Therefore, I cut plastic pipes with a diameter of over 50 mm with a reciprocating saw and chamfer them with a knife.
