Re: How to use a hot wire (Kanthal) to cut a plastic bin containing a liquid

From: Lasse (lars.soderstrom_at_tfif.fi)
Date: 07/27/04 

Date: 27 Jul 2004 01:47:57 -0700

Mark Thorson <nospam@sonic.net> wrote in message news:<4105B352.4124FDEB@sonic.net>...
> Lasse wrote:
>
> > Is the needed currency a function of liquid temperature(liquid/solid
> > phase), bin wall thickness and wanted cutting speed or are other
> > factors involved too?
>
> When I was a teenager, I attempted to build a hot-wire
> cutter for Plexiglas. (I was awfully tired of sawing it with
> a hand saw and had not yet discovered those great knives
> for cutting plex.) I learned that the reason you do not cut
> Plexiglas with a hot wire is that it welds itself back
> together in the trail of the hot wire, and the rewelded
> seam is almost as strong as untouched Plexiglas.

Good piece of information. I have an additional element in my setup;
the liquid inside the bin. As the plastic is melted around the wire it
could be that the liquid pours out and cools/lubricates the hot
plastic surfaces, preventing them from welding together again. I'm
certainly not sure about this and am just throwing ideas in the air...
It might be that the liquid evaporates as the hot wire is very hot and
the problem of re-molding is still present...

/Lars

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