Friday, February 15, 2008

hot wire didn't make the cut

Unfortunately the hot wire cutter I have spent so much time on isn't going to make the trip to Fairbanks this year. Even though the project has been somewhat successful, we decided that the method isn't fast enough to use for this year's sculpture. So far my fastest cuts with the device have been at a rate of about three inches per minute.

The only task we had in mind for the hot wire cutter this year was cutting discs (the flywheel and gear blanks). At three inches per minute it would take well over two hours to cut all the discs we require. Instead of using the hot wire cutter, we will use the table mounted chainsaw for this task.

We haven't completely given up on heat cutting. On the contrary, we intend to use hot wire gear cutters similar to last year's model but sturdier. The power supply that I have partially constructed for the single wire cutter will be put to use for this purpose. I expect that future improvements will make the single wire cutter and/or the boiler useful tools one day.

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