Nowadays, when you are thinking about accomplishing your hobbies
generally consisting of model building, you couldn’t have missed
the basic materials for it, which are called foam plastics. They
can be used even in boat modeling, yet there are many things you
should not forget when thinking about using them because there
are several types, each one having different characteristics.
We can name three types of these foam plastics: the rigid
Styrofoam, the rigid polyurethane foam and the beaded Styrofoam.
The rigid Styrofoam and the rigid polyurethane foam have similar
properties and can be given many shapes, while the beaded
Styrofoam can be used only to shape angled and squared forms.
You may recognize it whenever you buy an electrical device as
this comes covered in the third type of the foam plastics: the
beaded Styrofoam.
The second type of the foam plastics, the rigid polyurethane is
a material of a light-brown color; it is alike the Rigid
Styrofoam ,yet there are two main differences between them: this
one will not dissolve whenever coated with polyester resin, and
the second difference is that it is impossible to be cut with a
hot wire cutter( a specific tool used by modelers in their
work).
The first type of foam plastics, the rigid Styrofoam presents
the opposite characteristics of the rigid polyurethane: it can
easily be dissolved when coated with polyester resin and a hot
wire cutter can be used to give different forms of this
material. Moreover, the beaded
Styrofoam cannot be altered by means of carving but a hot wire
cutter can be used to obtain carved shapes. There were several
doubts regarding the way you find these materials and the
purpose of the article is also to clarify this aspect: the rigid
polyurethane is generally sold in panels of 4X8 foot sheets;
this is the case of the beaded Styrofoam too. The Rigid
Styrofoam can be found in pink and blue(the pink type is less
dense than the blue one and easier to carve with a hot wire
cutter), its thickness being 1 or 2 inches. In what concerns the
price of the materials, you should know that Beaded Styrofoam is
the cheapest as its properties are limited, while the Beaded
Styrofoam is the most expensive(can be found only at commercial
plastic suppliers). The rigid Styrofoam has a medium price as it
combines the properties of the other two foam plastics: it can
be sanded, carved, sawed or cut with the hot wire cutter
mentioned above. This tool is similar to a scroll saw consisting
of heated nichrome wire replacing the saw blade, enabling you to
cut in any direction. All in all, the three materials come in
hand when performing your task: both advantageous and easy to
work with, these foam plastics represent the key elements of
model-building. In addition, the hot wire cutter is an advantage
to your work as it can easily deal with the foam plastics and it
is accessible to everyone. This way, the satisfaction of your
work is guaranteed.
About Author :
For quality hot wire foam cutters, architectural foam, foam
coatings, eps foam cutter, styrofoam hotwire manufactured and
supported in the U.S.A. just visit http://www.hotwiredirect.com<
/a>