bought my machine today and watched this vid while i await it being shipped, glad I did too because you saved me a lot of day 1 headaches and some choice words!
Thank you for this tutorial video. I just received my proxxon yesterday and was really wondering what and how to precisely do certain cuts. Your video opened a lot of opportunities.
Thank you so much for this video. I just picked up a Proxxon, and I was having all sorts of issues. I have zero background in carpentry or woodworking (or metalworking, or plastic working), so I have no skills that I can transfer over to foamworking. This primer gives me a *lot* of the information I was missing.
Tip: you can use a piece of sacrificial foam to prevent the wire from hitting the fence (and melting your foam because it's stationary) when using the shorter edge of the proxxon.
i guess im randomly asking but does any of you know a way to log back into an Instagram account?? I was stupid forgot my login password. I love any tricks you can give me.
@Santiago Micah thanks for your reply. I got to the site on google and im waiting for the hacking stuff now. Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
To get a straight edge, I place the foam on the fence and run the fence on the narrow end as a rip guide. That will get you a straight edge. I then move the fence back to the long end and use the straight edge as the cutting surface.
One thing that you didn't mention, that I've found helpful when trying to cut an uneven edge into a straight one: when holding the piece steady for that first "manual" cut, use the grid as a visual guide for getting the angle right.
New Proxxon owner here, and this was super-helpful! I picked up some practical tips, but you also got my brain working in a way it hasn't since sophomore-year geometry classes. I've got loads more ideas for how to use this now. Thank you!
Came here specifically to see how to cut very accurate angles with how squishy and unstable the stock fence is. Sounds like I was doing it right and it just kinda sucks overall. Wish I would have ordered the shifting sands fence before the Proxxon at this point. The video is well done and the information was excellent. I do appreciate it and it gave me an answer to the exact question I had.
My Proxxon arrived today. I got it to build war-game terrain. My goal is to have a few unique pieces that can be used for both Infinity skirmish games and larger 40K battles. I really appreciate you putting this video together. Found you via Black Magic Craft. Thx!
I finally bought a Proxxon cutter last week. Found one barely used on ebay for a good deal. Should have been here Monday, but the damn post office misdirected it and it's still not here yet. They must have thought it was a box of mail-in ballots. This video came out at just the right time.
@@TheTabletopEngineer It still hasn't shown up. Tracking had it 2 towns over on the 3rd. No indication of where it's at since then. I'll be contacting paypal and ebay for my money back if it doesn't show tomorrow.
Hello, I congratulate you on the great video you have made, for those of us who have no idea how this is going. I just bought a Proxxon and I still haven't mastered the machine very well. One of my many doubts is how to make a piece square. Example: I have a rectangle with all sides with ripples. How would I have to make sure that all sides are square? I hope you will help me on this issue. Thank you. Best regards.
Thank you kindly for making this video. Can you help me figure out why my wire won’t feed through the hole at the base of the cutter? Every time I feel I give gotten it threaded through the hole and I tighten it, it comes right out. It feels like it’s not feeding through the tiny hole and not allowing enough through for the screw to catch the wire in order tighten it. Any help please would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for this! Great info & learned a lot, but there is one thing that I'm not able to figure out: I have a piece of XPS foam that's just a bit larger than 2' x 2', but only two of its corners are perfectly square / 90º... how do I make the other two corners perfectly square?
I appreciate you making this instructional video. I just purchased and totally unsure how to use other than cutting white foam. Can you show how to cut circles. I'm a Christmas village person. Thank you
Thank you so much for making this! My fence is so stiff and hard to move along it’s track. How can I loosen it? There’s no way I could slide it along the track to make bevel cuts like your last method
There are a few weaknesses to that machine, but those are easily fixed. Like the bit with the center point when you make angled cuts. A cylindrical sleeve made of a plastic with a higher melting point can be slid over the wire to keep it from shifting too much inside that cylindrical hole.
I recently bought my Proxxon and these tips will help my a lot. So thank you! My only question is, what kind of foam are you using for this? I've tried with some foam that I had in my house but it always gets a sticked piece of it burning in the wire during every cut.
Love the video very helpful thank you! My proxxon keeps cutting out and blue sparks from the wire groove on the end of the arm near the reel of wire at the top, any ideas? I think it's because the spool of wire unravelled when I was setting it up so is it important to have the wire wrapped around tightly around the spool or?
Very useful video. Just purchased one and a quick question: How hot does the wire get? Once I get past '3' on the heat setting, it glows red. Should it be this hot?
Just got my cutter, I went with the Hercules instead of the Proxxon. Still a good video for either thank you for making the video. for the 30 degree cut if you moved the silver bar to your right where it misses the wire you can just slide it normally for the cut.
Nice video. I have had my Proxxon for about a year. I would add that you do not want to let any of the foam melt down into that brass ring or it will be difficult getting new wire through the hole. I have to use a micro needle from an insulin pen to clear the hole as a straight pen is too big.
Do you have the stl file for that 3D printed straight edge jig or know a place to get it? Just got my proxxon today and that jig seems like a very useful tool until I get better with it.
Hello i have a horizontal home made foam cutter. When i link the energy the wire cutter line makes a curve when stays hot. How can i avoide that curve??
You said that you didnt know of a better way to make that 30 degree angle cut than with tape and turning the machine off when it hit the metal. Slide the fence so that it is just out of range of the wire before you make the cut.
Great job covering lots of tips, one item that would be nice covering is milling long pieces of foam - I’ve noticed really long pieces it becomes tricky to feed the foam, keep things straight etc
@@TheTabletopEngineer exactly me too - its a tricky one especially if you try milling through 4 ft long sections of xps - never turns out exactly as I want lol
Yeah, when my fingers get close to the wire as I'm pushing the foam (and trying to also keep the fence straight) and I reposition them to continue the cut, the wire melts an extra bit of foam where it "stalls".
Don't know if you're still active but here it goes. I got trouble with some "arch" lines forming at the edge where I cut it. Do you know how to get rid of them?
I just set up my Proxxon last night and murdered a poor defenseless piece of foam trying it out and testing a circle jig I made. One question, when I cut slower on a lower heat you can see lines on the cut that are wavy from the wire bending but fell smooth, is that normal?
Great video to get the basics and slightly above basic concepts. Do you ever release your .stl files for the things your create like the rail jig. Thank you for you continuous contributions to the Crafting community.
I'm not sure what yoga blocks are... are they thicker and heavier than XPS? If so, the Proxxon won't help you there... blade or machine cut most likely.
bought my machine today and watched this vid while i await it being shipped, glad I did too because you saved me a lot of day 1 headaches and some choice words!
I so wish this video existed when I started using my Proxxon. Very informative information. I hope this video gets to everyone who needs it.
Same here. But even those new to Proxxon must learn by doing. Hopefully the video just gets them up to speed a bit faster.
@@TheTabletopEngineer totally agree with you. I'm glad you did this video.
Hi, I also join the list of people saying thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I am new in this hobby and the idea with the angle cutting was great!!!!!!!!!
Mark wasn’t alone in his wish...Thanks for doing this!
Happy to do it!
Thank you for this tutorial video. I just received my proxxon yesterday and was really wondering what and how to precisely do certain cuts. Your video opened a lot of opportunities.
Thank you so much for this video. I just picked up a Proxxon, and I was having all sorts of issues. I have zero background in carpentry or woodworking (or metalworking, or plastic working), so I have no skills that I can transfer over to foamworking. This primer gives me a *lot* of the information I was missing.
You are born to be a teacher, excellent tutorial in every respect.
Tip: you can use a piece of sacrificial foam to prevent the wire from hitting the fence (and melting your foam because it's stationary) when using the shorter edge of the proxxon.
i guess im randomly asking but does any of you know a way to log back into an Instagram account??
I was stupid forgot my login password. I love any tricks you can give me.
@Santiago Micah thanks for your reply. I got to the site on google and im waiting for the hacking stuff now.
Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
@Santiago Micah It did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. Im so happy:D
Thank you so much, you saved my account!
@Walter Lucca you are welcome :D
To get a straight edge, I place the foam on the fence and run the fence on the narrow end as a rip guide. That will get you a straight edge. I then move the fence back to the long end and use the straight edge as the cutting surface.
Yep... that'll do it.
I'm not quite following. Would you mind making a quick video?
Great video to get the proxxon thermocut basics!.... and thanks God Proxxon uses the metric system :-)
Thanks!
One thing that you didn't mention, that I've found helpful when trying to cut an uneven edge into a straight one: when holding the piece steady for that first "manual" cut, use the grid as a visual guide for getting the angle right.
New Proxxon owner here, and this was super-helpful! I picked up some practical tips, but you also got my brain working in a way it hasn't since sophomore-year geometry classes. I've got loads more ideas for how to use this now. Thank you!
Glad it helped!
Thanks a lot , I'm just starting to build my physical models and your tips are very useful.
Mate if you like it, I like it. Just ordered one for the team. Thanks.
Thank you. This really answered a lot of my questions on how to use this machine.
Came here specifically to see how to cut very accurate angles with how squishy and unstable the stock fence is. Sounds like I was doing it right and it just kinda sucks overall. Wish I would have ordered the shifting sands fence before the Proxxon at this point.
The video is well done and the information was excellent. I do appreciate it and it gave me an answer to the exact question I had.
This is great. I am about to start making dioramas. Thanks for putting this video together :-)
Yes thanks for showing us this, really helpful and such a lot of great advice
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for sharing this, very helpful
My Proxxon arrived today. I got it to build war-game terrain. My goal is to have a few unique pieces that can be used for both Infinity skirmish games and larger 40K battles. I really appreciate you putting this video together. Found you via Black Magic Craft. Thx!
I finally bought a Proxxon cutter last week. Found one barely used on ebay for a good deal. Should have been here Monday, but the damn post office misdirected it and it's still not here yet. They must have thought it was a box of mail-in ballots.
This video came out at just the right time.
Have fun with it... very useful tool!
@@TheTabletopEngineer
It still hasn't shown up. Tracking had it 2 towns over on the 3rd. No indication of where it's at since then. I'll be contacting paypal and ebay for my money back if it doesn't show tomorrow.
Thank you. That was great! You helped more than just Mark.
Just got mine today. This is very helpful
I love my Proxxon cutter "shifting lands" has a really nice replacement guide and many other MDF jigs for this cutter
This was very informative. Thank you for producing this video.
Glad it was helpful!
Hello, I congratulate you on the great video you have made, for those of us who have no idea how this is going. I just bought a Proxxon and I still haven't mastered the machine very well. One of my many doubts is how to make a piece square. Example: I have a rectangle with all sides with ripples. How would I have to make sure that all sides are square? I hope you will help me on this issue. Thank you. Best regards.
Thank you kindly for making this video. Can you help me figure out why my wire won’t feed through the hole at the base of the cutter? Every time I feel I give gotten it threaded through the hole and I tighten it, it comes right out. It feels like it’s not feeding through the tiny hole and not allowing enough through for the screw to catch the wire in order tighten it. Any help please would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for this! Great info & learned a lot, but there is one thing that I'm not able to figure out: I have a piece of XPS foam that's just a bit larger than 2' x 2', but only two of its corners are perfectly square / 90º... how do I make the other two corners perfectly square?
Great video. I’m going to buy one off Amazon
I appreciate you making this instructional video. I just purchased and totally unsure how to use other than cutting white foam. Can you show how to cut circles. I'm a Christmas village person. Thank you
Thank you so much for making this! My fence is so stiff and hard to move along it’s track. How can I loosen it? There’s no way I could slide it along the track to make bevel cuts like your last method
There are a few weaknesses to that machine, but those are easily fixed.
Like the bit with the center point when you make angled cuts. A cylindrical sleeve made of a plastic with a higher melting point can be slid over the wire to keep it from shifting too much inside that cylindrical hole.
I recently bought my Proxxon and these tips will help my a lot. So thank you! My only question is, what kind of foam are you using for this? I've tried with some foam that I had in my house but it always gets a sticked piece of it burning in the wire during every cut.
Love the video very helpful thank you! My proxxon keeps cutting out and blue sparks from the wire groove on the end of the arm near the reel of wire at the top, any ideas?
I think it's because the spool of wire unravelled when I was setting it up so is it important to have the wire wrapped around tightly around the spool or?
Dude, very, very helpful video - Thank You !!!
I got the Hercules it got good reviews also I hope I don't have any issues
Very useful video. Just purchased one and a quick question: How hot does the wire get? Once I get past '3' on the heat setting, it glows red. Should it be this hot?
Just got my cutter, I went with the Hercules instead of the Proxxon. Still a good video for either thank you for making the video.
for the 30 degree cut if you moved the silver bar to your right where it misses the wire you can just slide it normally for the cut.
jesse rulo I hope the Hercules works well for you.
The last part of angle cutting is good. Too bad the instructions hadn't included that for some techniques.
Nice video. I have had my Proxxon for about a year. I would add that you do not want to let any of the foam melt down into that brass ring or it will be difficult getting new wire through the hole. I have to use a micro needle from an insulin pen to clear the hole as a straight pen is too big.
Good advice.
A drop of acetone or nail varnish remove can unclog the hole if that does happen.
I used an old guitar string to clear the hole. Great video!!
Do any of you know if a regular needle might work? Mine doesn’t appear to feed through the hole at all.
Do you have the stl file for that 3D printed straight edge jig or know a place to get it? Just got my proxxon today and that jig seems like a very useful tool until I get better with it.
thanks for this vid, it really helped me, now i can start my model :)
thanks for your video and time very informative
Very good, thanks for sharing
Hello i have a horizontal home made foam cutter. When i link the energy the wire cutter line makes a curve when stays hot. How can i avoide that curve??
HI, just get thermocut and i have problem to cut right. have you the tool's stl you use so i can print it ? Thx to you
You said that you didnt know of a better way to make that 30 degree angle cut than with tape and turning the machine off when it hit the metal. Slide the fence so that it is just out of range of the wire before you make the cut.
Great job covering lots of tips, one item that would be nice covering is milling long pieces of foam - I’ve noticed really long pieces it becomes tricky to feed the foam, keep things straight etc
I've not really found any way to handle this other than slow and with as many fingers pressing the piece against the fence. I'll ponder on it.
@@TheTabletopEngineer exactly me too - its a tricky one especially if you try milling through 4 ft long sections of xps - never turns out exactly as I want lol
Yeah, when my fingers get close to the wire as I'm pushing the foam (and trying to also keep the fence straight) and I reposition them to continue the cut, the wire melts an extra bit of foam where it "stalls".
Thank you very helpful.
Don't know if you're still active but here it goes.
I got trouble with some "arch" lines forming at the edge where I cut it.
Do you know how to get rid of them?
Some folks will do a light sanding on the foam to get rid of them.
I just set up my Proxxon last night and murdered a poor defenseless piece of foam trying it out and testing a circle jig I made. One question, when I cut slower on a lower heat you can see lines on the cut that are wavy from the wire bending but fell smooth, is that normal?
so helpfull and love your efficiency of explaining things :D
Birgir Stefánsson thank you.
Amazing! thank you very much for this video
My pleasure!
Great video to get the basics and slightly above basic concepts. Do you ever release your .stl files for the things your create like the rail jig. Thank you for you continuous contributions to the Crafting community.
Dale, I'll hunt those down and put them on The Tabletop Engineer Facebook page in the FILES section. Give me today to find them.
Okay, they're in the FILES section now.
When cutting foam with a hot wire, do you need to do anything to protect from fumes?
Ideally yes, fumes are toxic.
any idea what that screw is for?
Can you cut paper faced foam board say with a ply master pattern...(Dollar Tree foam board)
Is it possible to do round cuts? If so, would you do a video on how to. Thanks
Stick a thumbtack through a piece of tape and stick it on the baseplate. That's your centerpoint.
The name of the material that is removed is called "kerf"...
Hi from the uk I’m looking at cutting Eva foam ie yoga blocks into circles can you help
I'm not sure what yoga blocks are... are they thicker and heavier than XPS? If so, the Proxxon won't help you there... blade or machine cut most likely.
@@TheTabletopEngineer they are what you use when exercising
How can i make an octagon shape? It’s been driving me nuts!!
You’d have to do a little bit of geometry to get the square the right size to cut first before trimming the angled four edges
Stupid question - but what kind of foam is that?
It's called XPS foam... insulation foam from hardware stores.
Just notice but not mentioned in manufacturer directions. You cut off after each cut. Why?
Cut gap of material...is called a kerf.
check out the proxxon guiders from shiftingland.com
Was this recorded with a Nokia flip phone? It's a slideshow.
My brother in Christ, those are not centimeters.
Wow a 45 min video that could have been about 6 min tops. 🙄
Does this have a USA plug????