looking for a hot knife

[stevebo]

I am looking to buy a hot knife to cut fabric. Do you guys have any recommendations, or advice?

[gmcttr]

The commonly used items are a wood burning iron, a soldering iron with a fine point and my favorite...a high wattage soldering gun with a tile cutting tip.

[ahhhgladius]

torch and a butter knife with insulated handle......... dont be dumb if you do this.

[Pag]

Commercially available hot knives like vicwon or Engel aren't really all that much nicer for diy than a soldering iron and a straight edge ruler on a piece of glass. If you're looking to goof around making something cool, I've been thinking about rigging up a 40watt co2 laser in pen mode. Get my inner obi-wan going.

[Moel Siabod]

I just did it this way last weekend and it worked a treat.

[Knotty]

I bought an actual hot knife (soldering gun with a tip that holds and Xacto blade) and found it performs poorly. Just a regular soldering iron works much better. The sharpness of the blade isn't needed and the blade's large surface area allows too much energy to escape so the blade edge isn't hot enough.

[Yojimbo]

Back when I used to make kites, I had a simple wood burning tool where I filed the point to a flatter sharper blade edge. Using this with a 4' corked back metal ruler on a glass top coffee table worked great. Not only was able get nice straight lines bur was also able the use it freeform for various smooth curves. The full length closet mirror worked well too for a cutting surface.

[wildewudu]

I tried a few pen-style soldering irons which ended up being too low in wattage. 40+ watts is good, but what I picked up is a 130 watt Weller style soldering iron. Lowe's has a kit, complete with cutting tip, for around $30.

I picked mine up at a marine supply but it only came with a rope cutting tip so I had to pick up a cutting blade pack from Sears and filed it down into the shape that I needed it. Doesn't have to be sharp, just really hot. With the 130 watter I pull the trigger until the tip is red hot and cut the fabric while it's cooling off (I hate waiting!). Works like a charm and heats up in seconds.

[gmcttr]

...With the 130 watter I pull the trigger until the tip is red hot and cut the fabric while it's cooling off (I hate waiting!). Works like a charm and heats up in seconds.

That's why I like a soldering gun with a tile cutting tip as a hot knife. They heat up fast, have enough wattage so I can use a 6' aluminum straightedge without it sucking all the heat away and cut fast.

A 4'x8' sheet of 1/4" tempered hardboard works well for a cutting surface.

[nacra533]

I have a Weller dual wattage (130W??) gun style soldering iron. I use the Engel tip with foot (so you don't need glass or hardboard under it) for marine fabrics and occassionally nylon. It works OK.

For the thin stuff, I used a cheap 40W?? pencil type soldering iron/wood burning tool I picked up for cheap. It works about the same other than the slower warm up time.

I've found that most nylons don't fray enough for me to worry about hot cutting them because I never have an exposed edge. It's always hemmed.

Momentum frays a lot. I made a thru hiker wind jacket with momentum and after a little handling during hemming, I wished I would have hot cut it or used pinking shears.