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Gregvan

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Hi all, I'm trying to guage if this is the right place to come for some advice on some DIY electrics. I'm from Derbyshire, I'm a climber, a total electronics self taught novice, and I'm converting my van into a camper. I've done all the wiring and everything is gravy with that. Solar is in, battery charger from engine hooked up, fridge in, lighting sorted...all good.

However, I'm trying to cut my foam mattress in half. When I say in half, I mean down it's depth. So it's 1.8m x 1.6m X 0.2m and I'm trying to cut it down to 0.1m / 10 cm depth. To do this I'm thinking I need a hot wire, heated by passing a current through some nichrome resistance wire. Would anyone be able to help me by recommending what kind of power source I might want, what guage I might want to make the wire, and if I need to take any particular precautions?

Many thanks to you all

 
Are you sure the material you have can be cut with a hot wire?  I've never seen that done with upholstery foam. I've only seen it cut on a big band saw.

If it will cut that way getting a straight cut over 1.6m long is going to be challenging. How are you thinking of tensioning and moving the wire and holding the foam?

If you are going ahead then first locate some suitable wire.  If it's around the gauge used in old fashioned electric fire elements then it's going to take around four amps to bring it to red heat.   Hence, look up (google) the resistance of the wire you've found and ohm's law will tell you the sort of voltage you need. Remember that if you go above about 50 volts you are  dealing with a hazardous voltage.  Your power source can be AC or DC, but I think will need to be variable to control the wire temperature. Not the sort of thing that's easy to come by I'm afraid.

I reckon buying a thinner piece of foam would be an awful lot easier.

 
OP - have you tried asking this on any "van" forums - the T6 forum I'm on has a huge number of very knowledgeable people - especially when it comes to converting / adding bits

 

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