Safety and Hot Wire Foam Cutting

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 04:09:13 -0500, Roger
wrote:

On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:13:30 GMT, Ernest Christley
wrote:

Stealth Pilot wrote:


polyurethane foam breaks down into phosgene gas under the heat of a
hotwire. dont hotwire it. use a knife and surform planer, or
sandpaper.

OK, so who uses polyurethane foam? The blue stuff I see hot wired is
polystyrene foam (Styrofoam (TM)) It gives off styrene which is not
healthy, but you have to get the wire way hotter than necessary to
cause it to break down into the nasty stuff.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com


polystyrene just gives off the expander gas trapped within each bead.

polyurethane is/was specified in mouldless construction for the more
structural areas of an aircraft.

afaik polystyrene doesnt break down in the way ascribed to
polyurethane foams.
Stealth Pilot