DIY Portable Hot Wire Cutter - How to Cut Plexiglass, Acrylic, PVC

This is a portable handheld DIY hot wire cutter. Made from very inexpensive materials and takes only an hour to build! It's very relaible due to minimum amount of parts, and it's poweful enough to cut foam, cardboard, PVC, plexiglass and acrylic!

It's very simple to make, begin with gathering these parts:

JST connector (female)
Shrink tubing
Alligator clips
Wire (400mm)
Screws
Spring
Wing nut

If you have any questions about this project please comment below!

Music:
Kygo feat. Conrad Firestone Instrumental
Arc North & Mirage - Morocco

Used cameras:
Sony Alpha a55

Video Editing Programs:
LightWorks

[johanneswestman]

The C in PVC is for Chloride(Poisonous)! I do know that you shouldn't cut PVC with a lasercutter due to that, and the same should apply to wirecutting. Just a friendly warning.

[mjyanimations]

You seed a esc servo controller to power the hot wire. Genius

[RMIXMODZ]

Why is a speed controller used? cant you use any linear potentiometer for servo tester??

[nenesundog]

Nice Video! I'm half way through building this.... but you could you tell me what gauge of nichrome did you use?

[suicidaholic]

this is super cool and all but is there a real produced product that will do this?

[cqkrnrd]

Great
A few millimeters larger than the filament used in it

[GumballMachinery]

how good is this at cutting plexiglass? it looked like it was struggling at least a little bit. Will it cut well if you are wanting to make a special design in the plexi instead of just a straight line? great video by the way! love how clever it is! :)

[Edmorbus]

nice video keep it up
Have you more info for wire you use for cutting

[LiterallyJesusChrist]

If you could attach something like this to a CNC table so I could cut out about 10, 000 smallish parts out of a 4'x8' acrylic sheet, that'd be great.

[gabyk]

What dremile do you use can you reply with the link thanks

[mrt]

What the thickest plexyglass this cutter could cut. Thank you

[TechbytesFTW]

Nice Video! i am looking for these videos! Keep it up:) + 1 sub

[FrancisArthurFotografie]

Do you guys have any idea how I could keep the cut spot behind the cutter open, in an acrylic plate? Otherwise some or a lot of the stuff could melt again. I want to work at neat as possible cutting a hole in a large plate, not trying to break the plate when I have to hammer the piece out of the hole for instance. Thnx

[TheHuizenre]

video is super, but the background noise drives me crazy

[mofaz]

Heating wire kon SA mater Ka ha or ketna mota ha

[mopedbanzi]

What did you connect to the servo tester input did you power this also ?