Perhaps I have a fetish for hot wires, but I found yet another amazing DIY foam cutting project to try. This one is very work intensive, but the results should be near-perfection.

CNC stands for "computer numerical control," which is nerd-speak for a machine that is controlled by a computer and can cut precise shapes out of materials (in our case, foam). This 5-part tutorial shows you how to put together a hot wire CNC device that produces 3-D foam things! All out of parts from Home Depot!

Imagine the possibilities!! Pop in a template, and BOOM, perfect pieces for a puppet head, ready for assembly. Ooh, I'm drooling already. This beats the foam-cutting nunchuks any day.

Link: http://www.8linx.com/cnc/cnc.htm

Ha ha That's awesome canuck.....but beware,  the operator of the holz her CNC machining station in the wood shop worked with the thing for 5+ years and still had a hard time getting perfect pieces and that machine cost over $100,000!  What kinda software does this thing run off?

What ever happened with the foam-chucks any way?

I'm not sure what software is used, but seeing as I'm not very skilled in electronics, I'm thinking of a hybrid nunchuks-CNC device (an HNC - human numerical control?). With the nunchuks, I foresaw a problem with keeping the wire tight while I manoeuvered both my arms. The armature of the CNC machine is clever with the x-axis and y-axis moving independently, so if I rig up the nunchuks to that contraption I should be able to get pretty good control. In theory.

I'm still waiting for the wife to turn her back so I can steal the heating element out of her hair dryer. Then there'll be no stopping me!! Mwahahahahaaa...