Cutting Pink Polystyrene Insulation Foam

[Adam Craig]

Hi everyone, I'm looking to make some outdoor signs with foam and thought that pink foam might actually work.

Can one safely laser cut pink insulation?

Thanks,
Adam

--Edit--

So it turns out that my previous search wasn't goos enough as a recent search did turn up the answer: yes.

So, Can anyone recommend a lower costing material for an outdoor sign? Thanks.

[Gary Hair]

I can get that in 2" thick pieces at Home Depot, 2' x 8', for about $8.00. How much cheaper do you want it to be?

[Dan Hintz]

That's pretty cheap, Gary... I think I pay $11/sheet for the 2". Doesn't seem too bad until you realize it takes 60-70 sheets to cover the average basement wall... that stuff adds up!

[Mike Null]

I cut it faster with a knife. it doesn't make any diffference what size it is. But I pay more at HD in St. Louis.

[Larry Bratton]

I cut it with the laser and it's safe. However, the edges aren't wonderful because of the heat. If your going to make outside letters out of it, try and get the blue color, I have been told that birds won't bother it. They love the white styrofoam. Pink may also be bird resistant. You can glue that stuff with Liquid Nail.

[pete hagan]

The pink stuff works great but everyone is right. Make yourself a wire knife out of a rheostat, doorbell transformer and some nichrome wire. A link on how to make a bow knife is here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-wire-foam-cutter/


Super easy to work with. I use the laser to etch the tombstone at halloween but my homemade wire bow knife to cut the blanks out. Loads of fun and cheap!

Here's one that is not coated and finished. The best thing to do for your letters is to pre coat the blank with whatever waterbased paint you are using for the base color then cover area on the foam where you are engraving with standard sign premask, engrave the letters, paint the letters with a dark water based paint. Then remove the premask and do your final touchup or antiqueing.

[James Stokes]

One thing about using that styrofoam, You can put transfer tape on it then do a light vector cut just deep enough to cut through the transfer tape, remove all of the tape except for the logo you want to keep. Spray the whole thing with enamel paint. That will melt the foam and eat it up. You can then paint it with a latex paint. You can make some nice looking signs by doing that.
I hope that makes sense my medications make things difficult to explain and make thinking difficult.

[Doug Carpenter]

One thing about using that styrofoam, You can put transfer tape on it then do a light vector cut just deep enough to cut through the transfer tape, remove all of the tape except for the logo you want to keep. Spray the whole thing with enamel paint. That will melt the foam and eat it up. You can then paint it with a latex paint. You can make some nice looking signs by doing that.
I hope that makes sense my medications make things difficult to explain and make thinking difficult.


Lyrica? I had the same problem. I was glad to get off of that stuff. It works great but it sure made communicating tough.:(

[James Stokes]

Not Lyrica, They tried me on it for a while but I could not handle it. Right now at night I take 40 mg hydrocodone, 12 mg of tizanadine, {a muscle relaxer} 30 mg of valiums and 400 mg of Hydroxyzine Pamoate {a tranquilizer}. During the day They have me on 200mg of Demoral. I do have problems with simple things because of all of them. I have been on these drugs for about 5 years and have built up a tolorence to them. The higher my tolorence level gets the larger my doses get. I am in a no win situation.

[Dan Hintz]

5 years?! Good googely moogely!