DIY Hot Knife to Cut Plastics

[@malcrandall1309]

Luke your very good to camera and confident. Well done that man!

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Cheers mate! :)

[@CanadairCL44]

Great idea, maybe use a higher wattage soldering iron to make cutting easier?

[@BoB4jjjjs]

My thoughts exactly.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Yes I agree, I will have to try with a higher wattage soldering iron. Cheers mate! :)

[@CanadairCL44]

@@MyNameIsLukey Anytime Luke, we're all here to help! :)

[@OldMysticFantasist]

Clever! I use an old soldering iron with a standard tip to melt plastic quite a bit, but never thought to put a sharp edge in like that.

[@ucanleaveyourhaton]

Cool 👍. I will try that ! Thanks… 😬

[@herbetone]

I must come from the bad end of town, because plastic was not the first thing that sprung into my mind when I saw hot knife was mentioned 😏 Good video Luke.

[@BramleyProductions]

Good and idea And well made! Great video, I could also see a use also for cutting nylon ropes to cut and stop them fraying out being a boater! Kev.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Great idea! I think that it could work in that application. I must try! Cheers mate. :)

[@BramleyProductions]

@@MyNameIsLukey Thanks, Luke I also did a TV/Radio repair apprenticeship way back in the 1970s my old boss was always telling us off for striping plastic cable and coax cable with pliers or wire cutters or even worse a blunt Stanley type knife! He said the only way is to use a hot knife or old soldering iron to melt the outer plastic cover of stranded copper wire so as not to break or cut into the delicate strands! So another use maybe to strip wire. A very well thought out build for sure well done. Kev.

[@believeinjesus8862]

You can actually buy soldering units that come with an interchangeable knife tip.

[@bonita-u9ve]

Great idea . although they do sell changeable bits for soldering irons on Amazon I believe that their is a cutting shaped piece.

[@Scorpiomary]

Excellent project Luke. Good job with your tutorial.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thank you! :)

[@Scorpiomary]

@@MyNameIsLukey you are welcome

[@samuelthomasengardio]

I have a soldering iron that I've used as a heat knife for years, I sharpened the tip into a knife edge with a bench grinder, it works great.

[@hommerdalor6301]

evolution: pizza wheel cutter, with an induction coil. Nice job.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Hahaha awesome! This could work lol. Thanks mate!

[@Twistedmetal-qe8kx]

Very nice! A good addition to the old tool chest. Thanks Luke

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Cheers mate! This will now live in the tool box lol. :)

[@manie3232]

Those plastics you can cut much faster with just a pair of heavy duty utility scissors.

[@mikebond6328]

Neato. I’ve got a couple of those horrible cheap soldering irons laying around that I was wanting to do something with. I think I’ll try this. Another idea is to make a little mini solder melting pot. Good job.

[@lnwolf41]

like colin rhenius stated, a higher wattage iron would be better, or use a butane soldering iron. you can by a assorted tip set for $9, one of them is a blade tip. maybe just grind / sand it a bit to get it sharper??

[@danielade9694]

Looks like everybody else is already done it but an extra tip would be to know what the heat level or wattage of the soldering iron is, higher ones will cut thicker and quicker through other Plastics that are thicker as a heads up for you

[@richardsandwell2285]

What a neat idea Luke.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thanks mate! :)

[@barbufodor1186]

Getting better every day Luke.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thank you mate! :)

[@ryanlebeck259]

I like this project. Are there other blades that you could use aside from those two razor edged ones?

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Possibly, I think having diffrent/bigger blade would take longer to heat up. But I dont see why you couldn't use a different blade. I am unsure on this though. Cheers mate! :)

[@ianbigland4618]

Good idea I will try this myself!!!

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Awesome! It's always worth ago. Cheers mate. :)

[@hanslepoeter5167]

Not bad. I've done something simular in the past involving a glow wire to cut styrofoam. That can be extremely usefull. Pick a piece of hardened wire ( these tend to have a higher resistance, leading to more heat ). One single wire taken out of a bycicle breaking cable would be good. Stretch it, span it across 2 fixed points or maybe put a weight on it on the bottom of the thing hanging from the ceiling. Then take a good power supply and send 2 or three amps through. Then push a piece of styrofoam on to it. It'll cut in seconds any shape you want.

[@Derrian753]

I wonder if it could cut waterproof coated fabric without fraying?

[@MyNameIsLukey]

I think this could, I definitely want to try this though . Great idea!! Cheers mate. :)

[@andybaker2443]

Back of the net again my friend. As you're using a corded iron, it wouldn't be too inconvenient to add a fume extraction tube, e.g. 6mm diameter, and a repurposed computer/ CPU cooling fan to drag any fumes away from the nostrils. More of these excellent projects my friend.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Great idea, having a fan to blow away the fumes awesome! Cheers mate! :)

[@binmanblog]

Very useful for nylon ropes. Quick tip for small screws is to use blutack on the end of the screwdriver.👍

[@Teknopottu]

Usefull tip for soldering iron (pun intended) and nice for you to keep the opening text showing for more than a second for us slow readers 😁

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Great suggestion, I can do that. Cheers mate! :)

[@SirChivalRegal]

What did you use to cut the tip off? Rotary tool? Of the soldering iron I mean..

[@stefanguiton]

Genius! Thanks for the great video

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Cheers mate! :)

[@AdricM]

let the heat do the work, did one f these many years ago. eventually i sanded off the sharp part and the tip because you dont need it sharp. and sharp +hot makes it 2x scary to try to use force and non-gentile cuts.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thanks for the tip mate, letting the heat do the work is the way to go! :)

[@iEnergySupply]

A thin sheet of copper would work much better because it has much more thermal conductivity. It would cut a lot faster. That aside great idea!

[@ryanlebeck259]

Robert could show him how to copper plate his new tip dead simple while having the steel "backbone" to add tensile strength.

[@iEnergySupply]

@@ryanlebeck259 Yep :)

[@MikeEatsWorld]

Would this work as a resealer for plastic bags?

[@stevetobias4890]

Good work, just make sure that you let the heat do the work and don't put too much force on the blade. Also careful to use a soldering iron like you used in the video, some have the thermal power switch much closer to the tip of the iron and are not suitable for this application.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

That is something I didn't know, Thank you! I think letting the heat do the work is the way to go. I think I was a bit excited lol. Cheers mate! :)

[@jakeqwaninne8502]

you could just heat the plastic with a heat gun then use a room temp knife and cut rite through the plastic, i do it all the time, your hack is good for more precise stuff that takes more time

[@zylascope]

Great idea. Thanks Luke.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thank you mate! :)

[@tebbi67]

What a wonderful useful idea!...and so simple, why didn't I think of that myself. ..for that, thx for the video

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thanks mate! :)

[@nitrofreakmanho]

Great idea!

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Cheers mate! :)

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thanks mate! :)

[@sharpmerciful787]

Nice idea. Gonna use to cut through some plastic so I can make some holes.

[@endadalton]

Quite a good job done.

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thanks mate! :)

[@brt246]

Brilliant ,time to rename the show , ahhh yes I see it up in lights now ,The Robert & Luke Electric Show 🤗😍👍

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Hahahaha awesome!

[@kathyb-007]

Yes but how do you cut the metal to begin with?

[@francisgill1929]

thank you

[@GofuKyersen]

"Oops" Had to chuckle, but nice hack 👍

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Thanks mate! :)

[@carol7830]

Good idea. Now all I need is a soldering iron. Will a glue gun work?

[@chrishayes5755]

put an induction coil around an exacto blade, more powah

[@victorhettinger4412]

Yea great idea

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Cheers mate! :)

[@user-uk7uu9us1w]

You forgot the hardest thing to cut butter

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Hahaha lol, awesome!

[@EdwardRLyons]

Good idea! I'll have to give it a go. Several weeks ago I tried to modify a spare soldering iron to turn it into a hot wire cutter for styrofoam. It didn't get hot enough to work well. This looks like a much better idea, using the existing soldering tip as a blade holder. Excellent stuff!

[@MyNameIsLukey]

the existing tip that I used was made from copper, I think it has more thermal conductivity so it should get hotter depending on the wattage of your iron. I'm unsure of this though. But it is worth a go! Cheers mate! :)

[@sharpmerciful787]

You didn't even recommend which soldering irons to use.

[@janefarquharson9394]

Robert I used hot air gun directly on plastic box I only need it for planting cuttings cheers hot knife give me an idea cheers

[@lukebieniek9069]

I was hoping to see you scale it up. Im sure I've seen it done, cuiting 55 gallon plastic drums with a hot knife type blade. 🤔🤩🤒🎯

[@rastamanralph6670]

A gas powered soldering iron will work better or a more powerful one with a temp button on. Aldi have good ones in for £14.99. A hot knife for cutting plastic you say!!! 😂😂👍

[@truthseeker3907]

Thumbs up! 👍

[@bagmuk6]

Awesome

[@MACKYBOY-41]

Cool.

[@kemster9495]

Did i miss something that Murray has gotten younger.

[@GeoffTV2]

It's like Pliny, there's an Elder and a Younger.

[@freundlicherhater6085]

When he was testing his wind turbine, he accidentially spun it up so fast it put a twist into spacetime and sent him back 34 years.

[@martynjones973]

👍

[@MyNameIsLukey]

Cheers mate! :)

[@wideawake6501]

Brill 👍🏻

[@stargearproductions]

Can't you just pick a pair of scissors ? will be faster

[@dirkkarmel5209]

Hi Almost a year, after this post. Most important to me: the first few seconds showing how you made the lmife.

[@brainwashed7244]

What a terrible fail

[@dr_ned_flanders]

first

[@MAGnetICus_Attractus]

Last comment I saw.