TA462 rrebell: On the part of the fumes, they can irritate but are not harmful as the unit can not get to a toxic level of heat, that is not true of others so I try to only use the WS one when indoors. HOLD ON DUDE!!!! That is so not true. If you can smell the foam while cutting then it is giving off fumes. Foam, any kind of foam when heated up enough to give off fumes is a carcinogen. Your giving some very poor advice that could hurt someones health.
rrebell: On the part of the fumes, they can irritate but are not harmful as the unit can not get to a toxic level of heat, that is not true of others so I try to only use the WS one when indoors.
On the part of the fumes, they can irritate but are not harmful as the unit can not get to a toxic level of heat, that is not true of others so I try to only use the WS one when indoors.
HOLD ON DUDE!!!! That is so not true. If you can smell the foam while cutting then it is giving off fumes. Foam, any kind of foam when heated up enough to give off fumes is a carcinogen. Your giving some very poor advice that could hurt someones health.
Unless you are trying to breath the little amount of fumes it does give off, you'll be fine. No need to scare enerybody who has used on indoors, sir (Edit: if one has a respitory desease, ya might want to be careful)
"Mess with the best, die like the rest" -U.S. Marine Corp
MINRail (Minessota Rail Transportaion Corp.) - "If they got rid of the weeds what would hold the rails down?"
And yes I am 17.
WS has the best customer service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There switches are not good, even tried to put in a new switch but didn't heat sink enough so fried a part soldering it. They need a new switch!!!!!! On the part of the fumes, they can irritate but are not harmful as the unit can not get to a toxic level of heat, that is not true of others so I try to only use the WS one when indoors.
GP-9_Man11786 Thank you all for your suggestions. We tried tightening the wire to no avail. Long story short, we gave up and contacted Woodland Scenics who cheerfully and quickly offered to send us a new one.
Thank you all for your suggestions. We tried tightening the wire to no avail. Long story short, we gave up and contacted Woodland Scenics who cheerfully and quickly offered to send us a new one.
well, now, that sounds like GREAT Customer Service!!!
{either that or they know they are defective?}
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
I also get intermitent power from the thumb/slide switch ,I think its a poor quality switch .
I also remove the lil screw/wire holders and just wrap the cutting wire around the ends at the groves ,it seems to make it easier to retension the wires and I just leave the extra wire hang off . The constant retensioning is a pain in the back side
oh and you need to keep the lower screws tite two (the ones where the metal rods mount too the handle) ...Jerry
When the wire gets hot it stretches easily. You may have to tighten it from time to time.
If you think the transformer has failed, disconnect the hot wire and measure the voltage between the two contacts where it connects.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I have one - and occasionally the plug from the power unit that connects into the handle will come loose. It's not loose enough to fall out but the plug backs out far enough that the electrical connection breaks.
I second the response that says do not breathe the vapors. When I do more than a couple of trim cuts I do it outdoors.
George V.
Sounds like your wires are not tight? Or maybe your wires burned out?
I have another brand and it works great, and came with extra wires to screw in in case the ones in use "burn out".
I have used it quite a bit several times for varying lengths of time, and have yet to burn out the original wires. It did not require any cooling period.
I have noticed though, that if I try to push it to fast, I can bend the wires and that is not good, as the more stresses placed on them could burn it out faster. DId you push it to fast and burn out the stressed wire??? You have to let IT do it's work at its pace. It can be slow going on a large cut.
The foam cutter does not need to cool off, but the wire needs to fit tightly or it will not get good electrical contact. Make sure the wire is stretched tightly between the two collars and that the screws that hold the collars onto the fork are tight.
If this does not solve the problem, the transformer may have gone bad. Sometimes the slide switch on mine doesn't make contact and has to be turned on and off a couple of times to get it to work. The switch seems to be of very poor quality.
Make sure your wire is tight in its holders. that happened to me.
I bought my dad a Woodland Scenic Hot Wire Foam Cutter for Christmas. Today we were trying it out on some closed-cell foam (the pink kind). After about 20 minutes of use, it stopped working. We surmised that it needed to cool off for a bit. We've allowed it to sit for about half an hour and it still doesn't work. Have we killed the thing or does it normally take a while to reset if it overheats?