Railway design, construction, and gardening

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Last post 08-19-2009 2:20 PM by vsmith. 4 replies.
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08-17-2009 4:16 PM
Offline pathvet9
Not Ranked
Joined on 06-16-2005
Long Beach, CA
Posts 137

Shaping blue Styrofoam

I am finally at the stage of cutting down into my 2" thick Dow blue styrofoam to make a sloping underpass and want to know the favored way to smooth that byway?

I am doing the roughing in with a Tippi and that is OK but my hand is not steady enough to make a smooth transition. Is there a special tool/file/plane that anyone can recommend? I tried a sanding block but it is not much good.

 

08-17-2009 7:48 PM In reply to
Offline altterrain
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on 10-04-2006
silver spring, md
Posts 1,259

Re: Shaping blue Styrofoam

When  I did my mining diorama I did the initial shaping with a tree pruning saw -

 

Then refined with the tippi cutter -

 

There is also a coping saw type attachment for the tippi. The foam is also easy to shape with a sharp knife or coping saw.

After shaping you can do more shaping with an exterior grade spackle or vinyl concrete patcher.

 -Brian

08-18-2009 7:31 AM In reply to
Offline vsmith
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on 12-20-2001
Smoggy L.A.
Posts 9,328

Re: Shaping blue Styrofoam

Theres a very good 9-part online tutorial on Youtube starting with part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1D4KBB_GC4

08-19-2009 12:09 PM In reply to
Offline pathvet9
Not Ranked
Joined on 06-16-2005
Long Beach, CA
Posts 137

Re: Shaping blue Styrofoam

I guess I made a mistake in posting this as I had wanted the MRR not Garden web, but thanks very much for the tips! I have watched the first 6 Youtube parts so far and have found the tool of choice.

It is the Surform pocket hand plane, right off the shelf at HD.

08-19-2009 2:20 PM In reply to
Offline vsmith
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on 12-20-2001
Smoggy L.A.
Posts 9,328

Re: Shaping blue Styrofoam

Different scales, but same technics

Glad we could help. BTW my tool-o-choice is a drywall saw

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