Help with rc tire foam WIDTH.

[BIGW0RM]

What is the best way to cut the WIDTH of a tire foam? I have some CI foams that are wide enough for two tires per foam. I cut one with scissors right down the middle and ended up with a wavy cut because the foam is so soft and I guess stretched when I cut it. So now i have two foams that are NOT flush on the sidewalls.

What is the best way to get a clean cut down the middle of an oversize soft foam so I can make one big one into two normal sized tire foams?

Is there a technique to this?

[HumboldtEF]

Well what I've done (not sure if its best) is find a piece of wood the thickness of what I'm trying to remove and take something like a Japanese fine toothed hand saw and gently cut the foam using the wood as your guide. I say gently because if you push on the foam while holding it you'll end up with a wavy foam.

[TheLetterJ]

For open cell foam, I've had the best luck using a BRAND NEW (very important so that it just glides through without snagging) #11 blade in a hobby knife and only dragging, not sawing through the foam. It may take a few passes, but it has left me with the straightest lines of all the methods I've tried. I generally leave the open cells wider than the tire so they don't squirm around, but I've cut up a few sets to make "tuning discs" for particularly wide tires using this method.

As for narrowing closed cell, I posed the question last night to Mr. Ayala, who suggested a Dremel with a sanding drum, or the method I ultimately chose, a flap disc on an angle grinder. Made VERY quick work of it.





...or, you could use a hot wire.

[BIGW0RM]

Thank you gentlemen. I will look into those methods and do something.