Rene Foam Cutting Wire

It almost seems silly to be extolling the virtues of a simple piece of foam cutting wire. It’s sort of like selling the Emperor’s cloths. A picture would be a waste of space so I’ll just tell you what I know and what I’ve found after using this stuff for several years.

When I first started cutting foam wings several years ago I tried using Nichrome wire. That’s what all the foam sages in the hobby said was best. I found out differently. It stretched beyond reason. It was very prone to breakage and the results I achieved were less than sterling.

Next I tried stainless steel wire. I had reasonable good results using this wire. It was inexpensive, pretty tough to break, had good stretch resistance and could handle a great deal of wire tension. I thought I found the perfect product for my purposes.

I was at my foam suppliers factory and watched as they forced 4’ x 4’ x 16’ billets of foam through a series of wires to cut these monster blocks into thin sheets. I asked what kind of wire they used and was told Rene. I really didn’t know much about it other than it was the preferred wire in this shop.

It produced glass smooth cuts. It could also take a lot of tension so that there wasn’t the dreaded wire lag and it could be heated to red hot for cleaning cycle after cycle without breaking or stretching. It was also a thinner gauge wire so the kerf was smaller than the .020 that I had been using. The Rene is .014.

Rene wire is expensive but it is worth every cent especially if you calculate how much time you spend just getting your cores ready to cut. A couple of bad cuts due to wire lag or a broken wire is all that it will take to convince you that this is the stuff to use.

I make it available to my customers in 50’ minimum lengths. The cost is $.60 per foot. 50 feet will last the average modeler many years. Shipping costs $6.00 anywhere in the US.

Over the past twenty years I’ve sold this wire to many modelers and have only heard good things from those that purchased it.

I use a 5 amp, 30-volt power supply for foam cutting. I use bows up to 52” long (for sectioning large blocks of foam). This power supply and wire combination can handle all my projects including EPP.