How to cut foam: The dumb way, the expensive way, and the br

One of the things I neglected to mention in my

banquette-building post

was how to cut the foam. Having no money, I cut through five-inch-thick foam sections by making repeated swipes with a cheapie utility knife like the one above. It was time-consuming, messy, far from accurate, and doing the curves was a real pain. It's the dumb way to cut foam.

The way the pros cut foam is using one of

these bad boys

:

This foam cutting saw has a base that rides on tiny wheels to prevent friction, and the large area of the base keeps the blade straight up and down. Here's a similar one in action:

They're also fairly expensive, ranging from about $160 to over $500 for commercial grade tools.

Hercules makes a nice-looking one

for about $389.

If you don't have that kinda cash but have some building skills, check out this awesome DIY foam saw by YouTube user

Designsbyg

. You'll kick yourself when you see, midway through the video, what he actually used for the cutting device.

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