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There's got to be an easier way...now with photos

Thu Jul 04, 2019 3:48 pm

I bought a nice case from Plano that comes with both egg crate foam top and bottom, as well as a layer of pick & pluck foam in between the other two. I just spent a chunk of time to fit both my new Henry & Rita's Circuit Judge inside the case. While the guns are held securely, I'm less than happy about how the foam looks. I tried several different ways of cutting the foam to shape, but none of them really worked well, and the whole thing just looks...ragged. A brand new razor knife didn't cut it well, a pair of scissors did OK, but left scalloped cuts everywhere, a bread knife (freshly sharpened) did OK, but tended to leave vertical cut marks, my pocket knife did OK, but still left ragged edges, etc. I don't have an electric carving knife, I've heard they do well.

Assuming I can find new foam to replace the one I've torn up (both the top & bottom egg crate foam are fine, it's only the center piece), what's a better way to go about this? I've seen people do hot wire foam cutting, but that's for hard foam, pick & pluck isn't hard.
Last edited by delliottg on Fri Jul 05, 2019 3:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Thu Jul 04, 2019 4:47 pm

My case builder .com

Fun website.

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Thu Jul 04, 2019 5:11 pm

Hot knife

https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Cutting_Gun_Case_Foam__lots_of_photos_/4-292695/

I have no experience with it but you might be able to salvage what you have by spraying it with plastidip from a rattle can. It bonds the pluck foam together

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Thu Jul 04, 2019 5:22 pm

I did the plastic-dip rattle can thing. Took 4 cans for a rifle sized case, and that shit ain’t cheap

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:59 pm

Don't know if they are still made, but "old fashioned" electric carving knives work great for that. You might check the thrift stores. Look for electric fish filetting knives too. Barring that, bread slicing knives work to, if the serrations are fine enough.

Another trick is to go to the fabric store and get some felt or other material of choice and lay it over the foam in the case. Push the guns into the recesses. Smooth out the puckers and tuck in the edges and you can end up with a pretty swanky looking set up. Crown Royal purple felt or red look grreat. So do dark blue and gold/yellow. Pick what Miss Rita likes.

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Thu Jul 04, 2019 10:10 pm

I bought a cheap electric knife for cutting foam for chairs. Worked great, for straight and slightly curved cuts. Not sure it would work all that well for detailed cuts around firearms.

I bought a Black and Decker for $15 bucks.
Amazon - BLACK+DECKER 9-Inch Electric Carving Knife, Black, EK500B
Last edited by mmalleck on Thu Jul 04, 2019 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Thu Jul 04, 2019 10:20 pm

Traut wrote:Don't know if they are still made, but "old fashioned" electric carving knives work great for that. You might check the thrift stores. Look for electric fish filetting knives too. Barring that, bread slicing knives work to, if the serrations are fine enough.

Another trick is to go to the fabric store and get some felt or other material of choice and lay it over the foam in the case. Push the guns into the recesses. Smooth out the puckers and tuck in the edges and you can end up with a pretty swanky looking set up. Crown Royal purple felt or red look grreat. So do dark blue and gold/yellow. Pick what Miss Rita likes.


I like this idea!

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Thu Jul 04, 2019 10:28 pm

You had him at thrift store... :ROFLMAO:


Good luck, David! :thumbsup2:

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:16 am

I do not understand why you are cutting egg crate foam in the first place. I just put my firearms in my cases and they stay put when I close the case.

Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:01 am

I personally think pick and pluck looks terrible. Get the foam you have to cut and use an electric carving knife. Those work great!



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Re: There's got to be an easier way...gun case foam

Fri Jul 05, 2019 11:58 am

Mr. Q wrote:I personally think pick and pluck looks terrible. Get the foam you have to cut and use an electric carving knife. Those work great!
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We just looked for one at the local thrift shop and couldn't find any.

We did find a nice piece of 5' diameter table cloth that's sturdy enough that I think will take care of Len's idea to basically upholster the inside of the case with. Probably have enough to do my AR-15 pistol case too, because it's pick & pluck looks like crap as well.

hartcreek wrote:I do not understand why you are cutting egg crate foam in the first place. I just put my firearms in my cases and they stay put when I close the case.


Go back & read the OP, I'm not cutting egg crate form, I'm cutting a thick layer of pick & pluck foam that's between two layers of egg crate. If I remove the pick & pluck, there's about a 2" - 3" gap between the two pieces of foam, and I don't want my expensive and nice looking guns hitting one another when they're rattling around inside the case.

Re: There's got to be an easier way... now with photos

Fri Jul 05, 2019 3:10 pm

Taking up Len's idea, here's what it looked like before I began:
Raggedly pick and pluck foam, wasn't happy with it at all.

Image

And after running to thrift store to find fabric (circular table cloth). I like the green, and it feels like it'll be somewhat durable. Took about an hour to figure out what to do, get the fabric cut and placed. It still needs spray adhesive to stick it down to everything, so it's not done-done, but at least you can see what it's going to look like. I think I have enough fabric left over to also do my AR-15 pistol case, because it looks almost as raggedy.

Image

Re: There's got to be an easier way...photos

Fri Jul 05, 2019 3:15 pm

That looks nice! :thumbsup2:

Re: There's got to be an easier way...now with photos

Fri Jul 05, 2019 3:45 pm

I’ve seen instructions online for a hot wire foam cutter using guitar string or other thin wire. Run an adjustable electric current through it to heat it up and it will cut very precise lines in foam.

Re: There's got to be an easier way...now with photos

Fri Jul 05, 2019 4:24 pm

Olympia173 wrote:I’ve seen instructions online for a hot wire foam cutter using guitar string or other thin wire. Run an adjustable electric current through it to heat it up and it will cut very precise lines in foam.

Brian did a write up. I will try to find it.
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