Hot Wire to Cut PVA Bond Between a CRT and Its Safety Lens?

[drlegendre .]

Many years ago I worked with an improvised hot-wire foam cutter, used to
cut 4' thick EPS (Styrofoam) slabs. The wire itself was around 6' long, and
ran vertically.

The electrical side consisted of only the ni-chrome wire, a Variac, a fuse
or CB and AC wiring. Whoever spec'd out the thing chose a wire that, at 6'
long, was fine with somewhere between 20V and 120V AC - I never really
noticed where the Variac was set, somewhere mid-range though.

On the top end, the wire was attached via a long-ish turnbuckle to an
insulator secured to a ceiling truss. The hot wire penetrated the work
surface (a table made of two 4x8 sheets of plywood) near the center
(passing through a metal guide plate with a small hole) and was firmly
secured somewhere beneath. The turnbuckle up top was used to set tension on
the wire.

On Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 1:09 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:

>  On 12/07/2014 11:47 AM, Bob Vines wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have instructions or a schematic (or a pointer to a URL)
>> on how to make a "hot wire" device to cut the PVA bond between a CRT
>> and its safety lens?  What kind of power supply (how much power), "hot
>> wire," etc.?
>>
>
> Do an internet search on "hot wire foam cutter".  You'll turn up several
> DIY YouTube videos, Instructables and even low-cost retail ones.
>
> Take your pick--it's neither difficult to make you own or expensive to
> purchase one.
>
> --Chuck
>
>
>