Hot wire cutters are notoriusly difficult to find so with the assistance of our redership we've compliled an international list of sources. Thus far we have information for:
Australia | Canada | Denmark | UK | USA
If you know of any others, or discover that any of the information below is out of date, please contact us and tell us.
Please note that we have general information about hot wire cutters, safety information, and instructions for making your own in our Reference Section. We also have reviews of commercially available models in our Reviews Section.
nid_master (on the forum) tells us that he's seen cutters in a number of Games Workshop stores in Australia.
Dave Capon of crashed escape pod fame bought a hot wire cutter from a retail chain store called Target in Western Australia. It was manufactured by:
Crown & Andrews Pty Ltd, Granville, NSW
Toll Free Tel: 008 224 278
Tel: (02) 9682 6711
Dave explains: The product itself is called 'Foam Workshop' and comes with 9 sheets of foam, 6 of which are pre-printed with puzzles and air-planes. It also has 4 spare cutting wires. The cutter itself has guards to prevent little fingers from getting burnt, but that shouldn't be a problem for most users and as it is only 3V you won't get zapped. The only down side is that its opening is only 4.5 cms wide, so that's the maximum thickness of foam you can cut.
David Tan found a second supplier in Australia, Handworks Supplies, who sell a battery operated cutter for A$25.00 that has 15cms clearance. This company also supplies all kinds of craft/hobby materials including polystyrene sheeting. The contact details are:
Handworks Suplies Pty Ltd, 121 Commercial Road, South Yarra, Victoria 3141, Australia
Tel: INT + 61 3 9820 8299
S.T.A. Inc., 52 Lorraine Drive, North York, ON M2N 2E6, CANADA
Tel: (416) 226-3368
are actually the autorised dealer for the StyroCut 3D for North America. As well as selling the cutter and accessories individually, they also have a package deal.
Nik Katsabas from Toronto Canada has managed to buy a hot wire cutter manufactured by:
FloraCraft (TM), Ludington, MI 49431
Nik bought his from Lewiscraft in the Square One Shopping Mall, which we assume will be well known to fellow Toronto modellers.
Dennis Hansen from Aarhus in Denmark tells us that you can buy hot wire cutters from:
Hobby House, Noerregade 51, 8000 Aarhus C.
Niels-Christian Ganderup supplied us with a whole list of places:
COMIX, Gråbrødrepassagen 12, 5000 Odense C
Tlf. 66 11 36 58
www.comix-dk.dk
Fantask A/S, Skt. Peders Stræde 18, DK-1453 København K., Danmark
Telefon: +45 33 93 85 38
http://www.fantask.dk
Dragons Lair have a website at http://www.dragons-lair.dk and shops at:
Kongensgade 71, 5000 Odense C. (Tlf: 65 91 97 01)
Ringstedgade 13, 4000 Roskilde. (Tlf: 46 36 53 00)
Åboulevarden 33, 8000 Århus C. (Tlf.: 86 19 00 63)
Goblin Gate have a website at http://www.goblingate.dk/ and shops at:
Borgergade 18, 9000 Aalborg. (Tlf: 98 13 37 24)
Kystvejen 27, 8000 Århus. (Tlf: 86 19 43 11)
Panduro Hobby have a website at http://www.panduro-hobby.dk and 15 stores across Denmark. See their website for details.
Hobby's in London stock no less than four different hot wire cutters and are in fact the authorised UK dealer for the StyroCut 3D. Two of the other devices are cheap battery operated hand held devices while the fourth is another table top cutter from MaxiCraft. Hobby's contact details are:
W Hobby Ltd, Knight's Hill Square, London, SE27 0HH
Tel: (020) 8761 4244
www.hobby.uk.com
Their website is awful to navigate and has no product descriptions. Use it to order their catalogue which lists a plethora of useful tools and materials.
E.M.A. Model Supplies in Shepperton stock three different table top models including the StyroCut 3D, and two different batter operated hand held models.
http://www.ema-models.co.uk
Geoff Porritt from Hartlepool uncovered a further UK supplier:
The Model Material Shop, 1 Marlborough Cresent, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4EE, England
Tel: 0191 232 2016
Al Miles informed us that he bought a Woodland Scenics Cutter from Ec Scenics (in Perthshire) via their website at:
http://www.ecscenics.co.uk
They also stock the rest of the Woodland Scenics range.
Elliot Sanders contacted CoolTool (manufactureres of the StyroCut 3D) and was informed that the North American dealership for their products is:
S.T.A. Inc., 52 Lorraine Drive, North York, ON M2N 2E6, CANADA
Tel: (416) 226-3368
STA confirmed this and advised that as well as selling the cutter and accessories individually, they also have a package deal.
The Flying Yankee in Boston sell the Wondland Scenics cutter by mail order from their site at www.flyingyankeehobby.com.
Blackwind and Raddix Gaming list a Wondercutter in their tools section at www.bnrgames.com.
Apparently Games Workshop US sell the Wondercutter and we are told that Walmart stores also sell hot wire cutters in the US.
Jimmy Murphy told us about Micromark. Their site at http://www.micromark.com list both the Woodland Scenics cutter and the Foam Factory 3-in-1.