Mic case+foam...How do you cut the foam?

meowadishi

New member
Hello.

I am thinking about making a mic case. You know so I can stash the mics away and what not. But I want to make them stand vertically and was wondering if any one had some idea of how to cut good circles out of the foam.

Thanks.
 
Though a little fiddly, one of these will do it for you. Take your time and cut out the chunks of foam bit by bit once you have your circle drawn and never cut towards yourself.
 
If you use a brand new single sided razor blade you can cut foam easily although it's hard (if not impossible) to make it look factory perfect. Drawing guide lines on the foam with a Sharpie pen helps. Typically it will look good on one side and not the other.

Electric knives like people use to carve turkey at Thanksgiving work great for cutting foam... but not small holes like you're talking about.
 
Don't put mics in foam! The foam will crumble sooner or later and the particles will end up inside the mic.

You could put the mics in individual cloth bags, but you'd need to find cloth that doesn't give off fibers and is pretty tight woven so the dust doesn't find a way through the textile.
 
I'm just gonna get pistol cases. 8-10 bucks, hinged plastic, egg crate foam. 2 mics per case easy. Good to go. I have some already but they have pellet pistols in them already. I know they'll work.
 
The best way to cut foam is a serrated bread knife, or if you have one an electric bread knife.

Cut the foam with the knife almost flat against the foam.

Cheers

Alan
 
Hello.

I am thinking about making a mic case. You know so I can stash the mics away and what not. But I want to make them stand vertically and was wondering if any one had some idea of how to cut good circles out of the foam.

Thanks.

If you want good circles you could always try the right hole saw.
 
I'm thinking the poster wants to make something like a grenade case. tall and thin-ish, with the mics standing vertical. I have no idea how to make a round hole like that in foam. Personally I wouldn't try. Slide in squared foam bits, remember foam is flexible, then just shove the mics into the square holes. Unless you plan on using the cases as missiles a close fit will do the job just fine.
 
cutting circles

Wow - lots of help on this forum - NOT!

First of all - there are lots of foam cases out there by SKB, Gator, etc, and the mic screens, windscreens, etc are all made out of foam. So to say that the foam will ruin the mic is a stretch!

Now - it's pretty hard to get these factory perfect as the ones from the factory are laser cut. That said, I have had some success taking the foam and compressing it between 2 peices of plywood with the top layer of plywood marked w/ a hole pattern. Then using a hole saw, cutting through the plywood and through the compressed foam until you hit the bottom layer. The downside to this is that the edge of the holes is a bit rough and there are indeed some pieces that flake off for a while - but while not perfect - they turn out pretty good.

I've tried also heating a piece of pipe with a blow torch - and quickly melting through the foam, and couldn't quite get the hang of it without melting in areas that I didn't want to melt - but I suppose you might be able to develop this technique with enough practice.

Finally, after experimenting quite a bit, I decided that by the time you buy the foam, ruin the foam practicing, buy the hole saw, buy the wood, etc., you would have been better off buying a pre-cut insert like this:


diyroadcasesstore.com/microphone-insert-25-mic

That's about it.
 
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